Chapter 5
Additional Skills
Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.
Helen Keller
So many times, I have watched a scene or film edited by a new editor, and end up thinking, “Yes, pretty good. It’s all there, but could we elevate the emotional experience? How could we laugh more, or cry harder, or be more surprised? Have we done everything possible to heighten each moment?” Have we infused enough subjectivity (watching events unfold through the eye of your main character), or have we approached the scene with a more objective view? Have we culled the dailies for every tidbit of emotion? Have we infused every moment-to-moment to tell the story as it reads on the page as well as the unwritten story?
Have we achieved excellence?
When you have finished your first assembly, go back through the dailies to see if you have missed any eye candy, better performances, facial nuances, impactful coverage and any eye contact between characters. Make sure you have exhausted every possible emotive response from the coverage and have included it for the audience. See if you have added every beat of everyone’s thought process, even if you have to create it by extending pauses. If you incorporate every moment in your first pass, you will be confident, and prepared for questions that will arise during notes. You can trim the moments that make the scene too slow, or lift out a created expansion during your final editor’s cut, but you will have archived the first pass that contains every possible moment of storytelling. I would rather have a note to trim a scene than be asked to infuse some tension or looks between the characters. It takes much less time to delete than to create a moment while there are people in the cutting room.
Picture editors are tasked with more than individual scenes: we are responsible for each scene’s connection to the prior and following scene— the transitions. Remember that every splice is, at first, an assault on the eye, and the editor must soften this attack with multiple layers of editing magic. Of course, there are times when you need to make the audience uncomfortable and use an edgy cut to your advantage.
The editor is also expected to add a multi-level soundscape—music and sound effects. We add chyrons, subtitles and credits to the scenes as well. Each additional tidbit of information (sound and picture) changes the length of time we hold a shot, and how long we allow the film to breathe while the audience’s eyes and minds are taking in this new visual or audio information. Since you have custody of the audience’s eyes, you need to determine the amount of time it takes your audience to fully receive this information. Remember, the amount of time is determined by the size of the screen. For example, theaters with large screens take a bit more time, several more frames, for the audience’s eye to digest all the information as opposed to the smaller screens in one’s living room.
Let’s take a look at some of the areas where you can excel, and what opportunities might arise as you try to make the producers take note of your existence.
5.1 TRANSITIONS
A script might have between fifty and two hundred and fifty scenes, depending upon the format. Let’s say that your current show has ninety scenes; that means that you have ninety-two transitions to come up with. From your opening cut or fade in, to the last frame of picture, the editor has to decide where to start the scene, what to end on, and how you will join the last image of scene 01 to the first image of scene 02. If the transitions are lacking in the script, if the director has not planned them, or if the producers or studio omit a magnificent opening crane shot due to length, then the transitions must be created by the editor. Whereas the first cut of a scene is the hardest, the next largest challenge is making sure all the transitions are seamless.
Usually, on the written page, there is a description of the setting for the new scene without much regard to how a visual transition from the previous scene will take place. For example, the script reads: Sc. 21 Int. Doctor Office. We know where we are because we read it in the script. But the audience does not know that. The editor hopes that the production will schedule and shoot an establishing shot of the medical building, or perhaps the director will shoot a sign that reads Medical Offices. To be fully prepared either way, the assistant editor should order a selection of stock shots. If the above alternatives do not work, then the editor can add a chyron that reads Dr. Jones’ Office, if that is an accepted device on your show. Whichever solution is determined, the editor will have to let the audience know where we are so that they feel safe and the sounds of the interior of the office might start to bleed through at the end of the establishing shot, preparing the audience to move on to the next bit of story. The sound pulls you in and gently pushes the story along its path.
In other parts of the script when we are moving from a dialog scene in the interior of a house to a dialog scene in the interior of an office, and we do not want to interrupt the story with a transitional establishing shot, the editor must conceive of a way to gracefully join the images from these back-to-back dialog scenes. If the characters are not talking about parallel issues in both scenes, and the two stories do not connect on any level, then this transition fix is up to the editor. Sometimes the director will carefully plan an opening and ending shot for both scenes. However, in my experience with some very fine directors, they plan the opening shot on a large number of scenes, and perhaps an ending shot for several scenes, but never for all the scenes. When the writer does not write the transition, and the director does not direct it, the editor will need to create it.
In my forty-three years in editing, I have had the great pleasure of working with two people who paid particular attention to transitions. David E. Kelley wrote witty, sound oriented transitions, and Mick Jackson directed incredible opening and closing shots for most every scene. On the pilot of The Practice, which I was lucky enough to cut for both of these creative geniuses, my favorite transition is when Dylan McDermott (‘Bobby’) spits into his paper cup, and instead of cutting to the cup we cut to a mop splashing noisily into a pail. This was all Mick. In all the scripts I have read through the years though, my favorite was written by Amy Spies (Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210, My Alibi). It was her feature, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and every scene was thoughtfully transitioned to the next scene with grace and humor.
