Season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and frantic editing?

[Dave Watterson]

This forum has been quiet for some time - though there are occasional flurries
of useful interchange.
Am I right in thinking that for many moviemakers this is the time for concentrated
reviewing of material shot in summer and now due for editing? Is this when
you revise the rough assembly of your holiday footage and try to cut it into
something suitable for public viewing?

For me editing has always been at the heart of the art of moviemaking.

There is lots of fun to be had in preparations and shooting - as well as
many frustrations - but usually those activities require a team of people
to cooperate. At the edit stage you can work alone or with a trusted partner
and take the time you need to get it right.

I know it is seldom easy, but do you enjoy editing?
Is it satisfying?
Do you like seeing the work/s take shape?

And the final crunch: when do you lock it off and say "No more!"?

- Dave (McCutter) Watterson

[Michael Slowe]

Since Dave is obviously bored let us stimulate him with some response to
his posting. (I may have pressed the wrong button and transmitted a blank
mail, sorry).
Yes, for me editing is the heart of my film making anyway. The shooting
cannot decide whether a film is going to be any good no matter what material
you get. Very often one can be surprised how something works out from very
un promising material and vice versa. No, I am not reviewing footage shot
on holiday, having only once ever tried to shoot on holiday- -in my experierence
you either shoot a film or have a holiday, never both!

Can't edit with "a trusted partner" but it is important to run rough cuts
past them for a second opinion. I agree editing is seldom easy, especially
if there are multiple options in cutting a scene, but wow, is it satisfying
if things work out well!

Very difficult to decide when the job is finished unless you have a very
tight story line and structure laid out.

Alright Dave? Others, join in for heavens sake to keep the boy happy!

Michael Slowe.

[Guest]

Some thoughts for editors:

"If you didn't shoot it I can't cut it"
Every editor at some time.

"From s**t you get s**t"
Ralph Rosenblum - When the shooting stops the cutting begins.

"Editing is never finished only abandoned"
Anon

"Nobody can tell at the script stage how a film is going to cut"
David Lean

Ned C

[Ken Wilson]

Hi everyone. Well now your talking! EDITING! What a vast subject and in fact
after the next issue of FVM due out in November, this will be the next topic
for discussion in my series. Editing is where the film is made or........
well, not, as the case may be. At present, I am up-to-my-ears in editng.
If it was celluloid and not tape, (being somewhat hobbit-like in stature,)
I would now have almost disappeared under the clippings. As it is, I am approaching
editing fatigue, but with a premiere deadline rapidly approaching, I must
press on regardless.

This week I have just finished what for me is an "epic". Final running time
is 25 minutes!! Was that loud "clunk" Albert falling off his comode? But
I am very pleased with it and can`t wait for the premiere night in November.
I have spent around 3 hours (plus) a day, for the past 3 weeks, cutting this
one. That`s somewhere around 60 hours of editing. Quite a bit! For those
who want statistics, we had five, 5 hour shooting sessions and ended up with
around 4 hours of material to cut from.(Title: DEADLY QUEST.)

I don`t know about the rest of you, but I quickly get that "gut feeling"
when a film is working, or when it isn`t. Sometimes you can be very wrong,
as you get carried away with the excitement of it all at the shooting stage,
but most often, you just "know" when something is going right and it "works".
Well, it does for me. The audiences and judges may have a different view,
but ultimately, you can only make the film how you yourself want it to be.

I seem to think it was Speilberg (or George Lucas) who said: "A film is NEVER
finished. It only gets abandoned". And there is a lot of truth in that.
Hence why I have a lot of films in different versions such as:
"The Director`s cut" (although the first one was the directors cut too!)

"Special Edition", "Competition version" (made to a time slot) re-cut (usually
to remove a shot or two when you have seen it the 10 thousandth time) and
so on.
Why am I not editing now instead of writing all this? Because it is 10.30pm
and time for bed.

Cheers;
Ken.

[Dave Watterson]

The idea that a single frame can make or mar a cut, a scene or even a whole
movie is intriguing.

One of my own favourite "ugh!" cuts is in "Chrous Line" - during the lead
man's big dance number there is a cut on his great cross-stage swing ...
turns out the chap hurt himself,Attenborough had to shoot around it using
the actions the star could manage ... and make the best of a bad job.

Any examples from your own films, other amateurs or pro films of dodgy cuts
which really jar?

McDave

[Guest]

"Dave Watterson" <david.filmsocs@virgin.net> wrote:

The idea that a single frame can make or mar a cut, a scene or even a whole
movie is intriguing.

One of my own favourite "ugh!" cuts is in "Chrous Line" - during the lead
man's big dance number there is a cut on his great cross-stage swing ...
turns out the chap hurt himself,Attenborough had to shoot around it using
the actions the star could manage ... and make the best of a bad job.

Any examples from your own films, other amateurs or pro films of dodgy cuts
which really jar?

McDave

Actually the whole of Chorus Line is a disaster, Richard Attenborough should
have stuck to drama. For some brilliant editing watch the opening sequence
of Chicago, this is packed with information and sets up the whole story.


Ned C

[Dave Watterson]

Percy Childs - indefatigable traveller who takes lots of our films to foreign
festivals and brings back various gems to ours - recently told me of his
worst edit.

It was in the early days when soundtracks were compiled separately on tape
and run with the pictures thanks to weird and wonderful meachanical synch
devices. The unusual part is that Percy often worked "blind". Someone would
watch the images and jot down notes of the contents and timing of each shot.
From that timesheet Percy would compile suitable music and commentary.

This movie was a newsreel of a local carnival procession. It was a rush to
get the film ready for a premiere in front of local big-wigs and sponsors.
Every sponsor had to be clearly named on the soundtrack. Percy did his stuff
and everything was rushed to the hall only minutes before the show ... no
time for a run-through.

All went well until there came a sequence of carvival floats passing a local
landmark. Percy had picked that as a time to mention one of the main sponsors.
The float with a bevvy of rather buxom young ladies on it came into shot
just as he thanked "United Dairies". !

Ghastly laughter and official horror all round.

McDave

[Cinema For Thurso Group]

Editing is a fasinating process. It's amazing how those original ideas we
have in pre-production either come together with Hollywood-shaking brilliance
or fall appart like a wet paper shopping bag.