Hands-on documentary editing

Hands-on documentary editing

  • Duration : 7 weeks (252h)
  • Capacity : 5 participants

The workshop

During the Hands-On Documentary Editing Workshop which is combined with the Documentary Filmmaking Workshop held in the Autumn, each trainee film editor is in charge of the entire editing process of two films by the trainee filmmakers, allowing him/her to cover different aspects of the work: the building up of the working relationship with the filmmaker, the viewing and analysis of the rushes, the elaboration of the film’s structure, the search for a narrative form, the organisation of the available time…

This workshop renews the approach to film editing, avoiding formatting, and allows the trainee to approach the profession of film editor, with all its wealth of possibilities, in a completely different way.

It examines the specificities of documentary filmmaking styles in a series of seminars of analysis, through exercises in editing and by the screening of films.

The programme

First period : Practical and theoretical approach to editing - 3 weeks

  • Editing seen as a technical process, as an art and as a philosophy : analysis of films and theoretical seminars given by well-known specialists such as François Niney, Anne Baudry, Daniel Deshays, etc.
  • Screenings of documentary films followed by a discussion with the director and his/her editor.
  • Practical editing exercises from a limited amount of rushes (editing of a sequence aimed at describing a place in space and time, of a sequence around voice-over narration, construction of a narrative based on several sequences, etc)

Second period : Editing of the workshops' films - 4 weeks

Each trainee editor works, turn by turn, on two workshop films, in collaboration with the trainee director and a professional editor : screening and analysis of rushes, design of the film’s structure, definition of the film’s style, organisation of available time, establishment of the relationship with the director.

A public screening will take place on the final Saturday of the course.

Each trainee will have two DVD copies of the edited films.

Application details

Step 1 : send in 3 documents : a free style autobiography of two pages maximum, a résumé showing your professional experience as an editor or assistant editor, the copy of previous edited work.

Step 2 : Pre-selected applicants will be given an appointment for an interview before being definitively admitted.

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Questions about our training courses? Please contact us 01 43 56 64 04

6, impasse de Mont Louis
75011 Paris

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