Some of the tricks that we use for transitions:
• A stock shot—over which dialog is often pre-lapped.
• A wipe—a car-by, person-by, or moving object which helps to distract the audience’s eye from the cut.
• Pre-lap the dialog.
• Pre-lap the sound effects.
• Continue the music from outgoing scene to new scene.
• Use a person turning their head toward something.
If your subject matter is a comedy, the editor can use a wipe from the visual effect palette. However, if you are working on a drama, the only time a VFX wipe is good is when it is invisible and drawn to outline an actor or object passing by the lens with a matte, and followed by the incoming shot. Don’t get caught being too kitschy. Visual magic can be used only once or twice.
While you break down the script, add a breakdown of the transitions between scenes so that you will know in advance which ones will need close up coverage, wide coverage, a simple establishing shot or an interstitial stock montage. Identify in your breakdown which scenes present the most challenging transitions in your story. For example, in our breakdown of Mandy and David, you can see that we go from Sc. 03—Mandy makes cupcakes, to Sc. 04—David leaves home, says goodbye to his ill wife, Claire. As you read this in the script, you can imagine the last image that you might be on in Sc. 03; a CU of the icing going on the cupcake, or perhaps a wide master, that intimates Mandy’s feelings of solitude, and foreshadows troubled times to come. If the close coverage in Sc. 03 is great, then the transition to the next scene, the master shot of David seeing his wife alone in bed, fighting her illness with a brave smile, will be an effective way to tug on our emotional heartstrings. If you leave Sc. 03 in master, then a complementary angle for the incoming scene would be a CU of perhaps the medications scattered on the bedside table that surround a terminally ill Claire. These two scenes should be an easy transition with enough coverage. However, in Sc. 42 and Sc. 43, the editor is tasked with transitioning from Mandy to Mandy. If the director has shot only masters of these scenes, then the transition between the final shot of Mandy arriving at work and the first shot of Mandy in the conference room might be challenging. It could be solved with blowing up the master into closer coverage and jump cutting through it from one office to the next office (see Chapter 4.19). If the director has provided coverage, the editor might want to cut to the boss in the conference room first, with a pre-lap of sound, instead of a Mandy-to-Mandy cut. Unless the director has provided a well-conceived shot with this transition in mind, then the cut might be awkward. While breaking down the script, recognize this as a transition that would merit a note on the script for further discussion with your director before or after the tone meeting. Sometimes the director will ulen, and take the editor’s concerns and suggestions into consideration, when submitted in an organized fashion.
5.2 PLACING CHYRONS AND SUBTITLES
A chyron is a geographical and/or time title digitally generated (e.g. Los Angeles, California—1968) and is superimposed as a layer on your principle photography shot. The font is chosen to match the style of the movie, and often has a specifically chosen sound that accompanies it. They are brief, perhaps two seconds, depending upon the length of information, but long enough for a slower reader.
Chyrons can start at the beginning of the scene, or can be backed in from the end of the cut, or can be spaced in the middle of the cut. They can fade-on/fade-off, they can cut-on and cut-off, or fade-on and cut-off. Sometimes they can bridge two background cuts, as a styulic choice. They can be spelled one letter at a time or appear as a whole thought. Whichever style is set as a precedent for that movie, or television show, note that there is an art to its presentation. The substance of the story being told and the dialog in that scene, the composition of the background shot and custody of the audience’s eyes (see Chapter 3.5) should play a role in the editor’s decision about placement and duration of the chyron or subtitle.
The most important component in cutting your scene is the story. The editor must make sure that the audience’s attention is never drawn away from the forward thrust of events, and that they do not miss any crucial dialog due to the distractions of a chyron. With this in mind, the editor must place the added caption organically into the cut, in between the lines, or at least carefully integrated into the dialog so as not to detract from an important story point. The editor can always change the duration of the background shot to add the time you need for the audience to see the shot, hear the dialog, read the chyron and move onto the next cut. Sometimes, the cut is long enough to allow your audience to finish reading and then go back to the visuals before the next cut. Your aesthetic senses must guide your choices regarding fading in/out or cutting in/out. When in doubt, try it both ways, saving one as an alternative cut (alt), and then you will have preserved the other choices for the director and producers. If your picture is locked, and you cannot add to the duration of the background shot, then I like to fade my chyron in, but cut it off on the splice, without wasting twenty frames in the fade out. This also works in the opening credits.
