Thursday 11 June 2009

The Cutting Edge, Sky Arts 1

I've been planning a post about what screenwriters might be able to gain from Eisenstein and his 'montage' theory - I think screenwriters and film/TV editors have more in common than they may realise.

Anyway, this documentary on editing, showing tonight (Thurs) on Sky Arts 1, might be of interest:

The Cutting Edge

Thursday 11th June, 22.10

Every editor has a story about what they did to save a film, enhance a sequence, or create a magical moment. This documentary examines the often overlooked art of film editing, featuring some of cinema's greatest storytellers. Directors of both Hollywood blockbusters and independent films, including George Lucas, Anthony Minghella, Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron, reveal the close collaboration they have with their editors and how they work magic by clarifying storylines, reshaping scenes and intensifying emotions. Discover the invaluable contribution editing has had to the art of cinema over its history and how what is created on the set is always reinvented and honed in the editing room.

5 comments:

Paul McIntyre said...

As a TV editor and aspiring scriptwriter - I concur. There are many similarities - essentially, with writing, you are editing before you've even shot anything.

I think I write in a very structured was as a result - not sure if this is a good or bad thing yet - I shall ponder.

I'll definately watch out for that doco - thanks for the heads up.

Paul McIntyre said...

Oh look there - it says in your profile that you too are an editor - lovely.

I wonder how many more of us there are out there? We should sort out some kind of secret handshake/salute.

Tom Murphy said...

Thanks a lot for the comments Paul, but I'm afraid I'm not one of your sacred brotherhood - I'm an ol' fashioned words-on-the-screen editor.

Need 3,000 words of guff on the Kazakh oil infrastructure trimmed down to a few pulsating paragraphs? Get Murphy!

Tom Murphy said...

(as unlikely as that may seem from my rambling blog posts...)

Paul McIntyre said...

"Get Murphy!" Should be the name of your TV show. It'd have a theme tune done on synths.

Enjoying the blog, rambling an' all.