22 Jul 2024

The award winning editor and director of the Showmax four-part documentary Tracking Thabo Bester, Dr Nikki Comninos says editing is a powerful element of cooking of film.

“Often, some say editing is about intuition, cutting from the gut. But this is rarely true as one can learn how to be better. As you practice more you can learn and become the best,” Comninos said during the Botswana Ignite master class on editing for film makers in Gaborone, Saturday. 

Comninos said editing was about sorting footage, and should be guided by logic.

She said editing was not a feeling but a fully developed skill, and that if one works on intuition they would need to have a deep thinking of why they cut in a particular way or the other, if need to explain arise.

Comninos advised film editors and aspiring editors to try out different things and not to be boxed where they would only edit one genre. 

“Be flexible and learn to edit different genres of film; drama, documentaries, realities and others,” said Comninos who is also an editor of the Netflix South Africa Film and Television Awards (SAFTA) winner, Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star.

Giving insights on the business side of the industry, she advised attendees who do more than one skill such as sound engineering and editing to always separate the two when quoting for a job. She said by so doing, they were protecting themselves from being taken advantage of. She also said they should learn the skill of negotiating for a discount, to avoid a rip off.

Additionally, she urged local filmmakers to create Botswana Guild of Editors and link with South Africa Guild of Editors. She said filmmakers could find more on rate charges from the website and how things were done, to assist the local industry.

The master class on editing was attended by filmmakers as well as students of television academy from Botswana Ignite project. This is the third master class, having done the Cinematography and Music Composition for film master classes the past two months.

Botswana Ignite is a three-year project and is one of the key projects to enable the achievement of knowledge-based economy which President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi is pushing for. 

The project was first announced in 2019 as a partnership with Steve Harvey Global to allow and facilitate the creative industry especially in the video, television and film industry in Botswana. Ends