Jodi Smith - Editor
What does your job involve ?
I work, amongst other things - multi-tasking seems to be part and parcel of life these days - as an editor.
Essentially, a film editor's job is to assemble all the footage taken during a shoot into a seamless end product - the aim is to manipulate plot, score, sound and graphics to make all the different the parts into a continuous and enjoyable whole.
At present I am working with a director in the pre-visualisation of her script. The project is still in the development stage and I was brought on board to cut and assemble live-action experimental sequences.
At the beginning of the year, while drawing up pre-vis animatics (or storyboarding) the project, we began exploring the possibilities of using 3D animation in the project.
We felt it was important that I should have an understanding of the processes involved in 3D animation before getting a specialised animator on board, so I embarked on an animation course - Introduction to Maya.
We had originally hoped that I would be able to do the animation work, but the more we learned about it, the more complex we discovered it is.
What kind of skills do you need ?
I am a computer-based editor, and my skills have been by-and-large self-taught.
This is a both a good and bad thing. On the one hand being self-taught, I have been able to be flexible and creative in my cutting style and not influenced by a teacher. However, when working with other editors I have discovered that I have many bad habits!
These days most people are computer literate and editing interfaces are not complicated so long as you have the time to learn it. Therefore, I would say the most important skills for an editor are patience and discipline.
You have to be prepared to work very long hours in isolated conditions, and it is very important not to get sloppy with your work.
How did you get into the business ?
I began as a camera assistant. I worked on commercials and feature films in Australia, New Zealand and the US as a clapper loader then focus puller. I did that for 10 years before deciding that I wanted to be off set in order to learn more about the composition and structure of film.
Like most people in the film industry, I got my break working as a runner. I don't know how it is now, but when I started out it seem to be the done thing that runners and interns in all departments worked for free unfortunately.
What training have you had recently ?
I've recently done an Introduction To Maya course, which was 5 weeks long and part-funded by Skillset.
By the second week I realised that it would take me years to gain the technical skills to use the program proficiently. However, the course gave me the knowledge to be able to do basic animation, and most importantly I was able to learn the language and the interface of the program in order to work with an animator in an instructional sense. From that perspective I found the course immensely useful. It means that when I work with animators now I can give clear and precise instructions about what I want to happen in scenes, in a language that is familiar to the animator.
I work, amongst other things - multi-tasking seems to be part and parcel of life these days - as an editor.
Essentially, a film editor's job is to assemble all the footage taken during a shoot into a seamless end product - the aim is to manipulate plot, score, sound and graphics to make all the different the parts into a continuous and enjoyable whole.
At present I am working with a director in the pre-visualisation of her script. The project is still in the development stage and I was brought on board to cut and assemble live-action experimental sequences.
At the beginning of the year, while drawing up pre-vis animatics (or storyboarding) the project, we began exploring the possibilities of using 3D animation in the project.
We felt it was important that I should have an understanding of the processes involved in 3D animation before getting a specialised animator on board, so I embarked on an animation course - Introduction to Maya.
We had originally hoped that I would be able to do the animation work, but the more we learned about it, the more complex we discovered it is.
What kind of skills do you need ?
I am a computer-based editor, and my skills have been by-and-large self-taught.
This is a both a good and bad thing. On the one hand being self-taught, I have been able to be flexible and creative in my cutting style and not influenced by a teacher. However, when working with other editors I have discovered that I have many bad habits!
These days most people are computer literate and editing interfaces are not complicated so long as you have the time to learn it. Therefore, I would say the most important skills for an editor are patience and discipline.
You have to be prepared to work very long hours in isolated conditions, and it is very important not to get sloppy with your work.
How did you get into the business ?
I began as a camera assistant. I worked on commercials and feature films in Australia, New Zealand and the US as a clapper loader then focus puller. I did that for 10 years before deciding that I wanted to be off set in order to learn more about the composition and structure of film.
Like most people in the film industry, I got my break working as a runner. I don't know how it is now, but when I started out it seem to be the done thing that runners and interns in all departments worked for free unfortunately.
What training have you had recently ?
I've recently done an Introduction To Maya course, which was 5 weeks long and part-funded by Skillset.
By the second week I realised that it would take me years to gain the technical skills to use the program proficiently. However, the course gave me the knowledge to be able to do basic animation, and most importantly I was able to learn the language and the interface of the program in order to work with an animator in an instructional sense. From that perspective I found the course immensely useful. It means that when I work with animators now I can give clear and precise instructions about what I want to happen in scenes, in a language that is familiar to the animator.
