Sony G90 manual Movies, Likely to get you, Directors seem to trust me to use my Into any trouble

guess, in working					movies,
with this kind of direc-					it works,
tor only once. Most of the					and it’s not
time I get few, if any, notes, and the					likely to get you
directors seem to trust me to use my					into any trouble.
abilities to select the takes and structure the sequence of					But it doesn’t necessari-
shots. (On at least two projects I had put the films into first					ly make for terribly exciting
cut before I ever met the directors in person.) This makes the					or dynamic moviemaking,
job more difficult because more challenging, but also more					nor does it allow you to avail
rewarding because more creative.					yourself of anything like the full
Different editors also work differently. Perhaps because			expressive use of the filmic language at your disposal. One of
when I first started editing in 1982, the editors I worked with			the most valuable lessons I learned from studying Peckinpah,
– Roger Spottiswoode and John Bloome – cut on a movieola,			for example, is how dropping back to the master shot or even
I continued to use one right up until I switched to the Avid			an establishing shot in the middle of scene can let it breathe,
computer in 1995, the way most films are cut these days. I like			or alternately can give it a beat that will then invest your
the Avid for the same reason I liked the movieola, as opposed			close-ups with even greater force and intensity.
to the KEM or flatbed: the quick access to all the footage.1 I’ve			Some editors and directors don’t like what are called
never been one of these editors who watch the dailies and			jump-ins and jump-outs, that is, going from one size to anoth-
take notes on the so-called “best” takes or readings, then build			er without an angle change or a cutaway. Yet this is one of my
or have their assistants build a “selects” reel and cut from			favorite procedures. These are, admittedly, difficult cuts to
that. For one thing, typically you watch dailies at the end of			make work, but when they do work, you gain an expressive-
what has been a long day of editing (if you’re the editor) or			ness that you don’t otherwise have. In the movie I’m current-
shooting (if you’re the director). Hardly the best conditions			ly doing, for example, Ron Shelton’s Play It to the Bone, Loli-
under which to be making editing selections. For another, I’m			ta Davidovich has a scene in which her character is talking
never really certain where I want something to be played until			about the things she enjoys. Ron covered the passage pretty
I reach that point in the scene. It’s all very well to feel that a			thoroughly, as he usually does. But there were two takes in
reading of this or that line was much better in the medium			particular, a loose over-the-shoulder looking at Lolita past
shot than in either the close-up or the master shot, but what if			Woody Harrelson and an isolating close-up, both from the
the medium shot is emotionally or psychologically the wrong			same angle, that contained readings that are especially effec-
place to be at that point in the scene? Perhaps the isolation of			tive. Lolita sustained the speech through both readings and
a close-up is what’s called for or the tie-in of the over-the-			either take could have been dropped in with hardly a second
shoulder or the distance of the master. Then you’ve got to			thought. If I had to choose one or the other, I would have
search through the other takes and find a reading that works			selected the looser angle because she is responding to some-
or alter the cut accordingly. I like to have the fastest possible			thing Woody’s character has asked her and it felt wrong to me
access to all the footage at whatever point I am in the scene.			to play the whole speech in the isolation of the close-up. Yet I
As important as individual moments are – in my opinion, they			also felt that the end of the speech is slightly more effective in
are the very lifeblood of truly vital movie-making – scenes are			the tighter angle and I wanted to play the whole speech on
more important, and you usually have to sacrifice the inci-			her, without cutting to a reaction and back again. So I simply
dental to the overall.			cut from the looser to the tighter angle at an unobtrusive spot.
Editing is a curious process of the intuitive and the intel-			The performance plays as seamlessly as if in one, but the shift
lectual, the instinctive and the ratiocinative. For every deci-			to the close-up gives the last part of the speech just the right
sion you make has both immediate and long-range implica-			subtle emphasis, drawing us closer to the character and her
tions. There’s an old saw – one that, dull though it has			dreams, than would have been the case had I been doctrinaire
become, is alas still in too much use – that goes, once you go			about jump-ins or, for that matter, had I worked with selects,
in, stay in. This refers to the classic way of editing a scene,			which would have forced me to choose one or the other take
where you begin with the masters, then move to the medium			before the cutting part of process began.
shots, the over-the-shoulder angles, going progressively			Do editors have styles of their own? I suppose they
tighter until you conclude with the close-ups. And			must, but I don’t imagine they can be very well
when you get close in, stay close in. You see a			The	defined ones, otherwise they’d be terribly
lot of cutting like this, especially in older		edit or	shoot s no	limited. As I think about my own, I can
certainly a serviceable way to edit					call them, as they’re nothing so hard
movies and quite a bit of television. It’s				state a few – preferences I’d rather
1 Takes are stored individually for a	new f oot age; w hat ev-				and fast as principles. I prefer my
					cuts to be as seamless, even as
movieola (i.e., an upright viewing -machine);
they are stored in 1,000-foot reels for					invisible as possible. I generally
flatbed viewing. The former obviously allows	er	he does w as in t he			like to knit the scenes internally,
film.
					which means that I prefer to have
for much faster access to a given piece of

f ilm all along.