Learn the impact of film editing from international director/editor Max Leonida whose films have been screened and awarded at a range of festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the International Salerno Film Festival, the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival and the L.A. Short Films Festival, to name a few.

“I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking. If I wanted to be frivolous, I might say that everything that precedes editing is merely a way of producing film to edit.” (Stanley Kubrick) 

Some of the greatest, most iconic filmmakers of all times (like Scorsese, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Tarantino, Coppola, Lynch, Fellini, Gilliam and many others) used to spend hours, days and sometimes months into the dark secrecy of the editing room, sitting next to their faithful editor, enjoying the guilty pleasure of reshaping – over and over again – a world of their own. 

The post-production phase is the most critical one throughout the entire film production process… and editing, in particular, is a pivotal moment where as a filmmaker you should be able to understand that you are writing the final version and destiny of your movie.

In this Stage 32 Next Level Webinar, international director/editor, Max Leonida will use his years of experience to give you a more profound knowledge of the artistic nature of the editing process, together with a clear, up-to-date and technical expertise about the most important digital editing systems on the market. Max's most recent films include Run (winner at 2013 MIFF and double winner at the 3D International Festival) and the feature film “What Separates Us”, Best Feature at the Machetanz Film Festival.

Editing is not just a simple matter of pace, rhythm, and mere image composition: editing pertains to the core of storytelling itself. Every professional filmmaker knows that a closeup placed in the right place, at the right moment, can definitely chance the course of a narrative process. Editing includes re-defining the story, reconstructing the characters, reshaping the very structure to the point of even changing and re-dubbing the dialogue in a totally different way from the original script… all for the sake of beauty. And this webinar aims to give you these tools. 

The Philosophy And History Of Editing

• Editing: the unnatural language of dreams (a premise)
  • An overview of how the editing is based on our most subconscious language. Our life is based on an uninterrupted very long single shot… except when we’re sleeping! 
•  Steenbeck vs. computer: the origins
  • From the very first editing tools to the modern all-digital workstation: nothing and everything has changed. Get the quick & dirty lowdown.
• The three writings of a movie (script, set and editing)
  • A movie is written three times: when you write it, when you direct it and when you edit it…!
• The three cuts of a movie (assembly, director and final)
  • Paternity and property issues when a movie comes into the editing room: who will have the last word on that cut…?

The Equipment Available To You As An Editor

•  Avid, Final Cut and Premiere Pro - the 3 big editing systems
  • Discuss the differences and detailed technical specifics of the three most famous/infamous digital editing systems on the market.
  • Max will take you through each interface and provide examples from his work on which he prefers the most. 
  • Learn why a certain system may be more useful than another for your project
  • The system Max prefers to edit with and why

Tips On Working With Footage

• Rhythm vs. Story: the eternal quest
  • Every film has an inner rhythm that sometimes goes against the storyline but helps and improves the final performance. How to handle that.
• Music, voices, effects and other magical tricks
  • A movie is not only made of what we see on screen: on the contrary, sometimes things outside the frame (like music, sounds, voice-over) are way more important.
• The narrative process: everything is beauty
  • At the end of the day, the only thing that an editor has to keep in his mind, is to pursue the beauty in itself.
  • Let Max show you this process in some of his most critically acclaimed films.
• Saving the unsavable: bad images but good movies
  • How good editing can make a bad movie great and bad editing can ruin the most beautiful images. Learn from costly mistakes.
• Walking in the audience’s shoes
  • The only valuable criteria that an editor should apply is to think, feel and see like the final audience who will enjoy the movie while eating popcorn in the darkness of a theater.

Case Studies And Examples

• Case Study #1 - feature film Run (winner at 2013 MIFF and double winner at the 3D International Festival)
• Case Study #2 - What Separates Us (Best Feature at the Machetanz Film Festival) feature film edited by Max
• Apocalypse Now: a true editing legend
  • It took a year and half to edit the magnificent helicopter-raid scene!
  • Max will show you how that happened and why it is a masterpiece.
•  Blade Runner & Cinema Paradiso: producer vs. director
  • Analysis of two cases in which a film has been made great by its producer, who worked together with the editor.

Plus, an in-depth and LIVE Q&A with Max!

• Editors
• Editing Supervisors
• Post Production Supervisors
• Post Producers
• Producers
• First Time Producers
• Directors
• First Time Directors
• Writers
• Distributors
• Development Executives
• Story Editors
• Filmmakers