The other day, someone asked me to describe my editing process

So I started talking about organizing footage and doing selects

And she said, "No, your actual process; like, how do you know when to cut?"

And I couldn't describe it at all!

Like a lot of editors, I cut based on instinct

(Kahn) "Nothing gets in the way of the editing process...

It's the process of your thinking.

I don't cut from what I call 'knowledge'.

I have to come into it and I have to feel it."

It's the same way for me. I have to think and feel my way through the edit

So today, I'd like to talk about that process:

How does an editor think and feel?

The first thing you need to know is that editing is all about the eyes

More than any other factor, the eyes tell you the emotion of the scene

And the great actors understand that they

Convey more through their eyes than through dialogue

(Caine) "I said, 'Well, I haven't got anything to say,'

So he said, 'What do you mean you haven't got anything to say?'

He says 'Of course you've got things to say! You've got wonderful things to say!

But you sit there and listen, think of these extraordinary things to say...

"Elliot, sweetheart!" "Mhm?"

"Have you tried these? These are wonderful!"

...and then decide not to say them! (Laughter)

That's what you're doing!'"

And when I'm watching footage, this is what I'm looking for:

Moments where I can see a change in the actor's eyes

Like when he's making a decision

Shots like these are powerful because they work so well with other shots

For instance, when we cut from his eyes to what he's looking at

It tells us, without words, what he's thinking

The next concept was really hard for me to learn:

Emotions take time

When we watch people on screen, we feel a connection to them

And that's because we have time to watch their faces before they speak

(Speaking Chinese)

(Door shuts)

And time to watch them afterwards

Editors have to decide: "How much time do I give this emotion?"

So let's try an exercise: look at this shot

What do you feel while watching this?

Now let's try it again

What do you feel while watching this?

Was it a different emotion?

Editing is full of decisions like these,

Where four seconds makes a big difference

And these choices are difficult. There are no right answers

Some emotions play better if you see them in a single, continuous shot

(Speaking Chinese)

But other emotions play better over multiple shots,

So you can build up and come down

Consider this scene, where Luke Skywalker tests his skill

(Breathes out)

To make this simpler, let's just focus on how long each shot is held for

Notice that as we build, each shot gets shorter and shorter towards the climax

(Inspirational music playing)

(R2 beeps)

But after five shots, we hit the peak and start coming down

(Yoda sighs softly, sadly)

Not only are the shots getting longer again, they're actually held for longer

than they were the first time

And this whole sequence spends about 15 seconds going up, but twice that amount

coming down, so that we, the audience, have time to feel Luke's failure

(Breathing heavily) "I can't, it's too big."

But what happens if you shorten this timing?

Let's take a look at a very similar scene, done more recently

See if you can feel the difference

(Hank) You can do it Scott, come on!

(Ant laughs)

(Scott) They're not listening to me!

Did you believe that emotion?

Because in this scene, Scott's failure took 30 frames

By comparison, Luke Skywalker's failure

Took 30 seconds

People aren't machines,

We need time to feel the emotion,

And if the movie doesn't give it to us...

We don't believe it.

(Schoonmaker) "And I'm finding in movies, recently, that I've seen,

A lot of things I don't believe.

I think people are sticking stuff out there

And asking you to believe it,

But they're not making you believe it."

And making it believable is really hard.

(Man) "Let Red go."

Because timing is not a conscious process,

You're just responding to the fact

That every shot has a natural rhythm

(Three gunshots)

(Wood breaking)

(Murch) "There's an in-built relationship between the story itself and

How to tell a story, and the rhythm with which you tell it,

And editing is...

70% about rhythm."

(Man yelling at woman)

Sometimes the rhythm is obvious,

Like when the actor is doing something really physical

(Music intensifying)

But other times it's quite subtle

For instance, the rhythm of people walking back and forth

Or the rhythm of a restaurant, with cooks, customers, waitresses...

These rhythms are closer to what we feel in everyday life,

And, I actually think they're harder to edit

But if you watch anything over and over again, you eventually feel the moment

When the shot wants you to cut

Classical Hollywood editing is all about cutting with the rhythm

And this is what we mean when we say that editing is invisible

The cut happens so naturally

(Man) "Now is there anything else you'd like to know about me?"

That you don't notice it.

(Man) "Would you like to go over to my room?"

But you don't always have to be invisible

Some emotions play better if you cut in a jarring way,

Like if someone is agitated

(Heels clicking on floor)

And other moments play better

If you actually cut to make the audience uncomfortable.

(Water sizzling)

(Schoonmaker) "One of the things Marty's always encouraged us to do is to

Sometimes hold just a little bit too long...

(Water sizzling)

And then make a cut, if it's justified."

What really matters is, what reaction you want from people

(Two gunshots)

Because sometimes, you can only get that with an unusual cut

And that brings me to my last point:

If editing is so instinctive, how do you learn it?

I only know one way:

Practice.

(Murch) "And editing is very similar to dance in that way,

You can explain the rudiments of dance,

But to really learn how to dance, you have to dance."

You have to cut.

And as you cut, you'll develop a sense of rhythm and emotion

That's unique to you.

I've been doing it for ten years and I'm still not there

But whenever I'm frustrated by an edit, I think about something Michael Khan said

(Khan) "The beautiful thing about editing is,

I guess maybe writers feel that way,

I see all that film up there, doesn't matter, I'm doing one piece at a time

One scene at a time, one cut at a time.

And there's a lot of film, I just do one thing at a time."

So take it one shot at a time,

Because if you watch any image,

(Man) "You really care?"

You'll see it has an emotion and a rhythm

(Woman sniffing and breathing heavy)

And you have to feel...

When...

To...

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