The better the editor, the better he/she is at sex?

[Douggie]

Don't mind the thread title, that's not what this is really about.

I wanted to make this topic since last year, when I was with some AMV-editors in Chicago at a concert. I was looking at them and some were moving their head and body with the music and some of them didn't. At that point I started to wonder: does an editor needs to have a sense of rhythm and a sort of feeling for music (or any sort of feeling in particular) in order to be a good editor? I wonder what the general thoughts are concerning this here at the .org. Maybe some people think it's not needed at all, like it's just a matter of watching the WAV-lines to synch well with the music and that it's just following a set of rules in order to let everything flow well (because sometimes it seems like editors edit like this around here) because the music has already "established the rhythm for you" and you don't need to do that anymore. Maybe some people think a sense of rhythm is not needed, but you do need to be able to analyze and decompose the music really well instead in order to edit well to it. Maybe it's everything that is important. Maybe something else.

So what are your thoughts about this?

And concerning the thread title: they say that people who have a better sense/feeling of rhythm are better dancers and the better the dancer is, the better he/she is at sex.

[Otohiko]

I definitely think most AMV editors I know have a better sense for music than the average person. However at the same time, I think looking at music in terms of rhythm would be pretty darn shallow - melody and harmony are no less "physical" in that sense. Different people identify with music and the world generally in different ways. Some people, whether through rhythm or not, identify music very closely with their bodies and with motion generally, and I have seen this in some editors I've observed carefully. By contrast, I'm not really rhythm-oriented and associate music not with body or motion, but primarily with texture and background. I think this translates into my AMVs as well.

I think most AMV editors have a kind of autistic trait, really. It takes something like that to be able to obsess for hours and hours over pieces of music and footage

As for music generally, rhythm is a bit of a crutch. I think most people have pretty much been conditioned to tune out your typical 4/4. It's no wonder some people don't react to it anymore. It makes me sad that apparently when people think about music, the first thing that comes to mind is "beat". I fear that if beat is all there is to build editing around, we'll indeed be replaced by machines pretty soon.

Likewise, one of my criteria for good music is "you can't have sex to it". Music that is well-suited to sex is as sophisticated as a brick. That kind of music is usually aimed at lower parts of people, and is not meant for listening, i.e. is trash.

[Douggie]

I think looking at music in terms of rhythm would be pretty darn shallow - melody and harmony are no less "physical" in that sense.

Yeah, I said rhythm and a feeling for music, so I didn't mean only the first (even if it might look like I put an emphasis on it).

[Bauzi]

Yes I definatly think that the better editor is, the better the... ah damn. Stupid traps

I agree. I think you need a sense for rythmn and flow of melodies to make good videos to it. I don't like it when your song dictates the video too much. A beat doesn't mean that there has to be a cut or something else to sync it

The better the music sense of the editor the better his amvs? If you divide it down to no effects, cuts and velocity changes than I think you can be right.

Nostromo plays 23 unique instruments and has 3 band projects!

[Ingow]

Likewise, one of my criteria for good music is "you can't have sex to it". Music that is well-suited to sex is as sophisticated as a brick. That kind of music is usually aimed at lower parts of people, and is not meant for listening, i.e. is trash.

Don't hate, I had great sex to Sunn O))).

Anyways, the bigger the mass of people that your editing can reach the more popular your editing will get, and you can't really reach a broad mass of people by just synching to the feeling or the emotional level of music (maybe when it comes to Jihaku that worked though, I don't know). But in general I'd say that if you really feel a song and edit to it you can make a bigger impact on people that share the same emotions, while when focusing on the physical rhythm of a song you can reach more people, but on a much less powerful level.

[dreamawake]

I feel you need a sense of rhythm to feel the flow of a video. So, yes.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I'm sure there are a few exceptions on the creation process, but for viewing I always find myself nodding, tapping, or otherwise following the beat in some manner and I find it hard to imagine the editing process without that. I have no music training, have never played an instrument in my life, don't really listen to much of anything, and I don't dance, so I find it hard to say i'm personally musically inclined, but I have too difficult a time grasping just how someone could make something good when they're not "feeling the music" so to speak.

[Vivaldi]

While melody and harmony are certainly just as real and important as rhythm, rhythm, more than either of the other two is related to the temporal aspects of music. In that sense, yes, I think it'd be pretty easy to argue that for editors, rhythm is the most important part of the music.

[Otohiko]

While melody and harmony are certainly just as real and important as rhythm, rhythm, more than either of the other two is related to the temporal aspects of music. In that sense, yes, I think it'd be pretty easy to argue that for editors, rhythm is the most important part of the music.

As an organization point, yes, but that's no different than for music in general. Editing might be organized visually around rhythm, but for me being able to get a visual feel for non-temporal stuff is just as important. I think it's stupid to ignore the fact that AMVing is very heavily timing-focused, but that's more by history and habit than necessity. Not all types of music videos are as timing-oriented as AMVs, and that sort of does show that other parts of music can (and in my view, should) be just as important.

[Mastamind]

I think really getting into the music is essential... If a song reaches the editor on an emotional level, for example, I think they're much more likely to produce a great video.
I can't imagine editing with a song without "feeling" its rhythm... Though either way, most of the better editors would probably develop that feel by the time they're done with a video.