perfectly.... better to have too much than too little, and infinitely better to have the shot than not.

always look for the unexpected, and expect the unexpected.

after 40+ years this business is still fun, minus some of he clients ;-)

(1) Yes, not well prepared e.g. just shoot some stuff and make something of it.

If it's a narrative you need to plan shot blocking or as my editor mate put it to me:

[I]How are you going to get them from here to there?[/I]

You have to think about that and how will the camera move and how will all that movement work when cut together and viewed on the big screen.
Sometimes shooting a scene with more than one camera can be a huge help or a huge hindrance, no hard and fast rules apart from think it out fully.

(3) Events should tell themselves if all you're doing is documenting it and more cameras help a lot but so would a director who can see what each camera is doing and communicate with the camera operators. Knowing what's going to happen also helps.

(10) Shot love, big problem when you're the one whose shot it. It can really help to have another pair of eyes going over the edit with you.

A tip I got from an old timer. Edit with no sound. The shots should dance, it can be a waltz or a foxtrot, you can even break the tempo but there must be a reason. You can break any rule if there's a good reason for it.

I recall reading of one movie that shot many scenes under sodium vapour lights, everyone and everything looked like shite but it told the story very well.

Bob.

@bob: Sound off to see the edit dance - luv it!

I regularly interrogate and laser like look with my eyes as my old ceramics and sculpture always told me, at Adverts and Magazines, to be responsive and reactive and get a cogent view of about what was I front of me.

Great thread.

Grazie

Oh here's one: Not syncing the music, that crucial spoken statement and emphasis that's not allowed to drive the visuals. Hate it. And before anybody says it, I do it too.

Not too long ago a Pro video/filmmaker asked me to view his work. BIG opportunity for me. I did and got paid. I truly enjoyed the frame accurate input I gave him and he was very pleased.

Grazie

Editing is a highly creative business and , in my view, films come to life in the editing suite. Back in the days of cutting actual film many considered the time the processes took to be a bonus, that it gave the editor time to think about the material and variations.

"I think about what it is I'm holding. I'm thinking about every piece as I put it back. I cut a sequence, then I put it away for three days, five days, sometimes a week. I'll cut seven or eight sequences and I'll run through them. That way I know I've done my best." (David Bretherton).
"You have to pay attention to rhythms or tempi you can impose. These are the ones that only the material can tell you. I always compare what I have constructed to what I know is in the bits and pieces outside of it. Have I gotten the best material?" (Jerry Greenberg).

Video and NLE allows for very fast cutting, and while that is often required it doesn't lend itself to innovative work. It's easy to get married to that first cut because you haven't had time to consider alternatives, and then the production is so far down the track that you're loth to change. The creative editor is not a fast cutter. But often fast cutting is all that's paid for, so an ability to cut to a formula is a useful skill in the video business.

EDIT: Of course NLE does give you the power to try many variations without having to keep track of all your trims. And there is no doubt about its efficiency (no work prints, negatives, labs and optical printers). So the comments above are not about any superiority of cutting film, just that often it pays to not rush at the job.

Here is a nominee for number 11, which will likely set off a firestorm:

11. Not every potential project should become your project, and not every potential client should become your client.

The problem is knowing when your talent, gear, patience and finances are adequate to make for a happy ending. And there are some people out there who will just never, ever understand why a DVD will not look as good as the HD video from the camera.

True there are some who have unrealistic expectations, although these are generally in relation to the budget. Very tempting to turn away potentially difficult clients, but turning difficulties into achievables is a necessary skill for any profitable business.

"You can break any rule if there's a good reason for it."

That got me thinking about a long heated discussion i had with the photography group i'm a member of. We have folks ranging from life-long shooters all the way to 'just picked up a camera'. Of course everyone is always willing to be helpful with ideas and tips and the more seasoned shooters feel it's their responsibility to guide the newbies. Usually almost every discussion comes draped in all the classical rules that must be obeyed, including such things as rule of thirds, must fill and use the whole frame, pros never use auto exposure or auto focus, etc.

Now, maybe it's because i'm the only member of the group who shoots for fun rather than for profit, but after one session of overwhelming a newb with all this, i chimed in and said something like,

"You know what, just forget everything everyone has said. Ignore all the rules. Don't agonize over the shots trying to do everything professionally. Go ahead and turn on the automatic functions, 'cause a group of engineers who know a heck of a lot more about running a camera than you do made sure your camera knows how to take care of that for you. Let the camera do it's job and you concentrate on SEEING what's there in front of you and capturing it. Just go shoot. Shoot anything and everything. Find out what YOU like to take pictures of and what interests you. Come back with all that material and we'll go over it with you and help you understand how to do it better, and introduce such 'rules' as might be helpful at that time. But now, ignore the rules because they're only going to limit you and bog you down with details you're not ready to worry about yet. After that, you'll be much better prepared not only to understand the rules, but also to see when a situation calls for breaking them to get a better art."

Needless to say, i was rather frowned upon for that. The serious pros in the group spent quite a bit of time apologizing for me and re-teaching. But then as the months went by something interesting happened. One by one, most of them started telling the new newbs the same thing i had said, as they learned too that the rules are guidelines, not laws, and if they're not helpful in particular situations then, well, they're not helpful.

After all, this is art. Go create.

@Chienworks - Amen to that. When I started out in photography I took a lot of pictures. That was hard since it was on film and I was a student. Most of what I shot was sh*t. Then I started reading photography books and learned the "rules". Then I stopped shooting. For years actually.

The most important thing is to shoot, always. It be on automatic or manual, with an iPhone or a Canon 5D iii. Shoot. Then talk about what you shot and how you can make it bettter. THEN you learn when to apply "rules" and why. Why aperture and shutter and ISO is important.

The essential question is always: How could I have improved this?