*IMPORTANT NOTE* The comments section has been fixed, Sorry about that.
September 2, 2012 UPDATE
Major updates to announce today! We’ve gotten a few new sections/ideas but more importantly we’ve hit our first hiccup. We’ve talked to a few Associations and a few Editors who might be interested in lecturing. All stated they were interested if we could get permission to use the footage for their films from the producers and studios. So this week we begin the discussion with the studios on getting permission to use the footage. Although, this project would fall under fair use we are still going to approach the studios to put the editors at ease.
That leads to the next big announcement. I got contacted by a editor/producer who wants to help produce this project. So, welcome, Andre Elijah! He’ll help us organize things, bidget things and post things.
Country Reps
We’re going to begin looking for people n the perspective countries to help us, organize, promote and shoot the lectures. We’ll keep you posted on this.
Tentative Launch Date
Sept. 2013?
A new Subsite
Before we launch the kickstarter we’ll need to launch the website, which we hope to place at opencourse.aotg.com
August 30th UPDATE
Courses
- Introduction – 5-10 Overview/how to use the course
- Rhythm, Pacing, Timing
- Montage theory historical perspective
- Montage theory Modern Views
- Documentary Editing I
- Documentary Editing II
- Working with Actors Performances
- Psychology of the Editing Room – Group Dynamics, one on one
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
Satellite Courses
Norman Hollyn’s The Lean Forward Moment
Linton Davies – The Editing of Star Wars
Jim Clark’s – Dream Repairman: Adventures in Film Editing
Bobbie O’Steen – Cut to the Chase
Supplementary Courses
Assessing Rushes
Assistant Editing – Need each country to help mold this so that it matches their country’s structure. 1 per country?
Major Update (Posted August 30th, 2012)
Wow, that really escalated quickly. Well, we got an overwhelming response from our listeners, twitter followers and FB groups. So next, we need to post some of the ideas that really stuck out and really hammer this out. Figure out what works best and go from there. Below is a summary of what people submitted mashed with some of our own ideas.
Technology
Many people stated they don’t want a discussion of technology. HOWEVER, some stated, that although, technology isn’t their primary focus they would like satellite classes/videos that would fill people in on Rules/Etiquette in the cutting room.
(We’ll bring up satellite courses again in a bit)
Course Structure
This is one of the toughest areas that people are struggling with, the original idea was to have 12-14 classes and break them down via genre. Someone wisely brought up that we should have classes focus, not on genre but on techniques and theories.
For example, instead of having a class on drama editing and comedy editing we have a class on pacing, rhythm and timing and examine the different genres within the class. Another suggestion was to have classes on pacing, rhythm and Timing but then have the Cutting Room Podcast as supplementary material.
It was suggested today that we ensure it is an international course. Have representative editors from all continents speak about a particular area of interest or specialty. In particular, having a top editor in Mumbai speak about Musicals and juxtapose that with someone in Hollywood speaking about musicals. Showing the differences and why.
Originally, we were thinking, one person lecturing for all classes. People are asking for a different editor per class.
Satellite Classes
The term satellite class is due to a lack of a better term. Many people asked us to go beyond the initial idea and then someone suggested satellite video classes. One idea was to talk to publishers of books such as:
Norman Hollyn’s The Lean Forward Moment
Linton Davies – The Editing of Star Wars
Jim Clark’s – Dream Repairman: Adventures in Film Editing
Bobbie O’Steen – Cut to the Chase
Ask these authors to give ½ hour talks or stories of editing from their books or in the case of Norman Hollyn’s book discuss the the ideas.
Budget
A lot of these ideas are great and we are very excited to do them, however, we’ll need to determine all parties involved and organize a budget of all our potential costs. If we add too much to the budget we may not meet our kickstarter goal and lose the opportunity altogether.
Costs
Costs have the potential to explode and we have to keep things realistic. One idea to keep costs down was to have a predetermined shooting style and editing structure, lighting plans, post plans, etc. and each city or town create their own content. This removes travel costs and equipment rentals and places it in the hands of the locals of the particular cities.
A couple things people should keep in mind.
Cost. If we did this project, it would require a kickstarter account. Certain costs we cannot sweep under the rug. From something as small as domain purchase and server costs to paying the editors for their time and in some cases crew for shooting and posting. Some people may offer to donate time or knowledge but we shouldn’t expect that all will do this.
Getting the Word Out
Making noise… If we do this we need everyone to make noise. We need everyone bugging everyone else to get the money up to our goal. As well as to get the viewers up and make this worth while.
Prizes
What should we offer. Kickstarter usually has shirts or something special to give away. What should we have?
Tests
Some people brought up a good point, what about tests, writing etc. Should we add this? What kind of certification do you get?
Another proposal, allow universities and schools to use it for Grad classes. We don’t have to do the tests but those in the schools do to have their students certified.
Distribution
Everywhere, iTunes, Youtube, Vimeo, etc.
Phew… That was a lot. OKAY, talk, chat, share ideas! Post below or email me (info@aotg.com), or tweet!
What we’re thinking! (Posted August 28th, 2012)
Universities such as Yale, Harvard, and MIT have created open courses. These courses are full University courses taught at the University level completely for free, anyone with internet access can enjoy them. We were thinking it would be great to put together a really high level/graduate level course of 12-14 classes all focusing on technique and theory. We would refrain from the technology since there are tutorials everywhere these days. The courses would be split between us giving a lecture and having guest editors lecture on their specialty. For example, a documentary class might be taught by one of the top editors. All content for reading and prepping for the course would be pulled from AOTG.
To cover the shooting costs and costs for the editors to take part we would start a Kickstarter or IndieGoGo account.
The question is, would this interest people?
Would you donate if we started a Kickstarter or IndieGoGo?
Submit comments and suggestions below or email us at info@aotg.com
