Constructing the Assembly
At the start of any project, the small voice in my head that is excited that I even got hired slowly turns into anxiety, and then full blown imposter syndrome.
Do you even know how to edit?
“Of course!” I try to remind myself. “What other skill have I been working on?”
But that answer fails to instil any confidence.
From other interviews, articles and finished films and episodes, I get the distinct feeling that the way I edit is slower, and not as creative (or thorough…or precise) as so many other talented editors.
It’s not until I am trudging out of the full assembly that I begin to feel “okay” again with my abilities - only to have anxiety spike again when sending my “editors cut” to a director for their first viewing.
I think its safe to assume I’m not the only professional editor experiencing this anxiety. Even though I haven’t been a part of any abnormally large projects, its It’s still daunting to be handed over piles of footage and know you have days to turn into something that gets somewhat close to the target (or with some tight TV schedules, a bulls-eye)
Here’s my basic process for how I get through the first assembly.
Drowning in Dailies
I’m sure many TV editors with far more pragmatic and developed eyes can go to the circle takes, but I feel the need to watch everything that was shot. All the dailies.
Before starting the ‘watchdown’ of a scene’s raw footage, I’ll mentally make note of which takes are the director’s favourites (and usually have an Assistant Editor flag that with a green Marker on the timeline). Then I’ll watch everything, as it was shot chronologically. If there are multicam shots, I’ll watch with the splitview/quad-view up so that I can see both simultaneously.
I watch everything so that:
I can see what changes were made to get the scene closer to what the director wanted
I get eyes on a possible solution to a creative obstacle I may encouter later on
Occasionally, I can hear the director shout specific instructions or wishes to both the camera operator and actors. That allows me to know exactly what they were thinking on the day.
I know the footage better than anyone. I need to know I’ve presented the best material. I don’t want to be embarrassed later in the edit process when a producer asks “are you sure we don’t have any other options without [this problem]?” and then be proven wrong.
While in the watchdown, if I see anything especially noteworthy, I’ll quickly pull a part of that take (ie, make a “select”) and copy it onto a new timeline for the scene.
When I get to the director’s circled takes, I am taking special note of what the performances feel like. Usually, this is where the majority of my quick selects are coming from.
I’m looking for tiny moments- a reaction, a great line delivery, a fantastic camera move - the smallest building blocks of the scene. The atoms.
Survey the Skeleton
After finishing the watchdown with primilary selects made, I’ll quickly go over my newly formed selects sequence to see what anchor points the noteworthy shots gave me. I’ll make a quick judgement call whether these selects are still noteworthy (maybe what they captured appeared in every take?) and if they are worth guiding the direction of the edit.
If so, I keep them in them in, and use them as the first points on my skeleton of a sequence.
I do this because starting at a blank timeline is the hardest part of the edit for me. This method allows some of the friction at the beginning of the process to be reduced - if some choices are already made (even if they end up being wrong) then I can move on from there. Otherwise I’m stuck starting with all the possibilities.
Connect the Dots
So, with a few anchor points in place, I revert back to the raw footage and audition the pieces that can fill in the space between the current selects. Sometimes I plop in the Circled closeups and just go back and forth. Sometimes I throw in the wide shot. Slowly, the atoms connect to form longer runs. Soon I have 10 seconds of the edit playing back well enough.
This is the part of the process where I think I’m far behind other talented editors. Because I cut this way, I need to try out multiple iterations of nearly every single beat. Occasionally I’ll leave alternative options on a video track above V1, and just mute the clip - that way I can quickly come back to it or even show it to a director later on.
At this stage though, I try to keep in mind that cliche mantra of ‘not letting perfect be the enemy of good’. So if I am really hitting the wall at a certain moment of the scene, I’ll throw down an option and move on.
The goal is to be able to see a full assembly that’s competently put together, even if its off the mark. The first draft of anything is crap, and the sooner I can put it all together, the sooner I can get to fixing it.
Replay, Reiterate, Refine
Once the assembly is strung together, I will likely go replay the scene in sections 40-50 times making minor adjustments each time.
Then I’ll watch the whole scene another 20 times or so, making more refiniments. If I know the scene will be heavily dependent on SFX or Music, this is where I add them in.
Then I’ll watch the cut another 20-30 times, makeing more adjustments to the added elements. Repeat ad nauseam, until I think its really working.
Then, I’ll watch the sequence either fully silent, or with a black and white filter, or with the image flopped, so that I can view the cut with ‘fresh’ eyes again.
And that’s it.
Time to move on the next scene, which will inevitably have a domino effect on the story, forcing me to go back to re-edit the first scene.