Editing by Accident

I'm not afraid to admit that some of my best cuts have been by accident, or more accurately, experiments gone horribly right. This may seem unflattering at first, but allowing myself the freedom to play and interact with a scene or sequence is such a vital part of film editing, that I am proud to admit that some of my best choices were not deliberately made, initially that is. I thought for a while my techniques were a touch crass, but when I heard Stephen Mirrione, one of my favorite editors, talk about how his method for cutting a particular scene in Traffic was very much akin with my own style of editing, I finally knew I was not only sane, but on the right track to becoming a real film editor.

In fact, I would later find out that a lot of my radical ideas about the cognitive process of editing, which often come to me via napkin scribbling-- though once on the "do not remove" label of a tent while camping at 3am-- were almost verbatim to some of Walter Murch's communiqués. That was somehow more frightening than flattering to think that a young editor like myself could be having the same theories about film editing as one of the most profound editors in the industry. But I am just following my instinct, so I can't take full credit.

Don't get me wrong, editing is not a playful joyride; it is the most challenging job I've ever had, and has pushed me to my limits in more ways than one, through sleep deprivation, tight deadlines, hardware troubleshooting, massive data loss a week before the locked picture was due! Heh, that's a week I'd rather not live again. My point is that editing should not be a confined, restricted, assembly-line process, and I think any good director or producer acknowledges this, let alone the need to give the editor freedom to work and put his/her own creative twist into the story.

Fortunately up to this point, I have only worked with directors and producers who value my input and creativity. This is certainly a blessing, considering a lot of editors I know are treated as button pushers on a regular basis. But really I think the industry is changing. More and more good editors are given the room needed to do their best work. It is no doubt thanks to people like Mirrione and Murch, who not only perform the craft, but speak their minds and share their battles, for the sake of elevating awareness of the film editing process. Play on, good editors, play on.