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KEVIN HILTON cuts in to discover
more about the role of the
Editor, one of the key roles in
A Sound Pro’s Guide To Video
Post Production: Part 2
post production.
GLOSSARY
EDL
A set of initials that will be as
familiar to audio types as it is to
their video counterparts. EDL
stands for Edit Decision List,
and while this crucial source
of information existed in
some form during the heyday
of film and certainly came
to the fore with linear video
editing, it has come into its
own with non-linear working
and DI. Essentially it is a list of
the source tapes, reels or files,
shot numbers and first and last
frame numbers as designated
by the timecode. The picture
editor will log what changes
he or she has made, including
transitions (fades, dissolves)
and how these correspond
to the sound. Increasingly
the EDL is becoming part of
metadata and is catalogued
using a laptop or desktop
keyboard.
52
Every creative involved in film and programme making
believes that he or she has the key job, but when
pushed to it most would admit that the Editor has
the pivotal role. Veteran cinematographer Alan Hume says
films are made in the cutting room, with his job being to
make the scenes and actors look good. Editors are not going
to disagree; Stuart Baird, whose credits include The Omen,
Superman, Lethal Weapon, The Legend of Zorro, The Devils and
Tommy, next to being the Director the position of Editor is
the best in the business.
There is a parallel with sound editing, organising material
so it tells a story, but in cinema and television the craft has
developed beyond being purely continuity, and can now
dictate the rhythm and pace of a piece as much as narrative
development. During the earliest days of filmmaking the role
of the Editor was functional, topping and tailing the reels
and arranging scenes in the right order. The term ‘cutting’ to
describe editing comes from that time, and many of today’s
practitioners still refer to themselves as cutters, which
underplays the role they have.
Rudimentary continuity editing can be traced back to
the filmmakers working on the south coast of England at
the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who
became known as the Brighton school. Little of their work
survived the years, but Cecil Hepworth’s 1905 short Rescued
by Rover is of great historical importance for its editing as
much as the camera work.
Also significant is American filmmaker Edwin S Porter’s
The Great Train Robbery (1903), which influenced fellow countryman
DW Griffith, who used editing to great effect in The
Birth of a Nation (1915). Equally impor-
tant work was being done in Russia
around the same time and both
Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925)
and Dziga Vertov’s The Man with a Movie
Camera (1929) set the standard for
creative editing that not only drove
a film along but also influenced
the emotions of the audience as
much as the acting, the images, and
the story.
Most editors started out with
ambitions to directy show the
artistic credentials of editing.
Some achieved that goal, among
them David Lean, who directed such
epics as Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
and, apparently, always considered
himself an Editor first and a Director
second, Robert Wise, who edited Citizen
Kane and directed The Sound of Music
(1965), and Roger Spottiswoode,
who cut in TV before working
for Sam Peckinpah and helmed
Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
Another example is Ealing stalwart
Charles Crichton, who made Hue
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and Cry (1947) and The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) for the studio.
Alan Hume worked with him on A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and
says Crichton was a good Editor, which made him a good
Director, as he knew how to put a film together.
The Director remains the controlling creative force on
a film, although in these days of Jerry Bruckheimer and
Steven Spielberg taking the role of Executive Producer
on both movies and episodic TV dramas, the balance of
power has shifted. The Editor has considerable influence
on how a production turns out and brings another set of
eyes and a new perspective to the process; the position
has been described as being the first audience for a film.
Just as a Director of Photography will begin to visualise
shots after the reading the script, an Editor will also
begin to create cuts and transitions in the mind before
beginning work.
Most editors claim not to have a style of their own,
saying the story and the footage they are given dictates
how they cut the pictures. Just as a Director will often
work with the same Cinematographer where possible,
so directors tend to form a close working relationship
with editors. Among the most famous and productive
collaborations are Director Cecil B De Mille and Editor
Anne Bauchens in America, and Claude Chabrol and
Jacques Gaillard in France. As Woody Allen’s career and
style changed and developed he worked with Ralph
Rosenblum and then Susan E Morse. Martin Scorsese has
formed a long-term working relationship with Thelma
Schoonmaker, who has cut many of his films and won an
Oscar for The Departed (2006).
OBITUARY
Jack Cardiff, 1914-2009
Jack Cardiff, who died in April aged 94, was the acknowledged master of colour cinematography
during the 1940s. He worked for many directors and producers during his long career, and had a
successful spell as a Director himself, but for most cinephiles his name will always be associated
with those of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and their remarkable series of lightly
surreal, other worldly films.
Born Jack Gran in 1914 to travelling music hall performers who used the stage name Cardiff,
the young Jack was a showbiz person front the very start and toured with his parents, who
sustained themselves during ‘resting’ periods through bit parts in films. Cardiff started in movies
as a child actor, making his screen debut in 1918, then became a clapper loader and a focus puller
before moving into camera operation and lighting.
His work behind the camera ranged from the masculine world of John Huston and Errol
Flynn in The African Queen (1951) and The Master of Ballantrae (1953) to ‘80s blockbusters like
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Conan the Destroyer (1984), but his greatest achievements
are generally considered to be the dream-like worlds he created for Powell and Pressburger.
The Red Shoes (1948), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and Black Narcissus (1947), which brought
him an Oscar, have affected and moved audiences since they were released over 60 years ago.
Cardiff had a parallel career as a Director, gaining an Academy Award best direction
nomination for his 1960 version of DH Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. He is also remembered for
the notorious Girl on a Motorcycle (1969) but not for the same artistic reasons. In his later years,
Cardiff withdrew from active filmmaking but continued to be involved in the business through
lectures and conference appearances.
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