Antonio Maria Da Silva – aka AMDS Films – has put together what has to be the finest piece of editing I’ve ever seen. An editor’s job is to work with what others give them and put together a coherent story. AMDS has done that with both the video and the soundtrack here – simply for the fun of it.
This nearly 10 minute video is cut together from over a dozen finished films. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end, although it’s more of a vignette than an actual story. And the editing of the soundtrack, and how it works with the on-screen action, is also spot on.
If you watch this simply for the fun of it, that’s certainly valid. But if you have any interest in film/video editing, or audio editing for film/video, this is certainly worth repeated viewings. Don’t be afraid to take notes, either!
Be amazed if you want on first viewing. But going deeper here, I want you to realize that – behind all the obvious hard work and hours of concentration – there’s nothing special here. And that’s what’s so special.
I know that sentence might not make much sense at first, but if you pull the video apart, analyze it, you’ll see that the it is put together on a sort of framework. There are certain video techniques (I’m thinking specifically of the pull focus effect) that are repeatedly used. Most of the films that the individual clips come from follow or contain the same elements: introduction, confrontation, action, denouement. It’s relatively easy to slice off pieces of existing films and hang them on the same sort of skeleton. As an editor, you can follow a guide or pattern and come up with something that is the same as other videos, except that it’s different. And this is the specialness with which Hell’s Club is covered.
I meet so many wanna-be editors and film makers that say, “I don’t know how to do this differently.” You don’t have to! Follow the patterns and principles, use established techniques and make your finished cut unique to itself. Unless you do a cut-for-cut remake of another film you don’t have to worry about that.
Think of a dress pattern. Even factory made dresses are produced in multiple fabrics, so they have that initial difference. Each person who wears a copy of the dress is built differently, so the dress hangs differently – looks unique – on each person wearing it. Then they wear different jewellery, different accessories, so that no two people look the same, even though they’re wearing the same pattern.
Strive to do this with each of your edits.
