Learn How To Edit with EditMentor
There was once a time when you would have to attend a traditional film school or watch dozens of random educational videos from random sources in order to learn how to edit. Those days are over. Whether you’re interested in brushing up your editing skills or wish to learn from square one, EditMentor serves as a valuable browser-based resource.
Below we explore some of the best features that EditMentor offers and how you can try it for yourself, free of charge. We certainly did!
Our readers receive a special discount of $50 off EditMentor’s Advanced Film Editing Workshop when using the discount code: FLMACAD.
What is EditMentor?
EditMentor is an online interactive video editing training system that reimagines how to teach filmmakers. By placing the edit directly into your hands, you can make cuts, sift through media, and understand storytelling from the perspective of the editor. So, rather than just reading a textbook or following along on videos, EditMentor takes a hands-on approach. Each lesson teaches you how to achieve a particular lesson and then tests you on your retention of it afterward.
EditMentor employs high-value short films that you can use to learn. This places you in the seat of a working editor who is working with quality content. The testing phase of each process includes editing challenges. With each scenario, you’re presented with a challenge that you must solve. But don’t worry! You can make as many attempts as you wish without penalty.
EditMentor is more concerned about teaching than grading – which is a breath of fresh air for learners. If you’re still struggling with a particular lesson, there are helpful learning aids in the form of hints and educational articles to lend you a hand. And if that’s not enough, you can select EditMentor personnel who will answer your questions.
How EditMentor works
With a polished online interface that resembles both editing software and an online textbook, you get the best of both worlds. The act of learning and the act of actually performing the task you just listened to or read about. This means that you get the feel of a classroom experience from the comfort of home. However, that’s not to say that plenty of classrooms also use EditMentor for its impressive learning features.
Educational Features:
- Curriculum designed by leading educators
- Interactive gamified experience
- Detailed Teacher Guides with activities and worksheets
- Downloadable EditStock footage within courses
- Aligns with educational standards, such as CTE, Common Core, and ISTE
- Teacher Dashboard to track students’ progress and download gradebooks
We gave EditMentor a test spin to see how it performed and were impressed with the results. EditMentor offers a free 10-hour course for Life Learners that is better than most exclusive classroom experiences. How do you begin? Simple – just create a free account to get started!
On your personal dashboard, you’ll find the available online courses and workshops. When you click on a particular course, you will be directed inside where you can see a description of what you’ll learn as well as your progress for each lesson. If you’re a teacher using EditMentor to teach a class, you can instantly observe lesson scores to see where students are excelling and need more work.
“This is my second-semester teaching Video Editing with EditMentor,” explained Debra Sea from Bemidji State University, “ and I can’t imagine teaching without it. The transition to using Premiere Pro has never been smoother. In the past, I used to talk (a lot) and demo terms and techniques – and they never really got it. Now they are learning by doing. EditMentor helps all of my students become better editors – from beginners to those with some experience. It gives them the confidence they need to succeed.”
Are you a teacher interested in trying EditMentor? Sign up for free at EditMentor.com or request a quote!
EditMentor courses
To get started, EditMentor provides a shortlist of courses. These range from beginner to advanced. If you’re an educator, you could either follow EditMentor’s curated curriculum or customize your own for your own needs. Students enjoy the flexibility to learn how to edit at their own pace both inside and outside of the classroom.
EditMentor Courses:
- Getting Started
- The Art of Filmmaking – Basics
- Advanced Film Editing Workshop with Stephen Mark, ACE
- Broadcast Journalism and News (Coming in 2022)
The two courses that are available for free are Getting Started and The Art of Filmmaking Basics. The former is a simple 1 lesson course to wet your toes and shouldn’t take more than a half-hour to complete. Designed to acclimate you to EditMentor, this introductory course walks you through its interface and educational style. We cover the rest below.
The Art of Filmmaking
The Art of Filmmaking is the course that we completed and are excited to share with you. Designed with 13 lessons, this course will take you roughly 10 hours to complete. Even though it initially appears as a beginner’s course that teaches terminology and tools, advanced self-taught editors will also find value in learning a solid foundation that they may be lacking.
The course takes you step-by-step through various types of shots, story structure, and editing techniques, utilizing footage from high-value award-winning short films. While reviewing this course, we found that it didn’t only succeed in teaching technical skills, but also understanding storytelling and structure – which is a must in order to be a solid editor.
From the standpoint of a teacher, you’ll benefit from tracking student progress, connecting LMS systems, and receiving teacher guides for EditMentor’s standards-aligned curriculum.
When you pass the course, EditMentor awards you with a certificate of completion. Here’s our certification after passing the course!
Advanced Film Editing
For more advanced editors, EditMentor provides an Advanced Film Editing Workshop led by award-winning editor Stephen Mark, ACE. Stephen is known for his work on the hit HBO series Deadwood, The X-Files, Sneaky Pete, Smallville, Hell Ain’t Civilized, and Greenleaf.
“All editors are doing the same thing, reacting to the film they receive and deciding how to put the best bits of it into the best order at the best length for telling the story,” said Mark in an interview with CineMontage. “What we’re doing in this course is guiding the user, step by step, through my personal creative process.”
This premium workshop will help you stand out from other editors in the industry by learning how to identify key story moments, build intrigue, and establish empathetic characters. Altogether, there are 13 lessons and 150 hands-on challenges that will test your proficiency.
The course includes 13 lessons:
- What Makes a Story
- Reading the Script
- Understanding Lined Scripts
- Watching and Responding to Footage
- Analyzing Moment to Moment 01
- Analyzing Moment to Moment 02
- Revising a Scene
- Editing a Montage
- Editor’s Cut
- Parallel Action
- Editor’s Cut 02
- Revising with Collaboration
- Student Feedback
Advanced Film Editing Workshop with Stephen Mark, ACE is for every level of editing experience, no matter if you’re just a novice or experienced working editor. Mark reveals his tried and true method for selecting the best performances, building scenes and montages, and how to review your work with collaborators.
Our readers receive a special discount of $50 off when using the discount code: FLMACAD.
Learn how to master editing with award-winning editor Stephen Mark, ACE!
The bottom line
No matter if you’re an aspiring filmmaker in high school or secondary school or a working professional, there’s much to glean from EditMentor. Its browser-based platform provides video editing exercises that not only teach you how to perform an edit by why.
The future of EditMentor is shining bright as more filmmakers are learning from the convenience of web browsers. It’s never been easier to learn about video production from award-winning filmmakers and video editor mentors like Stephen Mark, ACE. Remember, save $50 off the course when using the special discount code: FLMACAD.
In 2022, EditMentor will also release its latest course for broadcast journalism.
Larry Jordan, the award-winning editor of Edit Smarter, wrote in a recent article, “EditMentor is amazing. It is deep, extensive, and well-thought-out. It is obviously a labor of love on the part of the EditMentor team, with a clear focus on education. There is a very large world of media creators that EditMentor could enable.”
To learn more, visit EditMentor.com or contact Support@EditMentor.com.
