Inside two difficult edits

As an editor I’m always on the look out for other editors talking about their craft, and often the most interesting stories are how they solved the problems that inevitably appear. Thanks to Twitter two such blog posts have come my way from to US based female editors handling two very different editing challenges…

The first is from @monicaedits (her blog is euphmamistically titled ‘Sh*tting Sparkles’) on how she approached doing live edits at the Grammies – cutting together montages during the show to be shown on later in the same show. When needing to turn around these ultrafast edits Monica pre-edited her montages with old footage and then simply replaced the clips with the new live footage as it came in. Easier said than done. Read all about how she did it here.

Making the scene work

Film editor Jamie Cobb shares how she wrestled with a difficult scene in her edit of Down and Dangerous. A late script addition scene that then turns into a beast of mythical proportions with impossible continuity problems and an overlong running time – but thanks to a little help from Walter Murch she eventually finds a solution. Read all about it here and be encouraged next time you face a scene that really isn’t working.

In her blog post Jamie references the great book – The Conversations: Walter Murch and The Art of Editing Film. Which is probably one of my favourite editing books and deservedly makes it into my previous post – Top 5 books for Film Editors.