Forward Edit
What's In A Name?
01/February/10 04:07 PM
A few people have remarked, “I love/hate/don’t
understand the name, FORWARD EDIT.” Well, an
explanation is in order.
First off, I dislike the ordinary/staid/inelegant. In all variety of things, both substantial and ethereal. Digital and/or physical. So I set out to think of a name that would precisely and creatively communicate my intent for this site and at the same time provoke discussion, at least of the inner mind variety.
{Of course, if you should choose to bring up this site with a, “last nite I was checking out some VIMEO vids, and I thought that I should probably see what was happening in post, so I hopped over to FORWARD EDIT for a second...what is FORWARD EDIT you say? Well, let me tell you...”, well that would be cool too.}
Back to it. I am a freak about graphics and typography and modernism. In that vein, Soviet era (1920’s to the ’60s) propaganda art/posters were magnificent. Especially beautiful were the posters wherein the type soared across the art from left to right, rising in height and width. Often the slogans were simplistic; sometimes they were single words strung together, not necessarily in the form of a sentence. (The poster here is from 1930 and states “To Defend USSR.” Others were “Together, Strength”, “Mouth, Shut”, and “To The West.” Sometimes punctuation did not follow any convention, but was added to emphasize words or phrases.
And so, Forward! Edit! I changed it to FORWARD EDIT! to diminish the possibility of confusion. Ultimately I wanted to distill the idea that this site promotes the supremacy of editing over all else. Seriously though, FORWARD! reminds me that editing and post is not static and that our job is to forward the art, craft, and technology of editing and finishing a motion picture, with the goal of fully realizing a director’s vision and creating a work of art, either of a highly commercial or purely poetic variety. If commercial, let’s help the movie entertain and make truckloads of cash. If poetic, let’s still make sure it entertains, as well as encourages deep thought and provokes unsettling discussions. And EDIT! is what we do. And love. and live.
FORWARD! EDIT!
First off, I dislike the ordinary/staid/inelegant. In all variety of things, both substantial and ethereal. Digital and/or physical. So I set out to think of a name that would precisely and creatively communicate my intent for this site and at the same time provoke discussion, at least of the inner mind variety.
{Of course, if you should choose to bring up this site with a, “last nite I was checking out some VIMEO vids, and I thought that I should probably see what was happening in post, so I hopped over to FORWARD EDIT for a second...what is FORWARD EDIT you say? Well, let me tell you...”, well that would be cool too.}
Back to it. I am a freak about graphics and typography and modernism. In that vein, Soviet era (1920’s to the ’60s) propaganda art/posters were magnificent. Especially beautiful were the posters wherein the type soared across the art from left to right, rising in height and width. Often the slogans were simplistic; sometimes they were single words strung together, not necessarily in the form of a sentence. (The poster here is from 1930 and states “To Defend USSR.” Others were “Together, Strength”, “Mouth, Shut”, and “To The West.” Sometimes punctuation did not follow any convention, but was added to emphasize words or phrases.
And so, Forward! Edit! I changed it to FORWARD EDIT! to diminish the possibility of confusion. Ultimately I wanted to distill the idea that this site promotes the supremacy of editing over all else. Seriously though, FORWARD! reminds me that editing and post is not static and that our job is to forward the art, craft, and technology of editing and finishing a motion picture, with the goal of fully realizing a director’s vision and creating a work of art, either of a highly commercial or purely poetic variety. If commercial, let’s help the movie entertain and make truckloads of cash. If poetic, let’s still make sure it entertains, as well as encourages deep thought and provokes unsettling discussions. And EDIT! is what we do. And love. and live.
FORWARD! EDIT!
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