When choosing where to place your chyron in the frame, if not constrained by precedents set by previous episodes, it is always a good idea to make sure that the composition of the shot is complemented by the chyron, that it is not fighting other visual information in the background, such as a sign post that must be read. Never let the chyron cover someone’s face. Try to balance the visual with this added information. For example, if your chyrons are on the left lower third of the screen, you might search for a background that is heavily occupied on the right side of the frame.
Remember, you have custody of the audience’s eyes, and you must always be aware of where you left their eyes in the previous shot. The editor should then choose the next background cut to help the eyes move fluidly. The same care must be taken with how, when and for how long you have the audience use their eyes to read the chyron, and whether you give them a long enough shot to allow the eyes to travel back from reading the chyron and continue to view the same background. The smoother the journey for the viewer’s eyes, the more elegant the effect will be. Of course, if you want your audience to be on the edge of their seats, filled with tension, you break these rules and do quite the opposite. It will create a frisson of excitement that lends itself to the storyteller’s purpose.
Placing subtitles, though similar in its rules to chyrons, is slightly more complex. The same rules apply as stated above; however, your task is further complicated by making sure the subtitles are accurately translating what is being said on screen and that the audience has ample time to read all the words without distracting from the ongoing action or sentiment of the scene. I find that cutting in your subtitles as you go, instead of doing a pass after you have cut the scene, will save you a good deal of time. Invariably, the duration of the cuts will need lengthening if you add the subtitles in after your first cut. I always ask my assistant editor to create all the subtitles, chyrons and titles before I cut a scene, so that they are ready to cut in as I go. All these preparations are unnecessary if you do not mind the subtitles bleeding over the cuts. I find this distracting because I feel as if I might have missed some visuals. In some cases though, it makes a cool statement. In general, the audience will look at the picture, hear the foreign dialog, look down to the subtitles to get the translation and then revert back to the character speaking. The editor needs to leave enough time on screen for this process.
If you have the responsibility of picking the font, the font size, the color of the chyron or subtitle, make sure you keep it simple. Remember you will be dealing with background footage that is sometimes dark or very light, and this becomes a factor in your choices. There might be times when you need to add a drop shadow to the font to help with visibility.
These are subjective choices. Take the time to watch films and shows that use chyrons (The Bourne Identity), subtitles (Covert Affairs) and pop-up text messages (Sherlock, House of Cards) and make a mental note of which styles appealed to your preferences. Steal the good ones.
5.3 PLACING CREDITS—THE MAIN TITLE AND OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE
The Main Title (MT) sequence in television is sometimes confused with the opening credits (OC) sequence. The MT is designed to be repeated each week. It usually remains the same throughout the season—unless an actor is written out or a producer leaves, and then names are omitted, and new names are added to the MT. The Main Title includes the title of the show, the returning cast, the creator of the show and the executive producers. It is often outsourced to a MT design company. Sometimes, the editing staff will edit it together and do such a great job that the producers go with it. It can consist of ‘beauty shots’ of actors, juxtaposed with a montage of eye candy pulls from exterior action sequences, or identifiable shooting sets from the show. Sometimes the Main Title is simply chyrons over a black background, or a set of artful pictures depicting the times and places visited in the film.
The Main Title most often follows the teaser—which is also referred to as the cold open. It is called this because it is meant to intrigue the audience with some juicy footage and a hook in the story, hopefully guaranteeing that the audience will stay engaged and tuned in. The teaser has no commercial advertisement before or after it, and usually cuts straight to the Main Title. Sometimes, the editor will be able to pre-lap the MT music into the end of the teaser to make for a smooth transition. After the Main Title, there is usually a commercial break, but the current trend is to join the first act of the show to the cold open, again designed to make the audience stay tuned.
Main Titles were once a minute in duration, though the network tendency currently is to minimize that time, and/or eliminate them entirely. In the early days of television, the Main Title was a welcome visitor in your living room, heralding the start of your favorite show with a well-recognized musical theme. It gave you enough time to make your way to the living room, find your seat, and grab a snack and drink. Those days are long gone. Now, the network likes to join together the very end of the previous show to the start of the next show. In theory, this prevents the audience from changing the channel. I love a good MT, and am sad to see them go.
The editor, assistant editor or the post supervisor place the opening credits (OC) over the beginning of the first act. If the editor places them before the show is locked, then he will be able to alter the background durations to allow for a perfectly timed credit.
It is oftentimes a battle to get the editors credit up front, instead of at the end of the show. Writers/producers generally dislike the length of the opening credits, fearing that it takes away from the story, and that the story has not really begun until the credits are over. The credit for the DP, production designer and the editor go as a group—if any one of these three people get credit up front, then they all do. With the length of the credits being a charged subject (the network gets into this too— sometimes not allowing credits to go beyond two minutes into the story), it is necessary to carefully lay them out so that the least amount of story time has been used, while making sure they are not popping on the screen one after the other in an annoying fashion.
