Focus: A Film Review (1950-1951)

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252 FOCUS FILM COURSE. Part Two. No. 8 THE EDITOR By ANDREW BUCHANAN It is more than a pity that all wishing to become film-makers, scenario writers and critics, cannot begin in a cutting room under the eye of an expert editor, for it is here, far removed from the stars and lights, that the roots of films are exposed and basic construction occurs. And yet quite a number of people reach the director’s chair and even become producers with a minimum knowledge of film editing — a fact sometimes reflected in their work. We have learnt how stories are filmed in countless isolated scenes out of story order, and how their corresponding sounds and or dialogue are on tracks which, to start with, are separate from the visuals. All this material is sent to the cutting room in daily batches to unravel and assemble. It is viewed immediately to judge photographic and sound quality. There are always several takes of each scene, and the director and editor decide, during the first run through, which are the best to retain. Then each sequence (visuals and track) is roughly assembled and when all material has arrived, a “rough-cut” is put together, which is a first assembly of the complete production. (Incidentally, positive film is cut, joined, and cut again with ease and scissors. The ends of any two scenes to be joined are scraped free of emulsion and coated with amyl acetate and acetone, mixed. The ends are clamped for a few seconds, and the join is made.) The editor works from a copy of the scenario supplemented by the continuity sheets which reach him with each batch of rushes. These sheets indicate where original scenario instructions have been changed during filming, and contain all essential information about the actual filming. As every scene is numbered at the beginning, the . editor has no difficulty in identifying each one. All this is more or less routine work, and it is only after the “rough-cut” version has been viewed that his creative faculty comes into play. Assembling a film should not be confused with editing it. The first is methodical sorting, the second, the work of an artist. The editor heightens drama by the positioning of scenes and of angles within scenes. He brings a film to life by shortening or sharpening scenes, by introducing close-ups or removing them — by creating moments of silence in the sound track. He chisels a film, bit by bit. He might move an entire sequence to another place. He eliminates longwinded entrances or exits. He knows just how much of a close-up should be seen. He knows, too, when a sequence goes beyond saturation point. There is, perhaps, less scope in the dialogue film for creative editing because human speech governs the action, but in sequences composed mainly of mute scenes, or action on a broad scale accompanied by natural sounds rather than dialogue, he has a chance to shape and reshape his visuals, and he can then create a story or a sequence out of a number of scenes which, separately, bear no direct relation to each other. The Editor creates the relationship. He introduces symbolism. Maybe he will enlist the aid of Nature’s varying moods to express the moods of men and women. He can create, say, the prelude to a storm by grouping unrelated visuals each of which may have been filmed at a different place — heavy clouds — cattle under trees — grass bending low — running feet — angry waves — swaying branches — big rain spots splashing on pavements — then the deluge. Opportunities are endless. After a hard training in the cutting room, one can really say one knows how films are made. Without such training the journey is longer, and signposts are few. A famous critic once said to me she always felt uneasy sitting in armchairs viewing films when she had never toiled on production, nor sweated in a projection box. Even if one cannot find one’s way into a cutting room, one would be wise to place first things first, and to realise that in the assembling and editing of a film, one can learn most about this difficult art.