How Does an Editor Think and Feel?

0:01 Hi, my name is Tony, and this is Every Frame A Painting The other day,

0:09 someone asked me to describe my editing process So I

0:12 started talking about organizing footage and doing selects And she said,

0:16 "No, your actual process; like,

0:18 how do you know when to cut?" And I couldn't describe it at all!

0:26 Like a lot of editors, I cut based on instinct (Kahn) "Nothing

0:29 gets in the way of the editing process...

0:31 It's the process of your thinking.

0:34 I don't cut from what I call 'knowledge'.

0:37 I have to come into it and I have to feel it." It's the same way for me.

0:41 I have to think and feel my way through the edit So today,

0:45 I'd like to talk about that process: How does an editor think and feel?

0:55 The first thing you need to know is that editing

0:57 is all about the eyes More than any other factor,

1:00 the eyes tell you the emotion of the scene And the great actors

1:03 understand that they Convey more through

1:05 their eyes than through dialogue (Caine) "I said,

1:08 'Well, I haven't got anything to say,' So he said,

1:11 'What do you mean you haven't got anything to say?'

1:13 He says 'Of course you've got things to say!

1:16 You've got wonderful things to say!

1:19 But you sit there and listen, think of these extraordinary things to say...

1:24 "Elliot, sweetheart!" "Mhm?" "Have you tried these?

1:28 These are wonderful!" ...and then decide not to say them!

1:31 (Laughter) That's what you're doing!'" And when I'm watching footage,

1:35 this is what I'm looking for: Moments where I

1:37 can see a change in the actor's eyes Like when

1:40 he's making a decision Shots like these are powerful

1:46 because they work so well with other shots For instance,

1:49 when we cut from his eyes to what he's looking at It tells us,

1:57 without words, what he's thinking The next

2:01 concept was really hard for me to learn:

2:04 Emotions take time When we watch people on screen,

2:08 we feel a connection to them And that's

2:11 because we have time to watch their faces

2:13 before they speak (Speaking Chinese) (Door shuts) And time

2:20 to watch them afterwards Editors have to decide:

2:27 "How much time do I give this emotion?" So let's try an exercise:

2:32 look at this shot What do you feel while watching this?

2:42 Now let's try it again What do you feel while watching this?

2:56 Was it a different emotion?

2:59 Editing is full of decisions like these, Where four

3:01 seconds makes a big difference And these choices are difficult.

3:05 There are no right answers Some emotions play

3:08 better if you see them in a single, continuous shot (Speaking Chinese) But other

3:20 emotions play better over multiple shots,

3:22 So you can build up and come down Consider this scene,

3:25 where Luke Skywalker tests his skill (Breathes out) To make this simpler,

3:31 let's just focus on how long each shot is held for Notice that as we build,

3:40 each shot gets shorter and shorter towards the climax

3:43 (Inspirational music playing) (R2 beeps) But after five shots,

3:50 we hit the peak and start coming down (Yoda sighs softly,

3:56 sadly) Not only are the shots getting longer again,

4:01 they're actually held for longer than they were the first

4:04 time And this whole sequence spends about 15 seconds going up,

4:08 but twice that amount coming down, so that we, the audience,

4:11 have time to feel Luke's failure (Breathing heavily) "I can't,

4:17 it's too big." But what happens if you shorten this timing?

4:21 Let's take a look at a very similar scene,

4:23 done more recently See if you can feel

4:26 the difference (Hank) You can do it Scott, come on!

4:36 (Ant laughs) (Scott) They're not listening to me!

4:41 Did you believe that emotion?

4:42 Because in this scene, Scott's failure took 30 frames By comparison,

4:49 Luke Skywalker's failure Took 30 seconds People aren't machines,

5:01 We need time to feel the emotion, And if the movie doesn't give it to us...

5:06 We don't believe it.

5:07 (Schoonmaker) "And I'm finding in movies, recently,

5:09 that I've seen, A lot of things I don't believe.

5:13 I think people are sticking stuff out there And asking you to believe it,

5:18 But they're not making you believe it." And making it believable is really hard.

5:23 (Man) "Let Red go." Because timing is not a conscious process,

5:28 You're just responding to the fact That every

5:30 shot has a natural rhythm (Three gunshots) (Wood

5:36 breaking) (Murch) "There's an in-built relationship between

5:41 the story itself and How to tell a story,

5:43 and the rhythm with which you tell it, And editing is...

5:48 70% about rhythm." (Man yelling at woman) Sometimes the rhythm is obvious,

5:57 Like when the actor is doing something really physical

6:01 (Music intensifying) But other times it's quite subtle For instance,

6:12 the rhythm of people walking back and forth Or the rhythm of a restaurant,

6:18 with cooks, customers, waitresses...

6:22 These rhythms are closer to what we feel in everyday life,

6:25 And, I actually think they're harder to edit

6:28 But if you watch anything over and over again,

6:30 you eventually feel the moment When

6:32 the shot wants you to cut Classical Hollywood

6:43 editing is all about cutting with the rhythm And this is what we mean

6:47 when we say that editing is invisible The cut happens so naturally (Man) "Now

6:53 is there anything else you'd like to know about me?" That you don't notice it.

6:57 (Man) "Would you like to go over to my room?" But you don't always

7:01 have to be invisible Some emotions play better if you cut in a jarring way,

7:05 Like if someone is agitated (Heels clicking on floor) And other

7:15 moments play better If you actually cut to make the audience uncomfortable.

7:19 (Water sizzling) (Schoonmaker) "One of the things Marty's always encouraged us

7:30 to do is to Sometimes hold just a little bit too long...

7:35 (Water sizzling) And then make a cut,

7:42 if it's justified." What really matters is,

7:45 what reaction you want from people (Two gunshots) Because sometimes,

7:56 you can only get that with an unusual cut And that brings me to my last point:

8:04 If editing is so instinctive, how do you learn it?

8:08 I only know one way: Practice.

8:12 (Murch) "And editing is very similar to dance in that way,

8:15 You can explain the rudiments of dance,

8:19 But to really learn how to dance, you have to dance." You have to cut.

8:23 And as you cut, you'll develop a sense

8:25 of rhythm and emotion That's unique to you.

8:28 I've been doing it for ten years and I'm

8:31 still not there But whenever I'm frustrated by an edit,

8:33 I think about something Michael Khan said

8:35 (Khan) "The beautiful thing about editing is,

8:37 I guess maybe writers feel that way,

8:40 I see all that film up there, doesn't matter,

8:42 I'm doing one piece at a time One scene at a time, one cut at a time.

8:47 And there's a lot of film,

8:48 I just do one thing at a time." So take it one shot at a time,

8:52 Because if you watch any image,

8:55 (Man) "You really care?" You'll see it has an emotion

8:58 and a rhythm (Woman sniffing and breathing heavy) And you have to feel...

9:07 When...

9:08 To...

9:22 Subtitles by the Amara.org community