Deep Dives: The Rubric - Editing
Welcome to my first shot at a Deep Dive!
For our inaugural Dive I wanted to take a look at a lesser known but highly important aspect of filmmaking: editing.
What is Editing?
Let's start by trying to define a bit about what film editing is. Editing is known primarily as an invisible art form, but can come in many shapes in sizes. But let's just keep things simple for now. Editing is the process by which raw footage is 'stitched' together to form sequences, then full scenes and eventually the entire film.
The amount of raw footage will vary wildly by movies. Not only does genre play a major role in the edit, but the director's style will also have an influence. Clint Eastwood, for example, is notorious for using very few takes when he is shooting and thus will have minimal raw footage. Matt Damon on his Hot Ones interview humorously recalled that while filming Invictus he asked Clint Eastwood for a second take to which Eastwood responded, "Why, so you can waste everybody's time?"
David Fincher, on the other hand, is highly meticulous and is known for painstakingly filming a scene until it's perfect. When commenting on his style and reputation in an interview, Fincher said, “My philosophy is you spend $250,000 on a set. You put it on a sound stage that costs $5,000 a day; $8,000 on lights; $150,000 on crew; actors from all over the world. And the idea is to get them out as soon as possible? That doesn’t make any sense to me. I want to make sure we get it. I don’t want to have to say, ‘Well, we tried.’ My process is to give 17, 18, 25 bites of the apple.”
Now for most films, the average shot length is only about 4 seconds long for an action film and can range up to 15.7 seconds for a horror film. Total shots taken varies from an averages of 491 in documentaries and up to 1,913 on an action movie. Point being that while genre and style have an impact on the amount and time of takes, most editors are going to have a mountain of raw footage to sort through and eventually composite into a coherent product.
The bulk of editing work is going to occur after principal photography has wrapped during what is known as 'post-production'. During post, the director and editor (plus whoever else needs/wants to be involved) will spend weeks, months and sometimes years painstakingly piecing the movie together.
Of course the script is going to have a major influence on the editing of the film, but many movies have completely changed during the editing process. Steven Soderbergh's neo-noir thriller The Limey reportedly changed heavily during its post-production. After the initial cut (which closely followed the conventionally structured screenplay) was deemed 'a dud', Soderbbergh and his editor Sarah Flack rebuilt the film from scratch. Instead of following the original linear draft, they restructured the films narrative and in doing so were able to build on concepts and tension that were previously missing.
In other instances, problems during principal photography can be fixed by a good edit. Steven Spielberg's Jaws was not just a popular and commercial success, but it is regarded by many as a horror masterpiece. However, the great white shark that serves as the villain of the story was a complex practical prop that was difficult to film. The raw footage that emerged from principal photography was reportedly extremely fake looking and broke immersion. The film's editor, Verna Fields, decided to decrease the amount of screentime dedicated to the titular villain shrinking actual shots of the shark down to only 4 total minutes over the course of two hours. The resulting absence of actually seeing the shark and the subsequent tension it built gave us one of Hollywood's greatest films ever made.
Techniques of Editing in Film
I'm going to borrow heavily from StudioBinder's review of film editing here and highly suggest you give their YouTube channel a visit if you haven't before (here).
1. Continuity Editing - the process of ensuring a scene retains its proper flow and cohesion. For example, ensuring a certain Starbucks cup doesn't end up on the table of your medieval era table while discussing certain games and certain thrones. (Example)
3. Cutaway - This is a popular technique that can play out very differently depending on the genre of film. A cutaway refers to an abrupt cut from one thing to another. In a horror movie, this might be utilized to induce a jump scare from the audience. In a comedy it might be used to highlight an irony or to emphasize a punchline. (Example)
4. Dissolves and Fades - I will lump these two together since they are very similar in nature. The basic premise is finding a way to smoothly transition from one scene to the next. In the case of dissolve, you overlap the visuals of both scenes during the transition. This could be for something as simple as 'looking cool' or may be more purposeful such as continuing a theme or conversation. Fades are similar but typically are used as 'fade to white' or 'fade to black' where the absence of visuals is what is actually helping the audience move from one place/time to another. (Example) (Example)
5. J&L Cut - refers to the use of music or audio to transition from one scene to next. Similar to dissolves and fades, the point is to help carry the audience from one place/time to the next. The only difference then being that a J-cut uses audio from the next scene to transition while an L-cut uses audio from the previous scene. (Example)
6. Jump Cut - A more abrupt technique where there is no continuity from one scene to the next. The film simply 'jumps' to the next thing. (Example)
8. Montage - one of the more well known types of editing tricks. However, montage has been utilized in countless different ways throughout film history. Typically, they are a shortcut to show audiences a rapid changing of time or progress in reference to the characters. (Example)
9. Shot/reverse shot - Again, this can take many forms but more classically seen in conversations where a character says something and then cuts to a reverse shot of another character reacting or responding to that. (Example)
The last thing I will note here: If you watched any of the examples, you will notice that a lot of these techniques are happening constantly throughout a scene. Even a simple scene could have multiple shot/reverse shots that leads into a cutaway and then the scene transitions to the next using a dissolve. This ties back to the very beginning - editing is an 'invisible art'. You are constantly being exposed to these techniques while watching a film and largely not even noticing unless something feels out of place or the edit purposefully stands out as stylish or cool looking.
A Brief History of Famous Editors
Editors, much like their work, often go overlooked. Most people can name at least a handful of famous directors, but ask them to name a famous editor and you will most likely get a long ummmm. I certainly fall into that category so let's take a quick look at some of history's famous editors.
Some editor's became famous for pioneering techniques. Sergei Eisenstein, for example, was highly influential editor/director from the trail end of the silent era. He is credited as the father of movie montages. You're welcome Rocky.