As with chyrons and subtitles:
• The credits must fall in between important dialog.
• The credits must not be placed over an actor’s face.
• The credits most often do not go over a splice (starting on the ‘A’ side and continuing onto the ‘B’ side)—unless that is the style of the show.
• The overall opening credits must not linger for more than two or three scenes.
• The credits should be spaced out according to groups. For example, keep the actors together, the technical credits together (editor, production designer, director of photography), producers together, executive producers together and the writer and director together. For example, if you have all the actors divided into two backgrounds, except for the last person, and you place this stray actor credit on the next available background, it is best not to have the producer share this background. Start the producers on a different background. Then go back and divvy up the three backgrounds amongst the actors evenly so that the one stray actor at the end is not alone. The reason I pay close attention to these backgrounds is because I want to honor each individual for the work they have done. If your co-producer gets a credit up front—make sure you give them a great background too.
• If a credit contains two names or more, provide a wide enough background (e.g. a master) to make sure an actor’s face is not obscured, and you might want to add frames to the duration of the credit if there are three credits, so that the audience will have time to read everyone’s name.
• Protect your producers, writers and director with well-chosen backgrounds. You can let the writer credit or perhaps just the director credit bleed over to the final scene with credits for punctuation.
• Make sure there is a cadence to the application of the credits, so that they come in rhythmically, not on top of each other, but not too much space in between—we want them to end as soon as possible, but gracefully.
• When there is only space for one credit on a given background, choose your ‘in’ that allows the audience to orient to the shot (several frames) before introducing the credit. You can center the credit on the background if there are no specific emotional moments to guide you.
• Usually, television opening credits are 2:20 in duration—two seconds, twenty frames. ‘10 up and 10 down’ means that you fade in for 10 frames, hold credit for two seconds, and then fade out in 10 frames. These are numbers you can play with, as long as you honor the contracts the producers have signed—not giving one actor a longer duration than another. When a background duration is short, but you must use it for a title, then you can cut from the credit instead of fading out, thereby lengthening the duration of the screen time by 10 frames. When I do this, I use the splice to take the credit off—it makes it cleaner and smoother, keeping the credit through the last frame of the cut.
The opening credit sequence in a feature is a combination of what we discussed about the MT and the OC in television. Opening credits in features can be spectacular—they are often created by a bevy of talented MT designers, editors, cameramen, and many times the director designs the footage himself. There are fancy wipes, visual effects and graphic effects that support the sequence. Oftentimes, the picture editor is not involved with the editing—only in an advisory capacity. When the editor is involved with the placement of credits for the Main Title sequence of a feature, then the same rules apply as in television. The credits must not interfere with the story or the visuals. Their placement is choreographed meticulously to blend with the whole tapestry of picture, sound effects and music. Many times the editor has the added advantage of having a Main Title needle drop that has been licensed early, or the composer has written before the lock, and can alter cuts to fit the music perfectly. In many cases, the duration of individual titles as well as the length of the title sequence is longer in a feature than in television.
Watch some Main Titles of your favorite shows and movies. You will see how much attention is paid to MT artistry. Seven, The Mothman Prophecies and all of the Bond films, especially Skyfall, are my all time favorites. Choose your favorites and emulate.
5.4 THE RECAP FOR AN EPISODIC TELEVISION SHOW
In the world of television, the assistant editor is often tasked with cutting a thirty second to one minute reprise, which is also referred to as a recap. It is an opportunity to show that you can edit well, in a timely fashion, and take change notes with aplomb. It is also a time for you to bond with your producers and let them know that you have hidden talents heretofore unrecognized by them.
The first step in your education about the reprise is to watch as many as you can and decide what you like. Reverse engineer these reprises and note the use of sound pre-laps, sound bites, on camera dialog used in sync and as narrative over other shots. Check out the use of the eye candy, the heightened pace and the order of images. Are they in chronological order or character order? Styles vary, though there are a few cut and dried rules that I will share with you.
• Breakdown your script before you cut the recap. This way you know what storylines will need to be clarified for the viewer who might be watching the show for the first time. Unless this is a ‘stand alone’ show—one that has nothing to do with any previous episode—you must remind the viewer of events that took place in an earlier episode that are germane to the current show about to be viewed.
• Make a ul of the stories you need to touch upon in the reprise. When possible, ask the producer or writer for input about what they would like to include. This will help preempt unnecessary work. It does not happen very often, so do not be surprised when they have only a few suggestions.
• View the previous episodes that contain references to the story points you need to clarify. Pull all these scenes into a bin, then label and archive which story point they underline. Pull all sound bites that pertain to transitioning from the ‘A’ story to the ‘B’ and ‘C’ stories. Pull eye candy for action transitions and for pretty footage to put sound bites over. String these bits together, without intercutting the ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C’ stories. Save this as Version 1—uncut with all the coverage. Archive this cut so that when the producers do have notes about what should have been in the recap, you have already prepared it. Duplicate.
