When I was a kid watching movies, I used to see ‘editing’ in the credits, along with many other roles such as art direction, costume design, that I never paid much attention to.
Now that I am learning the craft of movie making, I have a real appreciation for the role that editing plays in movies. It can be the difference between engaging the audience or boring them, between a great movie or a merely a decent movie, or between a hit or flop. It is that important. It is true that great editing alone can not make a great movie, story and acting are the primary requirements for that, but all great movies MUST have superb editing.
Editing deals with how multiple shots are connected to form a sequence and how these sequences are connected to tell the story of the movie. It is typically done in the post production phase of the movie (preproduction and production are the other two phases that precede post pordiction). Editor works closely with the director to help tell the story in the way he or she wants to tell it. For example, a movie could just follow a chronological order of sequences (linear) or it could jump back and forth in time using flashbacks.
The director has one important responsibility while making a movie: engage the audience. The primary tool they have at their disposal to meet this responsibility is ‘conflict’. A good screen writer worth his or her salt makes sure that each scene has conflict and tension built in to it. Editing needs to make sure that this conflict and tension gets translated on to the screen in how the shots are combined for those scenes.
The director will have certain structure in his mind on how the story unfolds in the movie. For example, he may want the movie to start with a bang (like in bond movies) and then slow down and pick up speed and then slow down a bit and then have a plot point where the movie picks up speed again towards the climax. Editor keeps this structure in mind while connecting various sequences in a particualr order to achieve this pacing. This is a very important aspect of editing. Editor is also responsible for deleting entire scenes that do not add any value to the movie and bogs it down. When you find the movie dragging, you know the editing is found wanting. A well edited movie moves crisply and takes you on a roller coster ride. The thing with editing is that, just like good umpires or referees, if it is good you won’t notice it as you are fully engaged in the action.
There is also the part of editing that involves special after effects to create breathtaking yet realistic looking scenes (such as matrix, dark night etc.) that adds a whole new dimension to the movies.
These are just some examples of what an editor does and how editing makes a huge differece to a movie. I hope this gives you some appreciation and the next time you watch a good movie try to pay some attention to the editing and doff your cap to the editor too.