Problem-solving is a core principle in filmmaking, and post-production is a phase which is full of it. It involves making tough decisions that evoke the correct and best tell the story visually. If you’re looking forward to participating in ESFF’s 48hr Filmmaking Challenge (you should!), this blog should give you some insight into what the editor should be thinking and doing throughout the process of editing and help you make the tough decisions you’ll have to make a little bit easier.
The first thing every editor should do on every project is to watch all the footage captured during the production phase. Yes, every second. It may seem daunting, and for large projects it can be, but for a 2 minute short film it shouldn’t take too long. The idea behind doing this is it allows the editor to get a visual reference for the entire film before the decision-making process. Taking notes of what each take differently saves a lot of time when you decide to insert clips into your timeline. For example, take 1 of a character’s reaction to a line of dialogue could show annoyance, whereas take 2 could show anger. Each brings out different emotions in the audience, shows a different side of the character, and tells your story slightly differently.
Once you’ve gone through all your footage and feel prepared, the editor can start making decisions on what to keep or cut. At the beginning of the film, the editor should have 2 things in mind. Setting up your main character’s arc by generating empathy from the audience, and to lay the groundwork for your main character’s quest. “Arc” meaning the characters transformation from beginning to end. How do this story change who they are? Transformation is fundamental to being human. We all experience it and it is hugely important in storytelling. By “generating empathy”, the editor needs to find a way for the audience to care about the main character. If you can’t nail that, then the audience is lost, and your film with it. Editors can get creative here. It doesn’t need to be dialogue that tells you about a character.
A simple scene that shares the characters lived experience to the audience can be all it takes. They need to understand what it’s like to live as this character. These are crucial. If you miss one or both points, you’re going to be playing catch up for the rest of the film, and all other story beats will feel less impactful because previous steps are lacking. The beginning can really be the hardest part, because all parts of the film lead to the next, and need to be refined before moving on.
Moving into the middle of the story, this is when the groundwork of the character’s quest really starts to be important. Once you’ve established what the character’s goals are and how they are going to achieve them, the middle of the film introduces the obstacles that stand in the character’s way of achieving said goals. Going through these conflicts builds the main character, a glimpse of change starts to show, and their transformation slowly evolves. It should be noted that each obstacle gets harder as the film progresses and tests the main character more and more.
The end of the film is the most important part. All the work you did before this point can be tossed away if the ending isn’t satisfying. The last act should contain the conclusion of the main character’s quest. They either achieve or fail. The main character’s goal at the beginning of the film, which the editor set in place, is accomplished through the greatest, toughest conflict that they have faced, or they fail and their obstacle overcomes them. In any case, this action changes who they are. The audience now recognizes that they have become someone else, for better or worse. The toughest part about conveying an immense change in a human being is that it needs to be setup for the payoff to feel real. This can’t happen in a snap of a finger.
Over the course of the story, the main character needs to face conflicts that constantly attacks their weaknesses, which reveals parts of themselves to the audience and to the character itself, and forces them to make a decision to change to prevail or stay the same and fail. When you nail this, you got your story. A character can of course remain the same throughout a story, but you need to be careful with this, and other questions need to be answered. Why doesn’t this character change after everything they’ve gone through? How does this character staying the same convey the story I’m trying to tell? Usually when a character stays the same, they change everyone else around them.
The greatest challenge of all this is fitting everything in under 2 minutes for the 48hr Challenge! Remember that editing is the restructuring of the screenplay. The editor is able to remove, change, emphasize, and conceal any part of the story, and now you get to get creative with it.