MicroCinema Scene

Very rarely in the industry do filmmakers get to edit their own pieces. There are exceptions. The obvious ones are Robert Rodriguez and the Coen Brothers - who use the pseudonym “Roderick Jaynes” when slicing and dicing. But then there are the directors who “co-edit” their movies with another editor, like Kevin Smith and his uber producer Scott Mosier, or James Cameron who always edits alongside other editors.

On the micro-budget level, where the funding for the DV short is in the tens of dollars and not the tens of millions of dollars, there is the mythology that you should edit your own movie. Hell anyone with a $10 firewire card and a home PC 5 years out of date can now edit, so obviously all you need to do is learn what button to push. And this is why most DV shorts suffer, especially in the editing.

I guess for novice moviemakers, which we all were at some point, it’s hard to hand over such a crucial part of the moviemaking process over to someone else. And since the technology is so readily available, newbies often do not. Admittedly, some people have a natural knack for editing, so there are writer/producer/director/editors out there who certainly should do their own work, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Alas, there are those who cannot separate the objectivity of the big picture and the minutiae of the script versus the shoot versus the edit.

If you are one of those hyphenates that can edit a scene together, then look at the edited scene in the context of the movie and make a decision to cut out one of the best moments an actor gave because you realize that the scene doesn’t fit in the overall narrative, THEN SKIP THIS ARTICLE. But if you have what you thought was one of the funniest jokes ever on paper, and in your scene the actor failed to give a 100% great delivery, but you still use it because it “might” be good, then please READ ON.

There exists a misconception that you just hand the movie over to the editor and then wait to see if they edit it the way you want. The Editor’s job is to work with the Director and/or Producer while shaping the movie with the NLE chisel. An Editor brings objectivity and a fresh perspective to the table that isn’t there with a One-Man (or even Two-Man) show.

Since this article is geared towards more the extremely low budget movies, the first worry is money. An option for us No Budget Moviemakers is to help each other out. Find another no budget filmmaker and edit each other’s movies, rather than taking on the task yourself. Give each other that new opinion or fresh idea that might enhance the movie. Creating movies in a vacuum can hamper the outcome for the best possible movie.

Much like working with an actor to help shape a character, collaborating with an editor can help make a better movie. It may not be what you, the director, exactly intended, but movies are a team effort. It’s less about a director’s singular vision, and more about the story, the finished movie. Much like a character, the movie can take on a life of its own. Let it breathe by giving it some freedom, rather than making it choke on the ego of one individual.

Objectivity is difficult for a director when they head into the editing room. The director was on the set. He knows the actors and he remembers what happened on those days. This makes viewing of the raw footage a jaded experience. An Editor will look at these raw materials and will try to build something. Unbiased by the shoot, his only job is to make the pieces of the puzzle fit just right. Another, more basic concept is the job of the editor to “orient” the viewer. A director may not realize that the edit they did does not reveal the location or the positions of the characters because the director was there. As the Editor wasn’t on set, he will more easily recognize that there is need for an establishing shot give the audience a sense of spatial relations.

Some people learn through time and effort (read: practice) how to be objective. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier are two of the most brutal editors of their own work. They often will chop out that do not hold up well in the editing room. James Cameron also attacks his movies with fervor. To bring a movie down to its essence, he will cut out whole subplots in the editing room, even ones that cost several million dollars to produce (see The Abyss: Special Edition). Please note that on the big movies, even though a director supervises the edit, if there is a fight between the editor and director, the producer is the boss that has to settle the dispute.

Everyone should at least attempt to work with a separate editor once. You can find that a different approach or a new idea will only serve to enhance the story, which is what a movie is supposed to do: TELL A STORY!

Related Articles:

• Building an HD editing workstation
• 87 Topaz
• Pre-configured HD editing workstations
• The Scene: 5/09/07
• Three Little Words