Editing Masterclass: 5 Lessons from Ruthless Werner Herzog

[@ciggyhost2037]

man this channel is severely underrated, i can tell you put a shit ton of effort into this. thank you for this video. it taught me some important things in only 7 minutes.

[@cttp]

This is so good to hear :) Any response is appreciated and a good one is just gold! :) Thanks for watching and commenting. Really appreciate it.

[@BooneLovesVideo]

I really love those lights at Cut to the Point HQ.

[@cttp]

Haha :D you got me here. Though I wish to have an office like that :) The shot was taken in Thailand. I wish I could go there again one day... Hopefully with better cinematography skills :)

[@piotr.widziszewski]

Jest wiele wartościowych kanałów na KZbin. Co kilka godzin pojawia się film, z którego można się czegoś nauczyć, coś wyciągnąć dla siebie albo po prostu zobaczyć mini "arcydzieło". Im bardziej KZbin zalewa nas powiadomieniami, że nasz ulubiony Twórca właśnie wstawił film, albo, że pojawił się ktoś nowy, którego kanał może nas zainteresować, tym ciężej zdecydować co faktycznie Warto obejrzeć i w co warto zainwestować swój czas. Dla mnie Twój kanał jest naprawdę wyjątkowy i czuję, że to czas dobrze zainwestowany. Dziękuję :)

[@cttp]

Dzięki Piotr! Taki komentarz wiele dla mnie znaczy :) Sporo mam zaplanowane na ten rok, więc jak tylko życie pozwoli będzie więcej, lepszych materiałów :)

[@lgambis]

Great video--love the creative ways you used to present the information.

[@cttp]

Thank you, Lance. Means a lot :)

[@radeceranic2154]

Thanks. Please continue with this usefull masterclass lessons

[@cttp]

Thanks for the feedback and for watching! :)

[@EricNietofilms]

I liked a lot this video, very nice edition!

[@cttp]

Thanks, Eric! Appreciate your feedback!

[@AndrewReuter]

Great video! Love the new intro. And the Piotr clone scene was both dead accurate and hilarious. I'll have to check out those master classes. Nice work!

[@cttp]

Thanks Andy! :)

[@MiaTeodora]

It's my first time seeing a video from this channel and I am pleasantly surprised. I manually searched "Ruthless Video Editing" and this video is the first one that came up. This video put things into a new perspective for me, thank you! I'm excited to see more on this channel so i subbed.

[@cttp]

Awesome, Maria! Glad to have you aboard :)

[@constantinosschinas4503]

Letzte Worte is a small Herzog masterpiece. When you see the footage it is quicker to put them all in a timeline in the order they where taken or by scene (and duration/long label the timelime), split good takes and elevate them in 2 layers above. ground, trash, 1st floor, good, 2nd floor, very good. Together go Labels, so you have combinations, like Trash shot but must be in or good shot that is not really good or anything a workflow demands. In NLEs where everything is online, workflows have changed (you know that, having proposed the double decker trick which is somewhat what i describe above). Captioning can be used and is handy when lots of editors are involved.

[@cttp]

I haven't seen "Letze Worte"! Need to check it out :) You have a good point here and the workflow you're describing is actually my favorite as well. Very good point. However, sometimes (especially with lots of interviews) I feel like I should have remembered the footage better. Old ways should go in pair with new technology :) Probably I just need to use markers better cause I'm kind of neglecting them too often :D

[@constantinosschinas4503]

@@cttp yes, we should combine all, old and new. markers (set their duration so they appear as stripes) can be very handy, they work as captioning but for rough cut guides as well. In example we can make a rough timing with markers, before starting rough cut, spliting the chapters, scenes etc. So that we have a feel of what should go and for how long. Letzte Worte was shot in the midst of Greek Dictatorship (Junda). So the policemen he is making fun of are actually Junda protectors, but also common people that played a bad role (as always). It is amazing how a foreign guy captured the greek reality of the era, so well, in such a brief and simple way.

[@cttp]

Very cool! I think I should use Markers panel more :) I'll give it a try. And when I have some time to watch Letzte Worte I'll check it out as well. Thanks!

[@SonnyGreenwichJr]

Piotr, man I love your work! Great and straight to the point, your channel should be required watching! 💪🏽🤠👍🏽

[@cttp]

Thank you so much! It means a lot to me :)

[@pandanamin7104]

Hi, I'd just like to say good on you! From Engineering to following what is probably your desired passion...which is art/creativity. I loved your review of the masterclass and have subscribed. I wish you and your wife the best of luck. I'll remember to shoot and edit like there's no TOMORROW! 😅🧐

[@cttp]

Thanks Amin! It means a lot :)

[@ElectricLabel]

Herzog was my film tutor, what he offers is invaluable advice but he doesn't suggest you copy his approach.

