{"id":1336,"date":"2011-11-14T15:09:47","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T23:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2011-12-04T21:21:46","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T05:21:46","slug":"documentary-filmmaker-teacher-editing-as-an-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2011\/11\/14\/documentary-filmmaker-teacher-editing-as-an-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentary filmmaker teaches editing as an art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Abbott isn\u2019t a household name. But, given current world events, it\u2019s time for that to change.<\/p>\n

The Saltspring Island-based filmmaker\u2014who co-directed and edited the 2003 film The Corporation<\/em>\u2014is coming to Victoria for The Art of the Edit<\/em>, a workshop where she\u2019ll be teaching students editing skills and techniques. It\u2019s a job she\u2019s well suited to do, after teaching film editing at Emily Carr and working on numerous feature films since the \u201890s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jennifer Abbott (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe workshop tries to delve deeper into editing,\u201d explains Abbott, \u201cwhich is a very difficult thing in some ways to teach, because it\u2019s quite intuitive and subjective. I mean, there are certain rules for sure, but then the other parts of editing are really difficult to teach and to learn, so it\u2019s trying to delve deeper. What is an artful edit? What is artful editing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Editing can be difficult to explain to students, so Abbott uses a method she started when she taught at Emily Carr where she handpicks sequences from a range of films\u2014everything from surrealist films to Hollywood blockbusters and even vintage television shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use examples of edits in teaching to encourage people to pay attention to things that they might not,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s a really good way to go because it provides a visual example of what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Abbott prefers to work on documentary films, the challenge is making the ideas behind them engaging and transforming what could be a dry subject into something inspiring and interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the edit suite, generally I\u2019m alone and generally I have a big chunk of time that I can just really get into that zone where it becomes intuitive,\u201d she says. \u201cI edit my own work because I don\u2019t like to translate my ideas into words while I\u2019m working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s most engaging work to date is arguably The Corporation<\/em>, a film now being credited as an inspiration for the growing Occupy movement. Abbott herself is no stranger to politics with her film subjects, having approached food politics with A Cow at My Table<\/em>, and gender and sexuality in Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make documentaries because it\u2019s been my way of finding a voice in a society I frequently feel alienated from,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s obviously very rewarding when that voice is heard and when it resonates with others. We don\u2019t just make them for ourselves; we make them to try and contribute in some small way to a cultural shift and to a behavioural shift. As a filmmaker that\u2019s immensely rewarding for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Art of the Edit
\n<\/em>CineVic (1931 Lee Ave.)
\nNovember 19 and December 3, 12-5 pm, $125-$150
\ncinevic.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Abbott isn\u2019t a household name. But, given current world events, it\u2019s time for that to change. The Saltspring Island-based filmmaker\u2014who co-directed and edited the 2003 film The Corporation\u2014is coming to Victoria for The Art of the Edit, a workshop where she\u2019ll be teaching students editing skills and techniques. It\u2019s a job she\u2019s well suited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}