6 Ways Film Directors Screw Editors

"Being an editor is tough.  We have to work with what we’re given and as such the results we can yield are subject to countless limitations.  We are surgeons as much as storytellers, hacking out what we can whilst trying to keep our patient from bleeding to death.  But we shouldn’t have to save your film.  The ideal for an editor is to approach the film as more of a cosmetic surgeon, where our role is to enhance, improve and tighten.  But we don’t often have that luxury.

Here are 6 ways in which directors have screwed me.

1. Poor choice of coverage

Something I’ve noticed with new directors is an excessive amount of establishing / wide shots, when the fact of the matter is, I’m only going to use tiny fragments of any of them.  The same filmmakers tend to film the whole scene through on the wide shot and then begin their close-ups part way through the scene, thinking “I’m only going to need the close up for this bit.”

Only direct for the edit if you know you can pull it off (and if you know you can, you’re most likely wrong.).  If you only shoot what you think you’ll need you’ll be severely limiting yourself (and me) in the cutting room.

2.Continuity

It’s the little things that will kill you in continuity.  Now, I’m actually fairly lax about what I consider a continuity issue.  A lot can be overlooked so long as your audience is engaged with the scene.  But there are certain actions and scenes that cause trouble time and time again.

Say you have a character taking occasional sips form a drink in a scene.  Say you have a wide shot, a close up and can still make out that the character is drinking in a reverse shot of the other actor.  Let’s also say you’ve done multiple takes of each set up.  You didn’t choreograph any specific points for the actor to drink.  All of a sudden the cutting points are decided by the moments at which the action matches up.  Eating and smoking have this same problem.  It’s essential to block your scenes out.  Often it is possible to cut around these issues but only by cutting at very specific points dictated by the continuity.  Is that how you want to decide the pacing of your film?"

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