-
What is the single most important skill an editor needs to develop?
-
This is a fun and educational thread and I appreciate the discourse.
As you talked about going to and from low and high “energy”, and gave examples, I could think of a few more: the use of color, and the use of overall brightness. Some of this will be “baked-in” by the art director and the cinematographer; an example that comes to mind is the use of the color red (and it’s the -same- shade of red, every time, no matter the location) in the background of the most emotional scenes of “Broadcast News“. Once you notice it, you can’t stop noticing it.
But the editor of course controls the sequencing of the shots and can decide when to go from a shot with a limited color palette, to one that’s vibrant, or the reverse. And of course the famous lit-match-to-desert-sunrise cut in “Lawrence Of Arabia” shows something of the power of cutting between dark and light.
Maybe a case could be made for choosing the relative angle of the shot as well, changing from high or low to eye-level, etc.? Again, much of this is pre-set in the way the DOP chooses to frame and compose. But framing is half the answer; the other half is the sequencing and timing,.
-
Those are really interesting points.
I hadn’t thought about colours having relative energies in his context but of course they do (red has much more energy than blue, to cite the obvious example) and it’s something that hugely affects the cut. A lot of the time we think about grading to try and match shots to one another, but creating “energy contrasts” with colour is a fascinating idea.
Relative illumination is definitely another one that works. Cutting from a dark prison cell to a blindingly bright desert is an obvious “low to high energy” cut.
And there is certainly something to the question of relative angles (in addition to the point I made about shots sizes). The further we move away from a front-on 50mm mid-shot the more energy we add. High and low angles as you mention clearly have higher energy values. But I’d even argue that cutting from a front-on close-up of a character to the same size shot behind their head is a very pronounced energy jump. I think it’s also true to say that long lens shots have more energy than wide angle shots.
Lots to think about, thanks for this fascinating discussion.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
Late to the party, I know, but IMO it’s empathy.
As an editor you have to understand what the director/producer wants and why they want it. You have to understand what the characters in the film want and why they want it. You have to understand what the audience wants and why they want it.
If you can’t put yourselves in the shoes of all of those people you will have a very difficult time in the editoring chair.
-
-
[Simon Ubsdell] “That’s an absolutely brilliant answer.
I don’t think it can be bettered.”
Thank you, Simon. Every now and then I have a timely moment of clarity that I like to share with the world. 😉
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up