Video editor or Film Editor assemble footage of feature films, television shows, documentaries, and industrials into a seamless end product. They manipulate plot, score, sound, and graphics to refine the overall story into a continuous and enjoyable whole..

 On some films, the film editor is chosen before cast members and script doctors; people in Hollywood recognize that the skills of a good film editor can save a middling film. In the same way directors use certain actors they appreciate over and over again, they also use film editors they know and are comfortable with. Martin Scorcese, Spike Lee, and Robert Wise are a few of the directors who work with the same editors over and over again. Such relationships lend stability to a film editor’s life; otherwise, they must be prepared to submit video resume after video resume, in the struggle to get work. Editors can express themselves through their unique styles; Spike Lee’s editor, for example, is well-known for his editing style. The hours are long, and the few editors who had the time to write comments to us tended to abbreviate their thoughts. “Dawn/Dusk. Rush jobs. After test audiences, do it again. Lots of frustration. Lots of control, though,” wrote one. Just as directors do, film editors spend a long time perfecting and honing their craft. Like most industries, the film industry has embraced new technology. Assistant editors must now have strong computer skills to work in the industry. While some editors stay removed from the project during the filming process so as not to steer the director away from his or her concept of the film, many of them do visit the director on set while production is under way. Nevertheless, the majority of a film editor’s work is done alone. Despite that solitude, interpersonal skills are just as important as endurance is in an editor’s career. Film editors work closely with sound editors and musical directors as the film nears completion. Long hours and significant isolation while actually editing can make even the most positive-minded film editor question the career choice. But an interesting, well-edited film can restore faith in the profession.

How to Use Premiere Pro for Compositing Simple VFX Shots

Did you know that Premiere Pro actually has some pretty good compositing tools built into the app? It makes it easy for beginners to learn how to do some basic VFX like masking and layering clips.

How to Remove Green Screen and Composite in Premiere Pro

Once inside of Premiere, add your green screen footage to the timeline. Here’s a quick look at the background plate on the left, and the layer we want to composite on the right. Open the Effects panel and search for the Ultra Key tool.

Add the Ultra Key to the footage clip with the green screen. Remove the green screen using the ultra key effect using the matte generation and matte cleanup tools. Make sure to remove any hard edges with softening. You can fine tune all of this in the Effects Control panel.

Once you have a clean key, put your background footage underneath your green screen clip. With the keyed layer on top, you should now see your background underneath. Don’t worry if the colors don’t match up perfectly. Let’s clean that up next.

In Effects, add a Lumetri effect to the top layer. Next, in the Effects Control panel, use the curves drop down in them lumetri effect to color correct the foreground layer to kind of make it match the background better.

For this shot, we wanted the background to be out of focus, so in the Effects search for Camera Blur. Apply it to the background bottom layer and use the camera blur effect to get a nice out of focus background.

Finally drop an overall color correction on top of everything to get it all married together.  You can add an adjustment layer on top of both clips, add another Lumetri to the adjustment layer and fine tune the look of the entire shot. And there you go.

That’s how easy it is to get started with compositing in Premiere Pro.