Learnings from the film editing trenches

Here’s what I learnt last night:

Some actors are so precise in their actions (hand, leg and head gestures), that no matter what material you use (shot days apart and out of continuity) – you can cut it together effortlessly.

Others replace the discipline of precision with the discipline of enriching the performance and not one take is the same (I’m exaggerating blocking is blocking but compared to the ‘precision actor' there is a vast divergence) – but their offerings mean that with hard edit work one can create a performance that has greater nuances. Others are somewhere in between. I won’t name names – it’s irrelevant…

But when this opposite forms of discipline happen at different times in a shot/scene not only it’s easy to edit them together – but also the shot/sequence sparkles and cracks with drama.

It’s when things happen simultaneously - you need to cut across performances to have a shot sequence that holds. Great challenge – and when it works - it’s pure bliss (relief?).

I wonder - how does one direct these talented individuals for the camera? Multiple takes? Multiple Cameras? Or does one just let them roam free?

I certainly found that ample coverage provided a solution.

Speaking of coverage, lo and behold the same is true of other creative especially the camera operators - this is very apparent when see the same take from multiple angles – even the fixed camera have their own personalities (!)

Each cameraman with their own style – very much like the actors – some are precise in frame and operation – others are more fluid and seeking the new.

I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised but I find it always interesting that each mind see things - and thus reacts - differently.

Appropriate for a film about perceptions…