Lets talk about Editing!
02-01-11, 06:46 PM
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02-01-11, 06:49 PM
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02-01-11, 07:29 PM
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Re: Lets talk about Editing!
A recent example of editing gone wrong, I think, is The Green Hornet. There were several scenes that had a very choppy feel to them, as though whole passages had been excised that would appear on the DVD release later as either an extended cut or as deleted scenes. Not only were there few organic transitions, but within scenes there was a frequent abruptness that kept me from ever really settling into the movie. I suspect it was done to inject a sense of energy and movement to the story, but I think they substituted a cleaver for the scalpel that would have been more appropriate.
It's really subjective, what constitutes adequate "coverage." Like someone mentioned above, you can have almost nothing on screen and create a terrific scene through editing and sound effects. But most of the time the problems are budget concerns and/or lack of planning. If you have a very exacting director who insists on certain angles and reaction shots, the budget and schedule can spiral out of control if those shots aren't feasible within a certain amount of time.
But on the other side you might have a director who defers completely to the producer and schedule concerns, just shoots the minimum requirements, moves on, and juices it up in the editing room. Even then, there just may not be enough footage to create seamless transitions.
A very bad habit of particularly young directors is to call "CUT" much too quickly. They want to move on to the next take or setup and don't let things settle before calling "CUT." Then you go to edit and all you have are these little bits of footage with no loose ends, so when it's cut together and things don't match from cut to cut, you have to trim or fiddle, and you lose important actions (or just leave it and hope the viewer doesn't notice).
Also can't forget the role of the script supervisor in maintaining continuity on the set. The director is fixated on performances, the DP on lights and framing, the sound director on sound, etc. Only the script supervisor is actually keeping track of what's on the screen from take to take. Bad script supervision can give editors sleepless nights.
02-01-11, 07:32 PM
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Re: Lets talk about Editing!
Obviously I can only speculate but I just felt as though the film had deliberately withheld footage, rather than was lacking it. Seth Rogen co-wrote the movie and was one of its producers, so I can't imagine him allowing his director rush along the shoot without getting everything he felt should have been shot.
02-01-11, 08:23 PM
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Re: Lets talk about Editing!
A very bad habit of particularly young directors is to call "CUT" much too quickly. They want to move on to the next take or setup and don't let things settle before calling "CUT." Then you go to edit and all you have are these little bits of footage with no loose ends, so when it's cut together and things don't match from cut to cut, you have to trim or fiddle, and you lose important actions (or just leave it and hope the viewer doesn't notice).
Also can't forget the role of the script supervisor in maintaining continuity on the set. The director is fixated on performances, the DP on lights and framing, the sound director on sound, etc. Only the script supervisor is actually keeping track of what's on the screen from take to take. Bad script supervision can give editors sleepless nights.
Also can't forget the role of the script supervisor in maintaining continuity on the set. The director is fixated on performances, the DP on lights and framing, the sound director on sound, etc. Only the script supervisor is actually keeping track of what's on the screen from take to take. Bad script supervision can give editors sleepless nights.
NOW being a bit older I do extend my takes by a bit. Letting it go as a continuous flow and then cutting from there. While my pre production is practically non existent (much to the dismay of my professors) at least my execution is pretty good cuz of the control of the camera and the strength of the image within the frame. What I probably need to do better is be willing to share my thoughts more often than just assume everyone will roll w/ it. What I do now is pretty much give a template to work from on what it COULD and SHOULD look like but not restraining them to work within those limits. I believe in the worst happening..so my shooting is very flexible when it comes to time. So...i'm very open to changes from what I intended...the problem is...nobody really knows what I intended until the day of. Were this to be a studio production...I wouldn't do that.
Obviously I can only speculate but I just felt as though the film had deliberately withheld footage, rather than was lacking it. Seth Rogen co-wrote the movie and was one of its producers, so I can't imagine him allowing his director rush along the shoot without getting everything he felt should have been shot.
Last edited by Solid Snake; 02-01-11 at 08:32 PM.