• In the duplicate cut, hone the important bits of dialog and eye candy. Cut the story lines that go together in order—start with one story— complete it, and go to the next story. Try to start the beginning of your reprise with a sequence that has the star of the film. Always end your reprise with the story you will be going to at the start of the show. Archive as Version 2. Duplicate.
This is a good place to stop and show a producer what you have so far, so that they can tell you which story points are not needed, and which story points they would like to add. Once they have a visual, it is easier for them to judge what it is they are looking for. Take their notes, and always infuse them. Do not interpret—yet. They have to see what they have asked for first.
• Find ways to transition from one story to the next. Use pre-laps, wipes, sound effects and visual treats to help. Archive as Version 3. Duplicate.
• In this version, pull out all the air in between sound bites. It is the same as a radio edit, no dead air.
• The choices made about what remains are as subjective as choices about music, so be prepared to have many versions.
• Use soundbites over eye candy that tell your story, not only sync dialog—be creative in this juxtaposition.
• Put a MX track under the reprise that adds energy, but does not interfere with the dialog ever. It is a quiet undercurrent that invites the audience in without them being aware of it. Be sure to make MX edits to support the shifts in the tone of the recap. Archive as Version 4. Duplicate.
• Show it to your producer for input before trimming any more. Check to see if you are on the right track. It is still long, but before you get it to time, you need to identify which story parts the writer/producers are willing to abandon. Remember to do the notes they suggest, whether you like them or not, and archive an alt if you have a way of helping their note editorially.
5.5 GAG REEL
When an assistant is asked to cut a gag reel, it is an opportunity to shine and please the executive producers as well as the cast and crew—and most especially the co-producer who is the head of your post department. After five or six times of cutting one, it will not feel like an opportunity—it will feel a bit like a burden.
The use of music is a wonderful way to make sure your gag reel is a hit. Remember, there are no licensing fees to pay, so you can choose whatever music you think is best, without the normally limiting choices you must make due to budgetary factors. Think big. Use score too, and steal from the best.
The most common gag reels touch upon:
• Bloopers—actor mistakes—trying to get a line right, and the repeated attempts, forgotten dialog, laughing through a take, camera problems.
• Expletives.
• Actors kissing, love scenes, dancing.
• Repetitive lines throughout the season (e.g. “I met him in France,” “I met him in England” or “I love you” said to various people).
• Use of slates for transitions, and in between flubbed lines.
• Actors looking at camera—grinning, waving, blowing kisses, making faces, talking to camera, winking.
• Crashes (remember ‘cause and effect’—use the projectile from one scene to get you to another scene).
• Beauty shots.
• Crew members—include post personnel.
One of the pitfalls is not including everyone on the crew. No one likes to be the one who was overlooked in the gag reel when you are all gathered at the wrap party. One other bit of shenanigans to avoid is showing actors being too flirtatious after the camera has stopped shooting. You never know whose husband or wife will be offended at the wrap party. And lastly, it is best to excise the footage of an actor misbehaving on the set—becoming angry or impatient with themselves or others—this might have been funny on the day, but out of context might make the person feel humiliated when viewed in a room full of his peers.
5.6 COMEDY
Are there rules about cutting comedy? I think so. But, like people’s taste in music, it is extremely subjective. Here are a few guidelines that I have gleaned from mentors, watching my colleagues’ work and lessons learned from films I have cut.
When there is physical comedy between two actors, (e.g. actor 1 hands the baby with a full diaper off to actor number 2), it is more satisfying to the audience to see this in a 50–50 shot. This shot is when the two actors face each other in a medium master—maybe ‘cowboy’ size—down to their thighs). This way you have shared with the audience both actors’ discomfort, as well as the funny visual of a baby being held by adults with poop issues.
This rule, about using the 50–50, is also helpful when there is rapid back and forth monosyllabic dialog. The audience can choose who to watch, and the dynamic between the actors is not lost in the cutting pattern. It helps to avoid the note “Seems a bit cutty here.”
Cutting out to the 50–50 for physical comedy is another way to reintroduce a master that most probably will not be used for the duration of a comedy scene. For example, the punch line of the joke will always be in close up. Watch umpteen sitcoms and one-camera comedies and you will see this is so. Make sure the pattern of your cutting allows for a natural integration of this CU. If the CU punchline does not cut well with the previous coverage, change the previous shot.
The cut after the punchline is also very important. This cut will either make the audience stop laughing so that they can hear the next line, or it can extend the laughter by cutting to a reaction that is equally funny. Be aware that you, the editor, have control over the duration of the laugh, whether it is extended by cuts to another actor, or if you progress the story and move on. Be sensitive to how long you can extend a joke before you kill it. Adding four frames does not necessarily make it funnier. Always leave the audience wanting more.