Some editor's become famous by having long standing partnerships with directors. Sally Menke was a long time collaborator with Quentin Tarrantino; editing every one of his film from Reservoir Dogs up until her unfortunate death following the release of Inglorious Basterds. Thelma Schoemaker, Michael Kahn and Lee Smith all have similar stories as long time partners of famous directors (Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan respectively).
Other's become the unsung heroes behind famous films. We already mentioned Verna Field's incredibly important contributions to Jaws. But there are many other such as Paul Hirsch who is credited by some as saving Star Wars: A New Hope after its reportedly terrible initial cut.
These invisible artists are behind some of your most beloved films and were essential in crafting it into its final form.
The Power of Editing
The last bit I wanted to talk about for editing is what inspired this particular Deep Dive. While I have been a life long fan of films, I didn't start to become interested in the process of filmmaking until I was older. One of the things that helped that passion grow was discovering video essays on YouTube that would dissect aspects of filmmaking in very engaging ways. One such video that I absolutely love comes from the channel Nerdwriter1. In it he contemplates what would happen to the movie Passengers (starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence) if you start rearranging the sequences in which the movie plays out.
Now, I will not be insulted at all if you take the opportunity to exit out of the Deep Dive now and just head over to his channel to watch it (click here). But, if you prefer a short summation I will give it a shot.
This very high budgeted sci-fi movie with a pretty original concept and starring two of the most famous actors of the time was largely regarded as a disappointment by critics and audiences alike. So what went wrong? For me, (and others) the film felt like it missed a major opportunity to create something more interesting. In Nerdwriter1's video he breaks down a seemingly easy fix that either the editor or screenwriter could have tried to help elevate the tone and plot of the movie.
Just to quickly get you up to speed if you haven't seen the film: A colony spaceship full of passengers bound for a new planet are in a state of hibernation. Chris Pratt's hibernation pod malfunctions during the journey and he wakes up almost a century too early. For the first act of the film you follow along as he explores the ship, tries everything he can to rectify his situation, and then eventually fall into a deep depression when none of his efforts succeeds. Approaching act two, Pratt is face with a difficult decision: die alone or wake up another passenger. He chooses to wake up Jennifer Lawrence and then lies to her about what happened, chalking it up to the same error that woke him up. She goes through a similar progression of denial and anger with her circumstances, but eventually the two passengers begin to settle into their reality. As they get to know each other, they predictably fall in love. Eventually Lawrence learns the truth and the conflict ends their romance. Luckily for Pratt, the ship is suddenly subject to a series of major malfunctions that threatens the lives of everyone onboard. The third act then becomes a series of combined efforts to save the ship culminating with Pratt sacrificing himself and being redeemed. His life is spared and the two rekindle their romance to include living out a full life together until their deaths.
Okay, if you're still with me - this is where a great editor could have saved this film. Nerdwriter1 points out that if you rearrange that relatively straightforward, predictable and linear flow of the plot, you end up with a much more interesting film. Instead of starting the film with Pratt waking up, you shift forward in time to Lawrence waking up first. In other words switch around your first two acts. In the new version, Lawrence becomes the central point of view for the audience. The movie begins with a two part mystery: why is she awake/what is going on with the ship and who is this other passenger that is also awake. Now, through her lens, we try to unravel not just what went wrong, but what has happened with Pratt's character that we haven't seen. It also completely changes our view of Pratt. Before, the audience saw everything through his point of view. In particular we see him struggle day after day, week after week, month after month until he, out of complete hopelessness, makes a bad decision. We sympathize more with him. Now, in the new version, we lack that sympathy. Pratt turns from a sympathetic character into a monster.
From there you can keep the film still largely intact. Through flashbacks you could reveal slowly his turmoil and anguish. But it is a much more interesting move to try to redeem him now. Is it even possible? Should he be redeemed? What would Lawrence's character have done? The ground for character study and challenging the audience just feels so much more fertile in this new arrangement. Also the audience, as Nerdwriter1 points out, are much more active participants in unraveling the plot occurring. Tonally, the film also completely shifts. This arrangement could go in many different directions to include thriller or straight up horror.
So why talk about all this? Getting back to our subject matter of editing, we can use Passengers as an excellent example of how different a movie can be based on who is editing it. By doing something as simple as rearranging the order of the scenes that play out, we can completely change a film. We could change genres from crowd-pleasing sci-fi romance to a polar opposite horror film. We could change the way a character is perceived from hero to villain. We could change the tone from comedy to mystery. We can even alter the audience's perception of a performance by changing the POV.
Final Thoughts
Editing, on the surface, is a simple endeavor. Take raw footage, piece it together in the order they are supposed to be, and ship the movie off. In reality, editing as a highly technical expertise that utilizes a range of techniques and, in the case of great editors, involves the artistic ability of recognizing the multitude of ways you can alter footage in order to create the greatest effect on the audience. It is also an extremely collaborative effort. We didn't even get to touch on all the different facets of film that an editor must work with such as the sound designer teams and VFX artists.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first attempt at a Deep Dive and I hope to be able to do more of these in the future. If you want to learn more about editing, I will include links for all the info I used to put this together below.
Sources:
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-fincher-explains-why-he-shoots-so-many-takes/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaXma6K9mzo (Matt Damon Hot Ones)
https://stephenfollows.com/p/many-shots-average-movie
https://listverse.com/2022/07/24/10-films-that-were-rescued-by-the-editor/
https://collider.com/best-film-editors-of-all-time/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gksxu-yeWcU (Nerdwriter1: Passenger, Rearranged)
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-film-editing-definition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVR8zz8ci2k&t=5s (StudioBinder: Essential Film & Video Editing Techniques Explained)
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