checkthegate:

The rapid Digital Revolution in film has brought with it many terrific things, but it has also created a few nasty trends as well (one of which is that short films are becoming far too long, but I will address that in another post). Today’s post is regarding one trend that has been driving me absolutely nuts. Lately, I have noticed a pattern of more and more young directors editing their own films.
With things becoming cheaper and more available and viable at home, youngsters are starting to view themselves as a proverbial one-stop-shop. “Look at me, I can direct, DP, and edit this whole thing by myself.”
I could spend hours upon hours explaining my detest for this approach, but I wil try and hone my focus deliberately on editing. As the Systems Admin of an editing lab, nothing troubles me more then seeing these young student filmmakers sitting at a station, slaving away, editing a film they, themselves directed. Filmmaking is a collaborative art form. Yet more and more people are losing sight of that these days. Why that is, I am unsure, but I know it is happening.
When directing a film, you live and breathe the material from the ground up. You breakdown every scene, every word, every moment. But as they say, filming is the battle, but the editing room is the war. And like a good General, why attack without an army? Taking a step back from the material and handing it off to an editor is vital to the success of a film. It does not matter if the film is five minutes or three hours.
Read More