The Magic of Editing

There are three different ways a movie is made: In the writing, in the filming, and in the editing. The writer may have a different idea in his mind than the director does of how the movie should look, and the editor may have a different idea than both of them. Unless you are the writer/director/editor, chances are the visions won't match.

Having just finished my (for lack of a better word) 'remastered' version of 'The Visitor' (more on that later) my cameraman came to me, and needed my help with some shots for a film he is making. I had no idea he was currently filming one himself, so of course I would offer to help (I think it's important to help those who want to be filmmakers, to help them out if you have the knowledge and experience to). We spent an hour working on a couple shots, and then he asked me if I would be interested in editing it for him. Having no plans to film anything else until November (more on that when the months progress), I said of course. Having no idea what the film is about, and with no script or plot line, I looked at the footage like it was a puzzle piece without the box that shows the complete picture. This is not an ideal way to edit someone else's film, typically it's a lot better to read the script so you have an idea of the storyline, and then work on an assembly, and work with the director along the way to fine tune it. With this film, it's a series of shots with no real connection or dialogue in the film, which is liberating and frustrating: It allows you to basically create the film wholly on your own in terms of editing, but you have no guideline to go on. I've been working with my cameraman/newfound director on the edit, just so I can have a better idea of what he was thinking during shooting, the themes he was trying to get across, the journey the character goes through, etc. I came up with the idea to overlay the film with classical music themes to accompany the images in order to help create an emotional mood (Some fantastic films have done this, 'The Tree of Life' comes to mind). Currently, after discussing with the director and looking over all the footage, we have come up with a general storyline which allows me to create a film that will have a story while still following the themes he wanted to explore.

Editing is like playing in a filmmakers playground: you can bend space/time; enhance a mood; create an actors performance; through editing you can make the same scene funny or scary or dramatic, just by the way you choose to edit that scene. If you are ever stuck editing a movie, or want to try editing out, there's some great films to watch that are remarkably edited: The Tree of Life, Memento, Requiem For a Dream, Breathless, Lawrence of Arabia, Inception, The Social Network, Bullet, JFK, Black Hawk Down, and Traffic.