One of the best things any editor can do outside of learning every single area of our craft is train their mind in high levels of complexity. The ability to not only see huge amounts of variation within any set of raw footage but to plan and strategise how it should be constructed is a very well sought after skill in the creative editing world.

As shooting ratios go up and schedules get squeezed, it is vital in today’s editing world that we intelligently plan the numerous creative paths we go down. We simply cannot afford to throw our creative energy around like it’s a never-ending resource.

One of the most fulfilling parts of editing is the final stage. Once we've done the heavy lifting of assembly and fine cutting the mind of the editor has to move towards the lighter touches of delicacy and perfectionism.

A successful career in editing has many different component parts. From cultivating as many different client relationships as possible to creating a positive working environment in the edit suite. We need to nurture and craft the creative energy we put out into the industry in a very specific way so that directors want to work with us.

So, what have we got on this week’s episode of Once Upon a Timeline? Well, I want to talk about a concept that I’ve been discussing in our live events for quite some time now. It’s a concept that is used in so many different genres, and to fully explain it will require us to go into the mind of the viewer.

There are numerous genres within our art form that require us to create a very specific feeling for our audience. This feeling is not only essential in reality TV and observational docs, but also news and many forms of drama. What is this feeling? Authenticity…

If you’re in the mood for an open, no-nonsense, and hugely entertaining chat about editing, then look no further than the concluding part of Dan Crinnion’s appearance on this week's podcast.

The path to edit mastery is never easy. It’s full of both highs and lows. We can navigate the dark waters of the post-production world; the politics, the production companies, and the crazy clients. But no matter how much we seek to control and overcome the numerous obstacles that are thrust upon us, there's the battle that will always be there if we let it....with our fear.

This week’s subject came about from a question that one of our Master’s Degree students recently asked me… How do we find out what the scene is about when faced with loads of footage and endless possibilities?

I hope you are well, I’ve really missed you! It’s been a few weeks since we put out a podcast so I just wanted to reach out and tell you why. In the UK we’re in lockdown because of the Covid situation and since the New Year all of the schools have been shut. So, every parent has been homeschooling their kids and not having the chance to get much else done. Most of our small team here at Inside The Edit have kids and so we wanted them to put their families first during the homeschooling lockdown.

As editors on the path to mastery there are so many techniques we can steal - sorry, let me rephrase that - pay homage to from screenwriting. One of them is the powerful tool of backstory.

I know, it sounds crazy right? What on earth has economic theory got to do with creative editing?!  Well, as a regular listener of Once Upon a Timeline or member of Inside The Edit, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of looking at editing from unique and radically different perspectives. And this week’s show is no different!

One of the misconceptions about editing is that it’s one skill. It isn’t. Creative editing is a collection of individual skills brought together within one person. From pace and timing, picture-cutting and scoring, to narrative structure, the well-balanced editor needs to master all of them to succeed.

On this week's show, we have the concluding part of our talk with the very talented David Fisher. David recently cut the big-budget fantasy drama series, His Dark Materials for HBO and the BBC, but earned his spurs on many long-running dramas and soaps on British television.

There are so many obstacles to getting that first big break in drama editing, and it requires a very particular, tenacious drive and a never-give-up mindset. Our guest today personifies that state of mind, and he’s come on the show to tell us his inspirational story, the supremely talented editor of the HBO and BBC fantasy drama series His Dark Materials, David Fisher.

So here we are… the very first episode of Season 2 of Once Upon a Timeline! I cannot begin to tell you how many cool things we’ve got planned over the coming months, and we’re going to keep this show full to the brim of inspirational creative content for you.

We have a stacked episode for you this week! Not only do we have the second part of Joanna Naugle’s fantastic interview, but we also have a brand new competition kicking off. This week’s episode is not to be missed!

We’ve had some great guests on the show already. We've explored many different genres, had lots of different opinions and so much wisdom from a very talented group of editing artists. But today we have our first comedy editor on the show, the supremely accomplished, Joanna Naugle.

It’s one of the age-old arguments in editing… if we shoot our footage should we also edit it ourselves, or is it essential to bring in an editor? This argument has been going on in the industry for decades.

It is rare to hear an editor talk about negatively perceived editing issues, like manipulation, in such a frank and honest way. This week Lasse Järvi does that and more in the second part of our epic interview with the maverick documentary editor.

Some months back I watched HBO’s monumental documentary series, The Defiant Ones, and was absolutely blown away. It’s one of the best music documentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s the story of two legends, Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, and has got pretty much every major musician of the last 30 years in it. 

What is the very first thing that so many people do when learning a new art form? Yes, they practice. They practice for hours and hours. But what do they practice?

In this week’s show I talk about a profound moment in my editing career that opened the gates to one of the rarest and most sought-after skills an editor can possess... the ability to score to a high level.

This week’s show is based on one of the most frequently asked questions we get at Inside The Edit. How do we break free from pigeonholing within the industry? How do we get into our dream genre?