Jacob Bricca, ACE
Film Editor, Director & Professor
"Documentary Editing: Principles & Practice" • Routledge
Documentary Editing offers clear and detailed strategies for tackling every stage of the documentary editing process, from organizing raw footage and building select reels to fine cutting and final export. Written by a Sundance award- winning documentary editor with a dozen features to his credit and containing examples from over 100 films, this book presents a step-by-step guide for how to turn seemingly shapeless footage into focused scenes, and how to craft a structure for a documentary of any length. The book contains insights and examples from seven of America’s top documentary editors, including Geoffrey Richman (The Cove, Sicko), Kate Amend (The Keepers, Into the Arms of Strangers), and Mary Lampson (Harlan County U.S.A.), and is paired with a series of easy-to-follow video tutorials .
I've been shooting, directing, and cutting nonfiction for 40 years. I thought I knew every trick (and a lot of them no one else did.) Until I read Bricca's book.
– Mark Moskowitz, filmmaker
In fifteen years of filmmaking and teaching I have not come across such a straight-forward, cohesive, and useful manual for how to tackle that most daunting of challenges: editing the documentary film.
– Sally Rubin, Chapman University
This is a fantastic book. I bought it to learn about the specific processes of doc editing after previously making only narrative films – and it has delivered in spades.
– Jason Matzner, filmmaker