The cutting room floor......

[MatJimMood]

I always find the editing to be the most rewarding part of film making. You get to finally see everything that you imagined start to come together.

The one problem that I have though is that after editing for a while you start to lose the ability to judge your own work.

It's easy to get depressed thinking that what you're putting together isn't as good as you expected.

I've always found it more productive to have a few days break after I've been editing for a while, before looking over the film and picking up where i left off

Also getting someone else to look over the film throughout the editing is helpful. They can help make sure that everything you are trying to get across to the audience is clear to someone other than yourself

[N. Foster Tyler]

If I've learned one thing about filmmaking over the past year, it's that editing is EVERYTHING. It's so strange, because while I always thought that the actual shooting of a film was of upmost importance (it still is, of course), the editing is where you actually decide what your film is going to be. You have to shape and mold it, sometimes into something that you never thought it would be during the writing and shooting.

On my almost finished short, MR. BLACK TAKES A SHOWER, after the shooting was complete, I thought editing would be a relative breeze. I thought I knew exactly what I had on my hands. It was during the cutting of the film that I realized that I had about 6 or 7 different possible films on my hands that could actually work (getting my message across) either way. I was in a creative rut! It took a really long time (and some money) to make all of the different cuts to determine which would work best for the film. In the end, I decided to merge some of the ideas and themes from a few of the cuts into one locked picture, while cutting a lot of stuff out that I thought would work great. But I had to find the best and most effective way in which my story should be told visually. It was incredibly hard and exhausting, but I think I licked it. It was just trying to make the best film possible with the footage I had, and I ended up with an almost totally different film (in terms of themes, ideas and style) that what I had in my mind while writing and shooting it. Strange, but amazing! I felt totally free on this movie.

I don't know if anybody else here works this way, and up until a while ago, I didn't either. I just realized that with this particular movie, I had to. It was my duty as a filmmaker to experiment and create the best possible film for what it was and what I had. I'mnot saying that my film is great, or even good for that matter, but I know that in the end, I accomplished what I wanted to: I got my point across. But, it'll be hard for me to watch this one myself for a long time, since I know I'll just be agonizing over the other possibilities that I could have, or should have chosen.

How do you guys feel about the editing? I'm really interested in hearing other opinions about the process.

Thanks

-N. Foster Tyler

[eddie]

Oh yes, editing is the secret side of filmmaking, cos there isnt much to say about it, but it is where the film comes alive.
It seems to me that your film is in there somewhere, amongst that mass of cuts and scenes, and it is the editors job to find it. No mean task.
The production side gets the most 'publicity' generally cos its the most exciting or easilly talked about part, but its in the edit suite where the film is really made....

Even if you have a definate clear picture during pre-production, and when on set you get those shots. Even then there seem to be too many variables, and unknowns to control everything. So when editing you have to find da rythmn.