When you reach the stage of editing your film you hav eto make some tough choices. You must essentially choose what you want to use from all the footage you have, and then take out all the parts that you do not like. It is where all the true film construction takes place, but without a keen eye as to what needs to be eliminated you can never get your final film completed. Learning what should be cut out is one of the most important things for a digital video filmmaker and editor to know.
The first thing that most people would think an editor would go after in a narrative project is to cut out all the unintended footage. This is not necessarily the case because there is no reason to cut out something that works but was just not planned. Instead the editor goes through the footage and finds all the things that do not work. This would be bad camera angles, performances that are sub-par, and any “mess ups” like a lens flare or something entering the frame. Go through all the takes, and use only the ones that look perfect to you. This means taking the ones that have the best representation of the scene, have the best visuals, the appropriate energy, and have an overall quality that appears the best. Discard all the other ones.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pudstah/466558457/
The next thing you have to eliminate are all the angles and takes that do not stay in line with your final vision. If two different editors edited the same footage with different ideas about what the final project should be it would end up being two entirely different films. Decide how each scene should run, in what order the audience should receive information, how the pacing of each cut should be, and where the themes you are looking for are best represented, and use only those takes and angles. The rest should be cut out completely as they are not part of your vision.