Documentary Editing: Principles & Practice 1st Edition by Jacob Bricca, ISBN-13: 978-1138675735

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Construction of Meaning in Documentaries

Principles of Documentary Editing

Your Documentary Editing Panel

Part I: Setting the Stage for a Successful Edit

Chapter 1: Planning Your Schedule

Documentary Schedules: How Many Weeks?

Chapter 2: Organizing Your Footage

File Organization on Your Hard Drives

Bringing The Files Into Your NLE

A Clean Window on Your Footage: The Feng Shui of File Structure

Documents You Will Need

Chapter 3: Everyday Work Practices

Work in Stages

Focus

The Vital Importance of Taking Breaks

Duplicate and Archive: Leaving a Trail of Breadcrumbs Behind You

Scraps Sequences & Alternate Shots

The Director/Editor Relationship: Working Together and Working Alone

Part II: Finding Patterns

Chapter 4: Viewing and Digesting

Chapter 5: Making Select Reels

Creating Source-Based Select Reels

Creating Topic-Based Select Reels

Chapter 6: Refining Select Reels

Drawing Initial Conclusions About Your Narrative From Your Select Reels

A Fork in the Road

Part IIIa: Constructing and Refining Scenes

Chapter 7: Evidentiary Editing: Building Interview-Based Scenes

Constructing the Framework: Anchor with Audio

Finding “Hinge Clips”

Stitch Together the Seams with Cutaways

Smoothing Edits

Chapter 8: Verité Editing: Building Observational Scenes

Build Up or Trim Down: Two Options for Finding “The Good Bits”

Invisible or Self-Referential?

Microbeats: Sculpting Human Behavior Onscreen

Body Language

Verité Cutaways

Workarounds for Insufficient Cutaway Material

Making Amalgam Scenes

Integrating Audio from Unrelated Scenes

Mixing Evidentiary and Verité Editing with the “Pop-in” Moment

Chapter 9: Building Montages

Media Montages

Part IIIb: Building the Rough Cut

Chapter 10: Choosing and Framing Footage

A Hierarchy of Experience

A Hierarchy of Intervention

The Limits of Verité

Chapter 11: The Fundamentals of Narrative

Text and Subtext

Experimentation

Chapter 12: Working with Narrative

The First Scene

The Beginning

The Middle

Endings

Reshoots

Creating Meaning Through Association and Juxtaposition

Alternative Approaches to Narrative

Chapter 13: Working with Details

Music　

Archival Material and Stock Shots

Reenactments

Graphics and Animations

Lower Thirds

Location Cards

Subtitles

Chapter 14: Working with Time

Marking Time

Rhythm

Pacing

Dynamics

Pauses

Transitions

Part IV: The Refining Process

Chapter 15: Feedback

Evaluating the Work and Taking Direction

Why Hold a Rough Cut Screening?

Tips for a Successful Rough Cut Screening

Interpreting Notes

Chapter 16: Fine Cut to Final Cut and Beyond

Clarity Is King

Trimming Scenes Down

Cutting Scenes To Remove Redundancy

Cutting Scenes To Improve Narrative or Emotional Logic

Removing Unnecessary Pauses & Utterances

Inspecting and Improving Cutaways

Moving Backwards: Overcutting and How to Avoid It

Picture Lock and Beyond

Part V: Seeing It All Come Together: Analyses of Four Films

Chapter 17:Analyses of Two Feature Documentaries

My Kid Could Paint That

An Inconvenient Truth

Chapter 18: Analyses of Two Short Documentaries

Skip

Hotel 22

Appendix

Appendix A: List of Films Cited

Appendix B: Case Studies of Schedules for Feature Documentaries

Appendix C: Documents You Will Need