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December 10, 2007
Wielding the Big Scissors
There comes a time in the life of a film when you must needs get in amongst it with the Big Scissors.
You spend months writing it. You spend days filming it. You spend hours putting together sequences in the edit. You naturally form an attachment to a film. You begin to forgive its faults, as you would your children. But this is no time for faults. This is a time for Big Scissors.*
BABBLING FOOLS. JC, Susan Jinks, Steve Evets. photo Katrin Freitag
Story. Story. Story. Whether the story is told with words or with pictures it needs to be clear, no flannel. No matter whether it’s a great shot, or a neat edit, if it doesn’t move the story on it shouldn’t be in, it needs to be expunged, without further ado.
BABBLING FOOLS. Steve Evets photo: Katrin Freitag
Mind you this is not always straightforward: when the film is all about the Babbling Fools, a certain amount of babbling foolishness is called for. But determining what is babble, what is foolishness and what is crap is not always easy. Oh! How art doth mimic life.
*SAFETY NOTE: the use of Big Sissors with young offspring is generally frowned upon, unless they have unruly hair.
Posted by john at December 10, 2007 12:41 PM