[@cttp]

I bet. Inspiration though... :)

[@rodrigodemarchi1184]

The first advice is all about "killing your darlings" that's why a third person's opinion is so important! One question, is that a cutting mat you are using as the backdrop for your overhead shots? Thanks

[@cttp]

True. Although editor and director are very often only people to watch all dailies. But still, there's your audience that dictates the final cut :) Yep, that's a cutting board :)

[@giosanfilippo]

Your videos are excelent!! Thank you so much for that

[@cttp]

Thank you!!! :)

[@ebbandflow123]

Weldone.... I just subscribed

[@cttp]

Great to have to aboard

[@pushinpositivity33]

I love your straight to the point videos bro I’m aspiring to have a channel similar to yours. Any Q-tips you can offer?

[@cttp]

Hey! Thanks a lot. Good luck with your channel! The best thing you can do is follow Video Creators channel on YT. Tim is the best expert out there. Listen to his podcast as well :)

[@pushinpositivity33]

Much appreciated thank you

[@imiy]

Tip#5 goes somehow against the concept of not using the shot you love, if it doesn't serve the story (AKA "kill your darlings"), don't you find?

[@cttp]

I probably did a bad job explaining the idea. Herzog gives a very specific example. It's not about how you are connected to the footage but about the footage that speaks for itself. He mentions a shot of dancing chickens I think and a shot of albino crocodile. Really powerful shots in terms of the contents. Not a production value. Hope it explains what he meant that I failed to bring to the table :) And sorry for the confusion :)

[@kennethgibson1265]

That was my first thought as well. But I think the phrase "kill your babies" applies more. Those little embryonic ideas that you were *sure* were gonna produce some cool footage but then.... well it just didn't turn out quite right. That's a baby. You want to try and nurture it to full health but it never will be healthy. Just kill it. They type of footage mentioned in tip #5 is exactly as you say, it refers to "darlings," footage that turned out amazing despite you maybe not even trying to do anything that fancy. Those bits of footage are special, it would feel *wrong* to not try to find a home for it in your movie.

[@cttp]

Very good point. By the way, yesterday I've listed to the podcast with Damien Chazelle and for The First Man they build the house just to burn it for the shot. And it didn't end up in the film. This is great example of "killing the babies" :)

[@kennethgibson1265]

I'm a journalist, so I have to kill my "writing babies" every day basically. It's like "but that line I used sounds so cool!!" Editor: yeah but it fucks up the flow and just feels out of place, do you think there is a place where it naturally fits?" Me: Nooo.. I guess nottt 😢

[@deltaghost4961]

Can i get your project file template ?

[@cttp]

In the description you can find a link to my mailing list. If you sign up you'll get a project file template and more :)

[@joelbarthel6164]

Gotta look more into Herzog. All I've seen is Woyzeck in school, which was a terribly boring experience filled with extremely long shots playing out forever. I'm surprised you chose Herzog over Scorsese. Or was he not available yet when you started?

[@cttp]

Right now I'm going through Ron Howard masterclass and Scorsese will be probably the next on the list :) But actually Herzog was more interesting to me. Even though I love most of Scorsese's work, Herzog is a great teacher with his crazy concepts :) If you have Netflix, check out "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World" and "Grizzly Man" should be on KZbin. It's worth giving him a second chance :)

[@joelbarthel6164]

I started Grizzly Man, then realized the Amazon Prime stream is with translated narration only. Great that it's on KZbin; which one should I watch first?

[@cttp]

Definitely Grizzly Man :)

[@joelbarthel6164]

Watched it -- I'll watch the other one soon. Grizzly Man was definitely interesting and totally watchable, but it's a documentary and I find it hard to form an opinion on Herzog based on it :D

[@cttp]

Haha :D The second one is a doc as well :) Actually, when we talk about a feature, I only saw Bad Lieutenant, which I didn't like. But it was years ago so maybe I should give it another try. The rest of the Herzog's films I saw were docs :)

[@marcoasqmartins]

Holy s&%* that intro is cool

[@cttp]

Thanks Marco! Much appreciated :)

[@harizsoeoed3588]

Dude.. You look like Adam D from Killswitch Engage lol

[@cttp]

:D thanks