The editor has to pay close attention to the cut that follows the joke. The splice itself will make the audience stop laughing—unless you cut to a re action of an actor in the scene being amused, disheartened, appalled or laughing along. This will hopefully help the laughter continue. If there is not enough format time to add this laughter prolonging moment, the next cut should keep the story moving, without stepping on the joke time or losing too much of the incoming dialog.
Leave the audience wanting more applies to dramatic editing as well. It does not mean that you do not infuse moments that resonate. The editor must determine exactly how long you have ‘custody’ of the audience’s funny bone, and their emotional state of mind.
5.7 ACTION
The action scenes are the most fun to cut. Once you follow some basic rules, the prospect of putting together a riveting, nail-biting, edge of the seat, action sequence might well be one of the easier sequences to tackle as an editor.
Follow the ball
When you cut a sports scene, (e.g. a soccer match) the eye goes to the progression of the ball. This team is shooting for the goal left to right, and the other team is kicking right to left to score. We establish ‘sides.’ We have the team’s coach and on-lookers helping us confirm which way our team is going. The director, along with a team of stunt coordinators or sports consultants, has choreographed certain skirmishes that will allow one team to kick a goal, steal the ball, or tangle with an opponent and finally score the winning points. You support each skirmish with reactions from the crowds on both sides of the field, with their eyes looking in the proper direction. The use of the masters will help in reorienting the audience occasionally. Scoreboards need to be infused and updated during the match.
When in doubt, cut to the ball, and the person kicking the ball. No headless feet.
When you are cutting a different sort of action scene, e.g. a car chase, a foot chase, or a fistfight, you must identify ‘the ball.’ In a car chase, that would be the car. We have to establish who is in which car, who is in front or behind, how aware they are of each other, as well as their proximity. The biggest factor in a chase sequence is to clarify for the audience where our character is in relationship to the character chasing him. Using the shots that include both your characters is essential to infuse into your scene. The closer they are, the higher your audience’s blood pressure.
As in a dramatic scene, each cut should further the story. Multiply the importance of this exponentially in an action sequence. Always remember to keep your audience oriented—otherwise the thrill of nearly getting caught is lost.
The use of slow motion (slo-mo) is often a key factor in highlighting important moments. Use it wisely; it must be a treat.
If you are overwhelmed by the amount of footage that comes in, I suggest that you break down the scene moment to moment. Watch and know the footage for the beginning without even worrying about the second curve in the road or the second goal that gets scored. Cut the first part to your satisfaction and then move on to the footage for the next bit of the scene. When you finish your first pass of the action sequence, you can go back and trim up. This way, the architecture of the scene is there. All you have to do now is put in the ancillary coverage—the inserts of feet kicking, hitting the gas pedal, the looks in the rear view mirror—the crowd reactions, the scoreboards and the exuberant winning team. Once your scene has its backbone, you can add the SFX and MX to support and highlight the key moments and give your sequence its unique personality.
Cause and effect
This is one of my favorite rules that I learned from Lou Lombardo. There are cuts that are meant to be together: throw the ball, cut to the ball being caught; throw a punch, cut to the punch landing; shoot a gun, cut to the bullet hitting something.
On a larger scale, in a scene with dialog, every word that is said should be the ‘cause’ and the ‘effect’ is told by cutting to the characters ulening in the room. Even when the actor has no line of dialog, his facial expression is his unwritten dialog and must be included in the scene. This helps create a moment-to-moment telling of the story.
Geography
To entrance your viewers, who are in your custody, the editor must make them feel safe. This means, letting them know where everyone is (the master). The editor must infuse enough information about the proximity of the bad guys (a chase), how close the knife is to our hero’s body (fight), how many seconds are left before the clock runs out (sports). Once establishing geography, all the wonderful close coverage (gears shifting, tires screeching close to the abyss, guns dropped just inches out of reach) mean so much more to the viewing audience. Of course, you can start this process in reverse, beginning with a few close eye candy shots, before revealing the master. But the editor must always reestablish geography and proximity.
Eye Candy
We know eye candy is the aesthetically pleasing visuals that the director and director of photography have handed you in your dailies. There will be visually stunning wide shots, tracking shots, rack focus and long-lens shots. These shots take lots of production time. Make sure they are in your cut. The close coverage is essentially eye candy too—hand gestures, smiles, winks. These shots, and many more, comprise your eye candy choices.
Ear Candy
When your action scene is tight and working well, and you are sure that the audience will understand how we got from point A to point B and beyond, then is it time to infuse your ear candy.
