Editing Theory 101?

[Ren Hinks]

My rules (after 29 years of this):

(1) Please yourself.

Make the program something you yourself would want to watch. When responding with a re-edit to comments that matter, re-please yourself again as well. (If possible – I despise wannabe Producers.)

(2) Satisfy your ego with good storytelling, not technicals.

Something technically difficult might be nifty for you, but have no effect on anyone else. Watching video and audio tracks separately is a great idea – people tend to respond most strongly to one of three things; visual, auditory or feelings. If all three channels tell a good story, you’ll hit a wider audience. On the other hand, if you’re creating station promos, knock yourself out.

(3) When there is repetition in the various critiques, pay attention.

People WILL give you a critical opinion if you ask them, otherwise they might like the piece just fine. I usually start with, “did you like it”, not, “what do you think”. And, if a positive comment is repeated, try not to remove that element on any subsequent edits. If possible, ignore random negative comments that are not repeated by others unless they echo your own sentiments. However, the Boss is still the Boss. (Did I mention that I despise wannabe Producers?)

(4) Know that you won’t REALLY know how well you like the piece until 6 months after you’ve finished it.

While in edit, the flashlight beam of your focused consciousness is very narrow and moves quickly, making it hard to imagine the whole room you’re rearranging. Molehills that become mountains in edit, usually become molehills again in time. In 6 months, the quality of the story will become apparent as you finally become a viewer.

(5) This is a highly subjective business – get used to it.

Try not to take it too personally.

ren

[Gary Chavez]

Lots of good advice here.

When I would work on a sweeps piece I always
watched the story without audio.
Its like reading copy out loud.
It really helps point out all the info you are intuiting/internalizing
without realizing it.
It can point out big holes in the project.

Personally, I never showed anyone a work in progress.
2nd guessing yourself in the middle of an edit
can really derail the whiole project.

Also, take breaks before you need them, stay freash.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Tom Wolsky] “Always leave something obviously wrong in it”

Ah yes, the old “hold-back” negotiation technique.

“In this new contract we want your guys to:
work a 40 hour week,
take a 55-minute lunch,
write a 100-word essay on job safety on the back of each timecard, and
take two 15-minute coffee breaks a day.”

Hmmmmmmm.

[Ed Dooley]

On my own long form projects, me either. On my corporate gigs, there’s usually a requirement to review a draft, which as I’ve said can be a good or a bad thing. On my very first project we had a focus group for a 1 hour kids film. One filmmaker friend reviewed it and said “It’ll be great when you cut it down to 30 minutes”. I totally ignored him, and the 60 minute film went on to receive great acclaim (and 200,000 units sold!).
Ed

[gary chavez] “Personally, I never showed anyone a work in progress.
2nd guessing yourself in the middle of an edit
can really derail the whiole project.”

[Michael Benton]

Thanks everybody. Theres some really good ideas out here.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Ed] “On my own long form projects, me either. On my corporate gigs, there’s usually a requirement to review a draft, which as I’ve said can be a good or a bad thing. On my very first project we had a focus group for a 1 hour kids film. One filmmaker friend reviewed it and said “It’ll be great when you cut it down to 30 minutes”. I totally ignored him, and the 60 minute film went on to receive great acclaim (and 200,000 units sold!).
Ed “

Oh, I don’t know, editing can help focus some things:

[Ed] “On my corporate gigs, there’s usually a requirement to review a draft, good or a bad.
My first project (1 hour kids film) had a focus group. One filmmaker said “cut it down to 30 minutes”. I ignored him, the 60 minute film went on to great acclaim (200,000 units sold!).
Ed “

🙂

[Mark Suszko]

On corporate gigs, remind yourself (and the peanut gallery people bringing in extraneous requirements) that the only guy you’re taking a change note from is the guy/gal that signs the check. Not the guy who brings the check, the guy who SIGNS the check. THAT is the person that needs to approve things. Tell the kibitzers to take it up with TGTSTC if they suddenly wanna mess with a pre-approved plan.

I’ll never forget one approval meeting I went to: the guy we had to please looked at my work, scripted by a professional, edited I must say with consumate skill by myself, overall, a really good piece of work. He started to lay out a list of the most inane, wrong, and misguided critiques, along the lines of the famous scene from the film ‘Amadaeus’: “too many notes”.

He told the attendees of the meeting he knew all about this kind of thing, having reviewed movies once for the college newspaper.

But he was TGTSTC, and so we made every stupid change. Oddly enough, after reviewing the “director’s cut”done to his specs, he had his secretary call us back a week later to say “go with the one you broght in the first time”.

Apparently, he’d taken “his version” home to show the wife, who promptly described it as, well, you know…;-)

[Mark Raudonis]

[Ren Hinks] “(3) When there is repetition in the various critiques, pay attention. “

Often you will find several people having different comments about the exact same spot in the show. Frequently, these people can’t articulate what’s bothering them, so you hear things like, “The music sucks”, or “I didn’t like that transition”. What I’ve found over the years is that they’re identifying a SCENE that doesn’t work. It’s your job to figure out why. They’ve just found it for you.

We always have internal screenings of every show before it goes out to the network. Everyone in the USA is an EXPERT on TV. We watch hours and hours of it every day. We know what works. What doesn’t work. What we like. To ignore these “experts” is to ignore a valuable resource to help you shape your show.

mark

[Joe Paolo]

I usually ask, “How long do you think it is?” If they think it’s shorter than it is then I feel confident it held their interest.

joe

[Herb Sevush]

RULE #1: Never show a “work-in-progress.”
RULE #2: If you ask for an OPINION from someone they will feel obligated to give you one, even if they don’t really know or care.

Matte –

I agree with rule 2 but totally disagree with rule 1.

I find it very valuable to sit through a screening with someone who has never seen the piece before; but then I either don’t ask for their opinions or else just totally ignore them. What I find is that the experiance of watching WITH someone else helps me to see the piece with fresh eyes – sort of an empathic reaction to the other viewer. This is the power of the screening.

Whom you’ve picked changes the weight I give to the opinion of the screener: I’ve pulled in janitors, bookeepers, fellow editors and producers ( a list I just compiled in descending order of the value I give to their imput.)

Also the screener must be cherry – once they’ve seen it they loose their value to me.

The exception to all this is if you are blessed to be working with a simpatico producer. For this pleasure I will even work on a flat.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions