The Art & Technique of Film Editing – MZed Course with Oscar Winner Tom Cross ACE

MZed Education

by Jakub HanJune 10^th, 2020

The Art & Technique of Film Editing is a newly added course on the online education platform MZed. The course lector is the Oscar-winning editor Tom Cross, ACE (La La Land, First Man, Whiplash, and more). In over eight hours, Cross combines technical lectures with in-depth deconstructions of scenes from his largest film projects.

As a filmmaker, if you have ever been looking for educational content online, you probably know MZed. It is probably the largest online educational platform for creatives. Currently, they offer 35 different courses totaling over 200 hours of educational content. Recently, MZed added The Art & Technique of Film Editing course. What is it about?

The Art & Technique of Film Editing with Tom Cross, ACE

Tom Cross, the lecturer behind this course, is an Academy Award and BAFTA-winning film editor, best known for his collaborations with director Damien Chazelle, including movies like “Whiplash”, “La La Land” and “First Man”. The content of this MZed course was put together from a three-day seminar Tom Cross did in Beijing in 2019.

In the first half of his course, Tom is talking about what’s expected of a feature-film editor and assistant editor in Hollywood. He also explains the processes and methodologies that have made him one of the leading editors working in the industry today.

The second half is all about in-depth deconstructions of scenes from Tom’s biggest projects including La La Land, First Man, Whiplash, and more. He is talking about why he (and the director) made this cut, why it’s paced this way, how they did certain effects, etc.

The total time of the course is 8 hours and 14 minutes and it is divided into the following modules:

• Setting Up Your Cutting Room
• Requesting Your Technical Specifications
• Script, Camera, and Sound Reports
• Wall Cards
• Know Your Footage
• Editorial Crew
• Reels
• AVID
• The Editor and Director Relationship
• Rough Cuts
• Asking The Right Questions
• Editing Style
• Tom’s Biggest Influences
• Conveying Information
• A Lesson from Tim Squyres
• Choosing Selects
• The Rough Cut
• Character and Point of View
• Is There a Wrong Way to Edit?
• Storyboards
• Opticals
• Morphs
• Insert Shots
• Screenings and Feedback
• Introduction to Hostiles
• A Guide to Whiplash, the Short Film
• Whiplash, the Feature Film
• Setting the Tone in Whiplash
• Contrasting Styles in Whiplash
• Dinner Scene in Whiplash
• Whiplash Ending
• La La Land Opening Sequence
• La La Land Roommate Dance
• La La Land Montage
• A Walkthrough Hollywood in La La Land
• Introducing the Main Characters in La La Land
• Morphs in La La Land
• Timing in La La Land
• Contrast in La La Land
• Checker Boarding Character Storylines
• First Man Opening Sequence
• Juxtaposition and Rhythm in First Man
• Documentary Style in First Man
• The Training Flight Crash in First Man

Price and Availability

The price of the Art & Technique of Film Editing course has been set to $249. For this price, you can own it forever to both stream and download. Because this course is a premium course, it is not included in the MZed Pro plan ($299). For free access to this course (and of course many other courses on MZed), you can get the MZed Pro Premium membership for $399 (scroll down) and select this premium course out of three options.

In case you are only interested in one particular module from the above list, MZed also offers the possibility to buy modules separately. Prices for one module range from $9 to $49.

We are planning to watch this course and tell you about our experience in an in-depth review article. Stay tuned to cinema5D not to miss it.

What do you expect from this course? Did you already watch some courses on MZed? Let us know in the comment section underneath the article.