So, to summarise where you are entering this stage: you’ve assembled the script cut, worked with the Director to create a version of the film they imagined before they walked on set, and you’ve fixed as many underlying narrative, performance, or structural problems as you can.
Ideally, you and the Director have had a productive, open, and honest time looking at what’s in the material, acknowledging its flaws, and doing your best to turn it into something you are both proud of. Now it’s time for the next big step: taking the film out of the cutting room and showing it to other people.
Preparing the Cut for Screenings
This next stage doesn’t really have a name that’s in common usage, but as it’s the point where the Producers will start giving notes and the edit will begin to be shaped towards their demands, let’s refer to it as the Producer’s Cut.
A lot of Editors will be hyper-aware that most Producers and Execs don’t like to watch rough and ready versions of a film, so they will make sure that there is a certain amount of cleanup and polish done to the cut before screening it. Directors can also have rather low opinions of Execs especially, and want to ensure that their “lack of imagination” doesn’t distract from the more important issues.
Preparation and mitigation will include smoothing out sound transitions, adding in sound effects and music, and temping VFX shots. No matter how much polishing you do, there will always be notes asking if the film is going to get graded, if some issue will be fixed with VFX, or if the music is temp or not.
I try to take things to a point where we’ve given enough clues for viewers to imagine what the film will look and sound like, and what the tone will be. However, there is always a trade-off. We would rather be spending time refining the cut, rather than adding elements that will be replaced once you picture lock anyway. This is why editors often turn this kind of work over to their assistants.
Screening the Director’s Cut
Screening any cut is always a delicate step of the process, especially when the audience may be seeing it for the first time. It’s nerve-wracking showing your hard work to other people, more so when a lot of money has been spent on it. On top of that, some of those involved will be concerned that their careers are on the line, dependent on the success or failure of the film (perhaps including yourself).
Your Producers will probably have seen the assembly, but they will likely have kept their notes on it to themselves, bar perhaps a conversation with the Director on where everyone feels the assembly is at. They should be aware that the assembly is nobody’s version of choice and that editing is a process, meaning it takes time to shape and hone the film, and that expecting greatness from the start is unhelpful.
Receiving Notes
Care and attention need to be taken at this stage to maintain good relations between all parties. After weeks spent in the cutting room, Directors can be touchy about feedback on their film. As the Editor, although you will likely have had challenging, honest discussions with the Director, a level of trust should have been built up between you.
Producers and Executive Producers however, have many responsibilities beyond the edit, and are rarely in the cutting room on a day-to-day basis, so it can be easy to consider them as outsiders, especially if there isn’t an existing relationship in place.
People often bring a lot of baggage to a viewing, having spent months or years involved in the process, and at this stage it can still be a little unclear where the Director will ultimately go with the tone of the film. Partly this is down to the edit still being a work-in-progress, but music and sound design will be temp, and it’s unlikely there will be any kind of grade done. Because of this, it’s easy for the Director’s feelings to get trampled on by the feedback process as people give their unvarnished thoughts on the film.
But hurt can also be a two-way thing, and care needs to be taken not to be prickly in a Director’s response to notes. Everyone wants to feel respected and valued, even the cold hearts of Producers and Execs, and so a standard response of “we’ll look at that” next to each note in an email can easily be seen as dismissive. A face-to-face conversation, whether in-person or digitally, is generally a better way to respond to notes. Nuances and discussion can be used, and all parties can communicate on a human level, less likely to offend than an accidentally curt email.
Making Changes
A lot of what the Producers will flag are areas they think are not working, either something in the edit, an issue that comes out of the footage (often performances), or a concern with an element or sequence looking “cheap”, or not making sense.
One of the skills you and the Director will be developing is the ability to make decisions on which notes to address, and which to explain away. You will be making creative choices, and sometimes others will suggest changes that don’t fit into, or contradict, those choices. Most Producers and Execs will understand this, made easier if the note is responded to with tact.
It can also be difficult to parse exactly what someone is trying to say with a note, so you will learn to deduce the “note behind the note”. In other words, the issue may not be caused by the element everyone is pointing their fingers at. The obvious example is an ending that isn’t working, not because there’s anything wrong with the ending, but because the setup early in the film isn’t right.
Private Screenings
Much like the Director’s Cut, at this stage you will be doing multiple passes on the film. Once you’ve shown the film to Execs, it’s a good idea to start showing the film to trusted friends and collaborators. What you’re looking for with these screenings is to get feedback from people who aren’t familiar with the film, and are prepared to give you an honest response.
One thing you’ll struggle to maintain as the edit progresses is a distance from the material. By this point you will have watched the film as a whole several times, and watched its constituent parts many, many times more. Although you will have your first impressions from reading the script and watching back the assembly, it will be impossible to ever watch the film again as a “new” viewer.
Difficult Notes
You’ll find at this stage that you will sometimes receive “odd” notes. People can become pre-occupied with a minor detail that you and the Director consider insignificant. Some of these will need tactfully adjusting or discussing, while others will fall into the category of “if the audience noticed that, then it means we’ve lost their attention!”. You then need to make a call on whether or not to address that note.
While it’s easy to groan and roll your eyes at notes from those not in the cutting room with you, I’ve found that there’s usually something in every odd suggestion or unexpected gripe. Usually, the odd note hints at some issue or nagging concern that the note-giver can’t quite put their finger on.
One additional hurdle in an edit is that sometimes you’re not just trying to get the story to work, you’re also trying to get the Director to accept that an idea of theirs just isn’t working. If you have comments from outside parties that support your concern that an element of the film is harming it rather than helping, this can sometimes make the discussion easier. Of course, sometimes it works the other way too, when something you have been flagging fails to elicit a mention in any of the feeedback and you decide not to push the issue any further.
Expectations
This stage can be especially challenging when Execs feel that the film is not what they were expecting. Walter Murch talks about Execs being alarmed to find that the film they’ve just viewed is not the film they thought they were buying as his biggest frustration with the film industry. Whether it’s tone, casting, or delivery, there aren’t many ways around an Exec who thought they were getting something different.
I’ve experienced this on projects where this is a dislike of the concept of the film, or they don’t like the performance of the lead they were pushing to cast. Faced with this situation you can only do what you can, and endeavour to find solutions that shift the film as far as possible into what is “acceptable” for them.
This is where pickups and ADR come into play. Despite the impression the media may give, shooting new material or reshooting parts of scenes is quite common. Often additional shooting will be built into the budget, hence the term “Principal Photography”. Despite the skills and experience of the professionals making a film, it’s not always possible to get everything exactly right on-set, and sometimes additional solutions beyond what can be done in the edit are needed.
Whether it’s completely reworking a scene in the edit, shooting an additional couple of close-ups, or writing some new dialogue to play on the back of a character’s head, a big part of your job as an Editor is to be a creative problem-solver and to make the most of the material which has been shot.
For a rundown of all the stages of a film edit, check out our post answering the question How Many Stages Does a Film Edit Have?