During an edit, you will watch scenes over and over as you cut, and you will likely view the whole film from start to finish a dozen times or more. Keeping yourself fresh, and not becoming over-familiar with the material is a difficult, but essential skill for an Editor.
The Importance of Objectivity
A big part of editing a film is deciding what information the audience needs. Too much is boring, and too little can be confusing. Most viewers will only watch your film once, and you need to carefully chart what they know and understand, and when, in order to make the film as engaging as you possibly can.
The Director, Writers and Producers will have been working on the film for months even before the shoot begins, and will sometimes become so familiar with the material that they’ll begin to forget what it’s like to be watching as a new viewer.
As the Editor joining the project, you can bring valuable objectivity. Your initial reading of the script will often happen shortly before the film goes into production (perhaps earlier if you have a working relationship with the Director or Producers). You can bring a fresh pair of eyes to the project at this point, flagging moments that are unclear, or don’t make sense.
However, as the weeks and months of the edit go on, you’ll become so familiar with the material that you too can easily begin to struggle with seeing the wood for the trees. It’s all too easy to make assumptions about what the audience will understand, or start forgetting some of the important context they may need.
Reading the Script
When you first receive the script, you’re in a position you’ll never be in again on the project: you don’t know what happens. Usually, you’ll be told a brief premise or synopsis of the film, or perhaps even just the genre, but for the most part, you’ll know almost nothing about the film or its story. It’s important to make the most of this situation by putting the time aside to do a full uninterrupted read-through of the script.
Try if possible to read straight through from start to finish, perhaps making a few quick notes as you go about things that aren’t clear, or questions you have for the Director. Once you’re done with this first pass, add anything to those notes, regardless of whether they’re questions for the Director or just yourself.
These notes can cover a few categories. Obviously, if there are points in the story where you’re confused, or bored, that note is valuable. Is the tone clear, and are the characters engaging? Which moments were you most and least engaged by? Which elements are you most concerned about? These notes will be a mix of questions you may want to ask to clarify things with the Director, things you’ll want to keep an eye on during the edit, or things that might need fixing.
Referring back to these questions when you’re deep into the edit can serve as a reminder of what a new viewer may be thinking while watching the film.
Watching Footage
The second time you’ll be freshest is whenever you hit play on the rushes. That first watch of a take is another valuable moment, and it can be useful to record your impressions at this stage too. If there’s something in a take or performance you like, or find interesting, make a note of it, because you may see this note in a few months’ time and realise that you’d forgotten about something interesting in the material.
Most Editors will wait until they’ve watched the footage before starting to build a scene. Even though you’ll probably be keen to dive in and start cutting, I find it’s best to make sure you’ve watched everything first. That way, you’ll be sure you’ve seen all the material. It’s also important to understand what the material is telling you, rather than just imposing your own set of ideas on it.
Viewing the Assembly
The third and final time you’ll have some freshness to the film is when you first watch it as a complete movie. Obviously, by this point, you know the story intimately and will have spent days and weeks watching and shaping rushes, but this first viewing of the whole film will be the first time you’ve seen it in this form. It will feel different to what you’ve seen before, so it’s important to pay attention to how you feel about the film at this stage.
Often you will spot problems you hadn’t even considered, or elements that felt right in the script and while building the assembly, but just feel wrong now. Watching the film as a whole for the first time is an important opportunity to understand what the audience will experience. Not just for you, but for the Director too.
Feedback
One of the best ways to maintain freshness, is simply to show the film to other people. After all, there’s no-one fresher than someone who hasn’t seen the film before. Send the cut to trusted friends and collaborators, and ask them to provide honest feedback. If only one person says something, you and the director should make a call on whether to follow the note or not, but if 2 or 3 people flag something, you should investigate. Asking for and receiving feedback is a whole topic in itself, but I would suggest to everyone that at least one informal round of feedback with parties unconnected to the film should be built into your edit.
You will naturally learn over time how to “reset” yourself before a viewing. Of course, you’ll never be able to completely take yourself back to the state you were in as a new viewer, but you can train yourself to feel moments and be surprised by things as you develop your skills and experience as an editor.
General Health
One important way in which to keep yourself fresh is to look after your physical and mental health. Being tired or distracted is going to diminish your creative faculties and make you a less effective editor, and it’s probably going to make you a less pleasant person to spend time with in the cutting room too. It will reduce your patience for changes, and your stamina when you need to do those last few long days to meet a deadline.
Make sure you build into your day some kind of exercise, that you drink plenty of water, and remember to take breaks away from the computer. Also try to ensure that you get plenty of sleep. It’s becoming increasingly clear that getting enough sleep is enormously important to both your short and long-term health. Getting enough sleep also allows your brain to reset overnight, and makes you a more creative problem-solver.
It’s not just about physical health though, make sure that you carve out time for other activities which will take your mind off the project. While laser-focus on your work might help in the short-term, giving yourself the time and space to watch other films, read books, and listen to music will help you to stay a well-rounded filmmaker.
Come Back Tomorrow
Sometimes, you just need to know when to call it a day. Editing is a creative activity, and even though it sometimes feels like it, you’re not on a production line, and working for another hour won’t necessarily produce X amount of extra work. If it’s late in the day and you’re struggling to get a section to work, move on to another part of the film, or shut the computer down, and come back to it in the morning when you’re fresh. More often than not, you’ll find that the bit you were struggling with yesterday now suddenly falls into place with just a few simple changes. Changes you were too tired to see the previous day.
Pausing the Edit
If stopping for the day can help you to find solutions to problems, how do you spot those problems in the first place? Especially if you’re so close to the film?
One thing which I find extremely useful to do, but that is unfortunately rarely possible, is for everyone to take a proper break away from the film. Ideally, in every edit there would be a break of at least two weeks where the Editor and Director down tools, go on holiday, or work on something else, and then come back to the project having been away from it, and most importantly, having not thought about it.
This reset period can be the antidote to the problem of being too close to the film that you can’t see it for what it really is.
Tricks and Tips
There are also a number of simple little tricks you can use in your edit software to reduce your familiarity with the film. Try flipping the image left to right so that the film is literally the opposite way round, or reduce the saturation until it’s black and white.
Watching with other people is also an important familiarity tool. As soon as you start watching with other people, even with the Director, the film will feel different, somehow unfamiliar. As a bonus, watching with other people will also allow you to read their responses to moments, see if they’re laughing at the funny moments, or getting emotional at the bits where you’re trying to tug at their heartstrings (whatever heartstrings are).
It can also be helpful just to watch the film in a different space, or on a different screen. Watch it in a screening room, or from the client sofa if you’re in an edit facility. Or play it on your TV at home, grab some popcorn, put your feet up, and view the film as you would any other movie.
For answers to other key questions on your editing work and career, check out other posts in the Advice category.