Prophetic and visionary indeed. With the wonderful resource and years of experience located at NHNZ, we are learning plenty of great tips about filmmaking before we have really had the chance to begin. The title of this blog entry was inspired by a quote from a visiting editor from Sweden who sums up what must happen all too often in film productions, the sacrifice that must be made by directors, producers, and camera ops when the field material is collated in the editing suite. I guess the best lesson passed on from Ian McGhee who is responsible for the highly successful Most Extreme series for Animal Planet is to thoroughly plan sequences and storyboard where possible so that the sacrifice is easier to stomach in the editing process. This point reminded me of a great quote by arguably one of the greatest editors to emerge out of Hollywood since the 1960s, Walter Murch (pictured). In his book In the Blink of an Eye (2nd ed, 2001), Murch says: "Don't unnecessarily allow yourself to be impregnated by the conditions of shooting. Try to keep up with what's going on but try to have as little specific knowledge of it as possible because, ultimately, the audience knows nothing about any of this-and you are the ombudsman for the audience." Of course, this will be difficult for us as we will be working in pairs and completing all elements of the process from the initial research through to camera field work and the eventual cutting together of our films. With thorough research and a tight shooting script we should hopefully avoid some terse moments in the editing suite early next year!
1 comment:
All too accurate and (much as it pains me to quote Sting) paralels with the whole 'If you live someone, set them free' thang...
I guess some of my greatest joys have been editing discoveries, not so much in terms of shots (being anal enough to generally have a fairly detailed plan in mind) but in juxtaposition which is unexpected. I ever thogh that would be true of Drama/Doco but it will probably be the one thing that does your had in and then elevates your soul when you have that 'Ah!' moment.
Much is kind of weird in never visiting the set (or trying not to anyhow), and you know just how much I love him. I like having my editor on set even for short moments because I need him/her to get a feel for my feel - and there's an ulterior motive (isn't there always with me!), it makes my life easier when I sit down with the rough and it's saturated with the energy from the shoot. Mmmm, nice :-)
Loving following this bro!
ASP
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