First, lay in all of the sound effects—kicks, punches, tires squealing, acceleration, braking and horns. If a pigeon flies by, cut in the sound of their wings or coos, if a car goes by, put in its Doppler effect.
If you have enough time, make sure you put in the sound design effects— the Etoll sound effects library which includes unique whooshes, booms, tone and drum hits. This will elevate the scene tremendously and be a great guide for your sound effects team.
If you haven’t been cutting to music before this moment, now is the time to infuse your choice of needle drop or score. Sometimes it is fun to use both, and have the score complement your drop, making sure you mix the tracks carefully and do not let them overwhelm the story you are telling. I like to get my needle drops sent to me with both the lyric version and the instrumental-only version. This enables the assistant editor to group clip the two so that the track can be toggled back and forth. That way I can control the balance of dialog and lyrics.
When I first asked my assistant, Ray McCoy, to order up the instrumental of a needle drop for a scene we were doing on Covert Affairs he thought I meant the lyric version and the instrumental version had to be grouped together. I had never thought of that, but when he handed it to me that way, and explained that I could toggle between the two, I was ecstatic. No more trying to make a music cut between the two versions.
Most of the time, a single drop, or one cue, will not be sufficient to score an entire action sequence. The editor will have to take the time to cut in an assortment of musical pieces to support the shifts of tempo and mood. Remember to build to a climax, which will either end the music or tail out to the following scene.
5.8 COURTROOM AND MONOLOGS
There is a specific flow to cutting courtroom scenes. The first thing for the beginner to understand is that the inordinate amount of footage you receive for a courtroom, just like an action scene, is not a problem—it is a blessing. It gives you the footage you will need to make this very stagnant stage a riveting experience. Just break the scene down into its parts—the beginning, the middle and the end.
The basic tenet for all courtroom scenes is to show the audience where we are (the master), who’s on the defense and who’s on the prosecution side (we can see their faces from the judge’s POV), and where the jury is and who might be a key juror (coverage from the defendant’s and prosecutor’s POV). Once we have established all the players, and have seated the judge and the rest of the courtroom, we begin the dialog.
Either pre-lap calling the first witness as everyone is settling, or start on the witness on the stand answering the attorney’s question. If there is eye candy for the opening of the dialog that establishes where people are that would be a good place to begin. Once you have the opening lines started, it is an opportunity to cut around the room to see the reactions of a few characters, and then end the testimony by cutting back to the person on the stand. Remember to include the judge’s reactions, the juror who is looking at the defendant, and interactions between attorneys. The audience becomes informed about how much to believe of this testimony by these reactions. When we finally cut back to the person giving testimony, we have a greater understanding of what to believe.
There is little action in a courtroom—the judge entering, the courtroom rising and being told to be seated, attorneys addressing witnesses, and witnesses arriving and then leaving the stand. The courtroom is almost a still life, and with little movement to motivate cuts, the editor must find another way to navigate around the room. If you follow people’s eyes, it will weave the cuts together organically. Whenever you have coverage of your main characters looking at each other, use it to your advantage. If the judge looks at the attorney or the plaintiff, if a juror shares a moment with another juror, if the defendant looks towards his family or accomplices, if anyone looks at anyone, use it to further your story. Most of your audience will be watching more than ulening. Keep the dialog going, make sure your ‘click track’ is flowing, with builds to important moments. The pivotal moments can be played on the person revealing the facts, immediately followed by the impact on the defendant or plaintiff. These moments can be stretched to accommodate all the reactions of the players in the scene. It is like juggling, except you have more than three balls to keep in the air.
Remember that you have a wide shot that can help in the geography, but it usually diminishes the intimacy of the scene. Use it judiciously.
For long monologs, opening and closing statements, use the camera moves as much as possible, and the same rules apply that were discussed for your cutting pattern of the witness. Establish who is talking, go to the other players, the jury, the judge, and then re-anchor with the person giving the monolog. This pattern will get you through most of the dialog.
5.9 TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS
It appears simple at first when you cut a telephone conversation. But it is far more complicated than cutting a scene between two people in a room. The editor must make the audience feel as if they were in the same room to support the intimacy of the story, while at the same time keeping the audience aware of the contrasting worlds around the two actors. We must focus the audience’s attention on the important dialog, the reactions to that dialog, plus keep the two characters’ geography within their different worlds believable, matching their placements from cut to cut.
Usually the dailies for phone conversations are shot on different days. Hopefully, the script supervisor has kept careful notes about which way the actors were facing, and/or the director has made a mental note of it. It is wonderful when character ‘A’ is facing left to right and character ‘B’ is facing right to left. This way it actually appears as if they are looking at each other. However, that is not always the case. The camera is panning around them, crossing the line back and forth. The actor is on the move, hitting marks, turning their heads right and left. But it is still the editor’s task to use the pieces that keep the conversation intimate, and this is accomplished in part by having them face each other when possible.
