Editing Agent Emes

editing here refers to film editing, and not the censorship I sometimes have to engage in to keep our many observant Jewish fans happy. But that is a discussion for another time.

There is something very empowering in this day and age, when it is possible to edit an entire movie in the comfort of your own home, sitting at your own computer. It is an enjoyable challenge to put the footage together like a jigsaw puzzle, then trim the pieces to create the tightest, most effective cut possible.

What many don't realize, however, is that before we get to the edit, we have to feed all the footage into the computer in a process called "capturing". I capture just about every take - except for the obviously bad ones - so I have as much as possible to choose from in editing. This process is tedious and time-consuming and very UNglamorous. On production that actually have a budget to work with (unlike ours), there are usually one or more assistant editors who take care of this part of the process. Not so on Agent Emes, where we keep all expenses to a bare minimum.

There is a very cool recent technological development whereby it is now possible to shoot all the video footage not on tape, but straight to a hard drive. The advantage is so obvious, that I believe soon almost everyone will be doing it. The takes are all there ready to be transfered to your computer and worked on immediately.

If and when (G-d willing) I have a chance to upgrade my camera package (which is really pathetic at this point) I will try to procure a system that includes hard drive capture capabilities.

I must be boring the reader, because I know I am boring myself.

In short - today I edited... sort of. What I really did was capture.