Tue Feb 04, 2014 6:03 pm
I'm primarily an editor, but stroll through these forums constantly because I'm awaiting my 4k like many of us and love shooting as well. That said, I'm going to mirror Jules' recommendation, in all my education on Editing the book I love the most (and find most useful) is Walter Murch's book "In the Blink of an Eye." Walter Murch is one of the best editors out there, and has many fantastic stories about the medium that all contain excellent bits of wisdom.
The book is a written down version of a speech he gave so you'll be able to complete the book in no time. And you'll walk away with a much deeper appreciation for the medium and thought process as well as some great techniques that'll send you down the right path when it comes to making those crucial decisions.
Other than that I always keep a couple of things in mind (though this also applies to more than editing). One, it's not about how well you know how to use the tool it's what you do with the tool, so don't get locked into one NLE system and think that learning the system will teach you how to edit. The other thing, there's exceptions to absolutely every "rule" out there, but before you go breaking the rules you have to know what they are and why they exist, so don't dismiss them.
Also, experiment, test stuff out, find out why things don't work, find out why things do work. Also find your pacing in everything you do. Seriously, makes me wish I was a better musician, would make that part so much easier. I knew an editor once who edited some bigger budget films and he would compose a quick simple song for every scene and play it while editing that scene, worked wonders for him and some of his scores made it into the final films (after being tweaked a bit). You don't have to do that obviously, but it gives a good idea for the sense of pacing you'll want to have in your head.
