Film Craft 109: The Editor - 18. Get In and Out Quickly

In addition to what I consider rules of grammar, that is the guidelines that help your viewers easily understand what you're trying to communicate, there are also some helpful tips and tricks I can offer that'll help you edit more effectively. This first one is usually given as a screenwriting tip, but it also applies to the edit. Begin late and end early. What that means is start the scene as far into the action as possible. No one wants to sit through a dialogue scene that begins with a casual conversation like, hello, hello, how are you? I'm fine, how are you? And so forth. We don't wanna see that. We wanna cut right to the action of the scene. So you wanna start the scene as close as possible to the hinge. I refer to the hinge as the moment in the scene when something changes. Generally, this moment is the point of the scene. And this could be the moment that the reticent child finally cracks a smile, or the moment a fugitive finally confesses her crime, the moment a timid scientist lights the fuse to the bomb, or the moment the bomb goes off. And in a wedding video, it could be the knife slicing the cake or the ring slipping onto the finger. In a cooking video, it could be the moment when the chef pulls the steaming bread from the oven. It can be a small emotional moment or a huge external action. But whatever it is, it's the point of the scene. And all scenes have them. And if they don't, consider cutting that scene altogether. Anyway, find the hinge for the scene and see if there's any extraneous junk before or after it. There almost always will be. Now actually, I sometimes recommend to my editing students to begin cutting each scene by finding that hinge and starting there, then working backwards and forwards from that point. Get in late, get out early. As soon as the essential meat of the scene has been communicated, find the quickest way to end the scene gracefully and move on. The films tend to be laden with repetitive elements. Screenwriters inevitably incorporate a lot of redundancy. And directors often follow this up by reiterating things over and over again. Well, your job as editor is to tell the story in the most economical way possible. Remember, you're asking a favor of your audience to sit and watch your movie. The less time you require from them, the better. And don't even get me started on the TRT creep that's gone on in cinema over the last decade or so. Movies just keep getting longer and longer. And for nearly all of them, those extra 30 or 60 minutes are not making for better movies. It's really just lazy filmmaking. No matter how long your movie is, I can give you advice that I have absolute certainty will improve it. Make it shorter. Make each scene shorter. Cut scenes that aren't absolutely essential and do anything and everything you can to make the movie shorter. I'm sure you'll think you're cutting essential moments, but you can always try it. You can always go back to a longer version if it doesn't work, but I promise you it won't. Almost always, shorter is better. Your audience will thank me, even if you won't.