David Lean

David Lean was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is known for many films including one in particular, 'A Passage To India' (1984)...

The director began as a film editor and throughout his career he stressed the importance of how things cut together. When he broke into the industry, he worked his way up editing different films, some of which included 'Pygmalion' (1938) and 'One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing' (1942).

Many people believe that his skills in editing helped him become such a great editor. Before researching editors, it was never apparent to me that editors can take on the roles of directing, producing and screenwriting. Lean believed that editing allows you to create more 'interesting' shots/scenes. For example, he described one scene he was editing as "boring" if he were to leave the entire shot as a long shot. But instead he chooses and pieces together a variety of shots within the scene to make a more fun and interesting scene. The speed of the shots creates the illusion that the audience are watching just the one shot, but it's the speed and the fluency of the scene and shots pieced together, that makes it work. He also goes on to say that editing is like piecing together a huge jigsaw. I believe that one of the key aspects of being an editor, is the ability to portray the footage in any given light you wish to do so.

Lean's films were categorised by some into two groups: the "ordinary" and the "epic". His early work consisted of shooting the lives of ordinary people in a moment of time, rather than his later work that focused on dramatic landscapes, unusual heroes and extravagant mise-en-scene. Perhaps it is because of his wide knowledge and experience in a variety of film-making that makes him such a successful director, producer, screenwriter and most of all, editor.

What is H2.64?

H2.64 is a video compression format, and is one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression and distribution of HD (high definition) video. The format allows you to achieve high quality video in relatively low bitrates.