Whats your editing environment like?

Post by **keagan** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:23 am

Hello there

I'm in the process of editing a short. It's a film without much (any,really) dialouge and is basically my attempt at getting across an emotion. I'm trying to do that through the editing eg. pacing and choice of perspective - what character I focus on and when.
I'm editing on my laptop in my apartment, usually sitting on my bed (i don't have a desk yet). The other day I was editing away, with a fairly random mix of music playing in the background. When I steped back and looked at what i had done, I noticed that I had been quite clearly influenced by the music I was listening to. I have a piece of music composed, but not yet recorded, to go along with the piece. But the tone of the editing was definately not what I had in mind when I envisioned my soundtrack.

Do you guys listen to musci when you're editing? Do you have a special place to edit, where you can control the mood? Do you avoid editing when you're in a certain mood?

Keagan Schopfer

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:01 am

No, I don't listen to music. I edit at my computer, which is in the corner of the room. I usually like it fairly dark, but not necessarily pitch-black. I like to edit in the evening, not in the morning.

Post by **mattias** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:03 am

i definitely don't listen to music, exactly because it influences me. my editing room has grey walls, low light, a couch, two chairs, and a big desk with two screens, keyboard, mouse, video monitor and speakers. i never spend any time in there except to edit. i edit any time of day. i like it better in the morning but since i'm notoriously late with everything it's usually night sessions anyway.

/matt

Post by **keagan** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:02 am

Thanks for sharing,

I tried to make up a special 'editing playlist', but that didn't help either so it's silence now, which I think is working better.

on that note, i'm nearly finished the rough cut. Only one little scene left to go. Then I'm going to show the copy to my musicians and see what we can come up with. Then, once the score is completed, I'll re-visit the editing and trim up clips and transitions.

Do you guys use Premiere or Final Cut? I'm using Final Cut on a 2 GHz Intel MacBook with 1 gig of ram. I have done all the editing on the one screne so far, but I'm working on getting a second monitor for the future.

Keagan

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:18 pm

Final Cut with two displays, one for full-size playback and the other for timeline/interface.

Post by **audadvnc** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:04 pm

Cramped corner, 386, somebody else's copy of Premier 3 or whatever, paper allover, cat barf on the carpet, spiderwebs in the crevices, candle drippings on the Chianti bottles, dark, fumes from Coleman generator, coldwater walkup squatter's garret, out past the swamp, over the abandoned meatpacking plant. But no music, save the angels in my head...