The use of pre-lapping dialog and staying longer on a character’s face for the off-camera dialog will help smooth out the inherent bounciness of a telephone conversation. Stay a tad longer with each character than in a dialog scene. When you cut back to the other character, make sure you pick them up where you left them. For example, if the character has moved from the plaza to an alley, we must see them change their background. It’s the same as seeing an emotional change on camera—the audience must not feel left out of these changes. This might change your cutting pattern around the dialog. Perhaps a cutaway to show the character leaving the plaza to bridge the different locales will help smooth out this problem. The editor cannot allow mismatched geography to interfere with the audience’s orientation.
Use the telephone filter effect found in your audio tool for offstage dialog before putting your scene to bed. You will see that it will affect the timing of your scene. Some cuts will have to be lengthened and adjusted for a better sound transition between futzed and non-futzed dialog. It is easier for the dialog editors to prepare for the dubb stage when certain words or letters are chosen for the cut point carefully. Making the split on consonants, like ‘f,’ ‘s,’ ‘m,’ or sh, ch, th sounds, is infinitely smoother because these letters consist of more than one frame and can bridge the cut.
Remember to cut in the background sounds for each character’s world. Interior, exterior, phones, office walla, street activity, horns. Some of these sounds will bleed through to the other person’s world, and that only helps to smooth out the abruptness of a cut.
The beginnings and endings of phone conversations are predictable. To mitigate boring your audience with this, pre-lap the phone rings, and maybe the first bit of conversation as well. To clean up the endings, I learned a trick from Mick Jackson, that is magic. To move it along, he had me start character ‘A’ putting the phone down and complete the action of the phone being hung up on character ‘B.’ This trick works in several situations—door openings, door closings, throwing projectiles.
There is a tendency to over-cut a telephone conversation. Keep it calm, keep it simple.
5.10 CROSSING THE LINE
The 180º rule is used as a guideline regarding spatial relationships. Character ‘A’ looks left to right at character ‘B’ who looks right to left. However, this rule is broken all the time, and there are ways to use it to your advantage, as well as ways to cut around it.
Crossing the line helps intensify desperate situations, heightens fear and puts the audience on edge. This is a choice that the director makes when deciding on his coverage for the scene. However, it is up to the editor how to use this footage effectively.
When cutting an action sequence, knowing where all the players are in relationship to each other is essential. First establish where everyone is before you cross the line into coverage. Remember, there are just so many times that you can cross the line before losing your audience. Be prudent.
When cutting a dialog scene with footage that crosses the line, it is important to identify exactly where this helps the emotionality in the scene. Do not fall prey to form over function. To help alleviate poorly planned coverage, and cross the line gracefully, use the power of motion to hide crossing the line.
Use a head turn, an arm gesticulating, a wipe, or someone crossing the room. Another disguise for crossing the line in coverage you must use is to blow up the complementary shot to take the onus off of being disoriented.
5.11 SUMMARY
Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.
Albert Schweitzer
Editors are storytellers. We invite our audience to join us on a journey that promises to keep them engaged. As the picture editor, we have incredible gifts that have been handed to us—a script with characters and plot twists, danger and love; a DP’s visual feast along with a director’s banquet of choices—wide vistas and close intimate coverage; we also have at our fingertips a full palette of music and soundscapes that serve to further capture our audience. It is our job to sculpt and contour the final story, which is the product of the amalgamated talents of so many contributors. It is quite a responsibility. And the amount of time in which we do this is, well, never enough.
When we first start to edit, we hear many tapes in our head—words of wisdom from professors, filmmakers, colleagues and our own soon-to-be discovered fancies. We sit before our editing platforms and watch/scroll through the dailies, hoping to shape the scene into its best form. The guidelines set forth in the previous two chapters are meant to give the new editor a starting point. However, one thing you must begin to cultivate is your own sense of empowerment. Be bold, try the unthinkable and feel free. Let your gut and heart guide your hand as well. Trust in your own judgment, your own taste and instincts. When you can do this, and let go of all the rules I have just laid out, you will partake in something marvelous.
Some of the rules of organization, creative approaches and editing styles are far different in reality and documentary filmmaking. The following three chapters delve deeply into these worlds, as seen through the eyes of my coauthor and editing colleague, Diana Friedberg ACE (Dog Whisperer, Renegade, Founding Fathers). Diana began her career as a child actress, winning countless trophies and awards. She learned the art of editing which led to becoming the first female director in South Africa. She has had over fifty years of experience cutting documentaries, reality and dramatic films all over the world. Though all editors are storytellers, there seems to be no limits to the amount of structure and story line development that the non-fiction editor and documentarian are asked to contribute. These shows require an incredible amount of patience, perception and editorial skills to achieve excellence.