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Sampath, a film editor by profession is currently working in industry for various movies.Sampath Kumar

Here are the glimpses of his interview.

Tell us about yourself? 
I was born on 8 December 1986 in Vishakapatnam. I have done my B.Sc Graduation in Electronics. My father is from railway department. I had interest on movies from childhood itself, it was as an inspirational field for me.

So i dreamt of becoming a director, but to gain experience technically i started working as a film editor. I had also done D.A colourist course. After doing various kinds of jobs I worked as assistant director and now am planning for my own movie, with a small budget, with my own production team.

How you got your first opportunity? 
Shyam Prasad Reddy was the person who gave me chance to come up, I joined as offline editor under him. Getting such experience and learning some others courses in editing helped me out to be a known personality in editing field.

What basically editing is?
It’s all about sequencing a movie. During film shoots all scenes are not taken at same location or one song or scene precedes another. Sequencing all these things at one place is editing. And the person who does it is called as “editor”.

How much time it takes for editing a movie?
On an approx it takes around 100 to 120 hours for editing a movie. It consumes more time while editing songs and fight scenes, as each of them have to be aligned in a proper order. Respective department people guides us while editing for songs and fight scenes. Remaining editing part will be guided by director.

What is the difference between offline and online editing. How many people comprises in an editing team? 
There are two types of editing, offline and online, Online editing includes film reel cutting and replacing and offline editing is which we do on system. Since we can’t make much changes by cutting and replacing the reel all the time, so first the movie is dumped for offline editing and thus after a maximum part is corrected then it is sent for online editing.

What kind of software or equipment is used for industry editing? What software you use?
There are different kind of software’s available for film editing work like AVID for windows and Final Cut Pro (FCP) for mac. Personally I use FCP.

Who tells you to do edit accordingly for a particular movie?
As movie is content oriented either the director or co director sits with us for a general schema that how the editing should be, what all scenes should be placed and what should be removed. And we do accordingly without jerks.

How many movies you edited till now? 
I worked in movies like, Aduvari matalaku ArthaleVerule (online editing), Bank(offline editing), Gajibiji, Navvule Navvulu etc. I also worked as an offline editor for Pulavala ads.

How is the craze for editing in industry?
Many people are coming to the editing industry for jobs rather than a passion, so now a days it became an online film business of hiring people for editing, though it is a good thing that more people can be employed but born talent and passion is diff from a job oriented work. But editing is an evergreen job. It depends how creatively editor is working and such kind of people are necessary for industry.

We can see there is much difference between director personality, and editor doesn’t come out much so, why this difference? 
Well that’s all about movie taking. After director directs the movie editing comes. So the director is taking care of everything, keeping that in mind director is at top, and so as editors.

Interview By:

Diwakar

INT/8