ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a step-by-step guide to the select reel process, a crucial but poorly understood step in the documentary editing process. Readers will learn how to identify patterns in the footage and create a select reel, and the difference between source-based select reels and topic-based select reels. A special emphasis on the power of observation links these concepts back to the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking. Readers will gain practical knowledge of how to refine and consolidate select reels, including how to use folders to group them together and how to draw initial conclusions about the narrative from their select reels. The chapter ends with a discussion of the back-and-forth process between cutting scenes and building the rough cut.
