Why have an editing competition?

It could have been a whole lot easier when completing our club movie 'The Garden' if we had just nominated one editor and the job would have done, 'in the can' so to speak. As director, I would have had the opportunity to liaise with that editor so that we could deliver what we were looking for. So, why open the editing up to members of the club?

The Winner of the editing competition by Nigel O'Neill

One of the goals of a club such as Brisbane Movie Makers is to provide learning opportunities for its members. As such, opening a movie edit up as a competition provides an excellent learning opportunity for any who wish to take up the challenge. By making it a competition, entrants are striving to be the best, thinking about the message of the film and how best to use the materials provided to make the most impact.

The competition also provides the editors with a creative license to explore where they would like to take the movie, with the tools at their disposal. Typically, an editing competition will take a film in surprising directions with each edit viewed.

We enjoyed 5 entries into 'The Garden' editing competition. Each chose different pieces of video to include; different camera angles, different sound files; and diverse strategies. For example, one movie included a planning conversation as a narrative over 'garden building' scenes. Another chose to include flashback scenes of building the garden. Another chose to use more close ups for the more dramatic dialogue. Music selection and sound was also used quite differently amongst the contenders.

Most of the editors really stretched themselves as they endeavoured to bring the best movie that they could to the screen; to be true to the script; and to do honour to the wonderful acting that was performed. I was truly impressed with the high standard of most of the editing.

Thank you editors for such a wonderful and diverse editing effort you have made. We have all learned by sharing your different approaches.