Cutting for performance usually refers to camera flaws, such as slightly soft shots, camera moves not quite perfect etc, but using a performance that's much better than shots that are perfect from a camera point of view. It doesn't refer to the editing, which should be of the same standard as with the camera perfect shots.

Oh okay, but are the camera shots more important than the acting if you had to pick between the two usually?

You usually go for takes that have both good performances and are technically good. Don't stop doing a shot because you've got good enough performance and the camera people are unhappy, the choice for the performance take will come during the editing because there's something extra about it

The other takes are usable, but there's more to the performance in this take, but say there's a slight flaw in say the focus e,g it's not quite on the eyes, which may mean the camera people aren't happy, although not so objectionable that the average member of the audience is going to call it out of focus.

There are no rules, you may have to reshoot if it's not working for either reason.

And I'll complicate it even further...

In editing (watch shows or movies to see what I mean, plenty have "mistakes" in the final edit), you will have to learn to judge, and correctly, whether a good performance take outweighs the technical flaws. Not just focus, continuity errors, etc. The ultimate questions are these...is the performance good enough to outweigh technical flaws, compared to the technically better takes with performances that are lacking? And secondly, will the audience/average person catch the technical flaw?

A good case was today on British National News - the BBC! An interview with Prince Harry doing good deeds in Africa. Remember, Harry is well thought of here, and despite tabloid attempts to make him look bad, the public think he does a good job generally. The cameraman who shot the interview made a great job of getting the background really sharp, but somehow missed the fact that Harry's face and nose were blurred. Probably either a camera fault or I suppose incompetence? However - the content and what he said were important and I've not seen one complaint on social media. The UK professional cameraman's forums are of course very miffed, but the viewers seem not to have noticed. This is where real faults can be excused because it really is the story that does the work. In this case, the words did it - sharp pictures without the words in this case would have been ruination.

I always like to look at the edit and try to imagine what could be cut without spoiling the narrative. I'm a heavy Cubase user, and audio wise, I colour code my projects - looking at the screen, clips go from green to red, so I can see which takes are better - I wish we could dob this in Premiere - it would help me to keep quality up.

Oh okay thanks. Well as far as camera shake goes during the gimbal moves, this is the first time it was mentioned on here, and no one else noticed it. I asked the viewers that watched it before and they said they only notice the shake when i specifically point it out, and never noticed before, especially since you see hand held in so many movies today in comparison.

So if the average person is not noticing the shake, should I not bother to adjust the shots then?

Because professionals strive for excellence in everything we do. The worst kind of professional submits poorer work that they are capable of just because the audience are not versed in professional production. Yesterday I had a panic job to repair a 5 minute piece of classical piano recording where after finishing it two months ago, the pianist found he had played an Ab instead of an A, just once, and none of us noticed it. However, once he found it, it HAD to be fixed. If your movie was aimed at illitate people would you happily use bad grammar? Would it matter if the captions were spelled incorrectly? To them, may not one jot, but it's a matter of pride to fix things that are fixable. I find the notion of knowing there are errors and NOT fixing them unacceptable. In the past, for deadline reasons I have had to accept it, and every single time I see it, I cringe. The camera work I mentioned on Prince Harry - I'm not sure I'd want my name as cameraman, because it's out there for ever.

Only accept camera shake if it's appropriate to the action within the scene, because camera shake is then part of telling the story. There are reasons why some productions use hand held shots for certain scenes, while in other scenes a camera dolly or high end stabilizing system is used in the same film. Kubrick makes full use of this.

It becomes more noticeable on a large screen, against a small screen, sometimes to the point of inducing sickness.

As the filmmaker, you should be more aware than the average person.

Okay thanks. For the next one I will try to get a better gimbal operator then, if that's best.

As for this one, I don't really feel like spending the money on sending it into a lot of festivals, but the person who hosted it and wrote it is really excited and wants to go in on it half and half with me. I kind of feel like telling him that if he wants to send it in, he can, but I am not interested in spending much of my money on the festivals, cause I feel that money could be used on future projects of mine.

Would that come off as a bad impression of I told him that, or am I denying myself exposure by not sending it into many?

Exposure never paid a bill! If he's willing to invest, take his money.

Enter it as an early bird entry to some festivals, local ones are good starting points.

Paul R Johnson said:
"I'm a heavy Cubase user, and audio wise, I colour code my projects - looking at the screen, clips go from green to red, so I can see which takes are better - I wish we could dob this in Premiere - it would help me to keep quality up."

I gather you can in Premiere: Google for "Flags, Markers & Clip Colors" and you may find some information on this. Someone mentioned this to me.

Brian - if you're right I will kick myself silly! I bet you are!

I can't guarantee the accuracy, since I'm just passing it along.

Dumb, plain Dumb! Highlight the clip, right click, select label, and pick a colour! This would have helped me so many times ............. Stupid I didn't even think to look properly.

Lots of things are hidden away in programs, they just need digging out.

Enter it as an early bird entry to some festivals, local ones are good starting points.

Oh why early bird, is there an advantage to that?

An early bird entry is cheaper.

Oh right, that makes sense, thanks.

Are there any festivals that would be more open to my this kind of short film, since it's more of a video essay? I was told by one person, that Europe is more open to that, since they are more political and I should market it there more, and they are also accepting of movies in English if I do, if that's true?