Movies with bad editing

[Rocco Rocco]

It’s tough because what you might interpret as bad editing could be a number of things like bad framing, bad sound, bad lighting etc. It’s also noteworthy that “bad editing” doesn’t necessarily mean bad editor. The Producers and Director can all have heavy influence in an edit suite.

Having said that, one thing to look for is bad rhythm. Or no rhythm. I thought Transformers 2 was horribly edited. Seemingly no lulls; all fast WHAM BAM in yer face. In contrast, The Terminator is made with impeccable rhythm; there are as many slower scenes as frenetic, high energy scenes which overall means a more emotionally involved (tense) film. I felt almost no tension in Transformers 2 despite the fact that the protagonist has more robots or whatever to fend off. That’s not a rule of course, but rhythm is something that only the editor has control of.

[Mike Smith]

There is lots of bad editing out there, – though one person’s fundamental breach of film grammar is another’s new wave.

You’ll probably want to look away from the mainstream studio product, which whatever its story or imaginative framework(sometimes great, sometimes not) is rarely less than excellent in technical execution.

But the budget movies on the indie circuit vary enormously, and often the money just wasn’t there for a fully resourced shoot and technical polish.

A step down from there, try getting to see a wide range of home movie or enthusiast amateur video groups, and decide for yourself what constitutes good and what is bad.

[Grinner Hester]

A bad edit is simply an edit without intention. That is to say, cutting for the sake of cutting… well, you’ve seen 80s music videos. But as long as every edit simply enhances feeling or shows the best take or shot, man there is no need to over analize. I’d say your best bet for what not to dos is your local Blockbuster store. Grab the most unknown horror film you can find. Anything with a screaming girl with blood on her face as the cover. Bad acting is not easy to edit so this is your best resource in this case.
That said, man just make some random ass cuts then watch it. Then ask yourself why it’s bad. Once you realize it’s because it was random, you can go back to story-telling. Second guessing yourself will not only take more time, it’ll make it less fun and that will always render a sub-par product.

[Mark Suszko]

Watching anything critically will make you better. Pick something like a soap opera and watch it with the sound off. Soaps are an intersting case because due to the incredibly short timelines they work on, much of it is live-switched, then if needed somebody does a quick erpair in non-linear. Try watching with the sound off and calling the camera shots out loud at the poitn *you* think they should happen. See if you soon pick up the director’s rythm or if you stay divergent. Either way teaches you something.

Mym wife often catches me watching something bad on TV and invariably I tell her that A: it makes me feel superior knowing I could do that better and B: it is a fun exercise to learn from other’s mistakes as well as their good work, to think about how I would approach the same problem differently.

[Tony Stampalia]

I recently re-watched “Unfaithful” edited by the extraordinary Anne Coates. I found a few edits to be what I call ‘self-conscious’, i.e. calling attention to themselves, jumpy, unmotivated instead of adding to the rhythm and flow of the film.

I can say the same for a few edits in “The Departed” edited by Thelma Schoonmaker.

[Jason Diebler]

I also noticed a bad edit in “The Departed”… I think it was a continuity problem, where there was no shot to give a proper match cut.

Tarantino’s “Planet Terror” (1st of the Grindhouse movies) has some very intentional bad editing… makes you think 70’s B movie. It’s so bad that it’s great!

“The deepest blues are black” – Foo Fighters
(this doesn’t help me when I’m chroma keying!)

[Chris Bové]

[Jay Huubs] “can someone suggest some movies with bad editing?”

Sure! – Any movie you’ve ever gone to see and:
– looked at your watch!
– said “this is dragging”
– said “OMG, this is REALLY dragging”
– was originally a Dean Koontz book

…or was titled:
– King Kong (P.Jackson)
– The English Patient
– There Will Be Blood
– Waterworld
– Troll 2
– Ishtar
– Showgirls
– Over the Top (Stallone – remember his arm wrestling movie?)
– Gumball Rally
– Dragon Storm
…I could go on…

HOWEVER, it is eternally important to watch these types of films. Doing so identifies what to do and what not to do. If you watch perfection all the time, you’ll never reach it!

______
/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Tony Stampalia]

It’s funny the two editors I mentioned – Coates and Schoonmaker – are both fairly older women. Perhaps that’s contributory.

I think Grindhouse is meant to be poorly shot and edited to evoke the feel of those 60’s and 70’s B-Movies. But honestly I’ve only seen bits and pieces of them..

[Tony Stampalia]

I’d disagree with some of those choices.

I believe editing does not contribute to the “how much longer is this going on?”

I just watched the Criterion release of White Dog and wondered when it was going to end. (And it’s only 92 minutes.) But the problem was a padded, unintersting story, not the editing which was okay.

That’s the same problem with Waterworld and King Kong. Too elongated a story. Not bad editing.

[Scott Sheriff]

What is good editing? Lots of answers to this.
Good editing, like good camera work, never draws attention to itself, and remains invisible. Example. Like the way your vision might shift around at a concert. You don’t just stare at the lead singer for the entire show. You look at the stage, the singer, the guitar, the crowd, back to the stage, and so on. In your mind it appears seamless. Good editing should appear seamless as well.
Anytime someone watching your work says to themselves “wow that was a cool edit/camera move/effect” or whatever, they have stopped following your story, and it isn’t all that cool after all. Even worse when its because it was a bad edit, like a jump cut.
If you edit long enough you develop a little thing inside your head that makes you jump when there is a bad edit, even if you are watching something casually. It just takes ‘seat time’.
It also helps to watch your stuff once without the sound, and listen to your sound editing without watching.