All language subtitles for 19 - Editing Part 2

the key thing is that I usually envision

a great deal of the film

in terms of editing on the page

in drawings

in editing sequences

in edited sequences in

editing designs some

come to fruition some don't

but mostly do

mostly they do

for example

the fight scenes in Raging Bull and that sort of thing

for the most part

were all designed on paper diagrams

drawings etc okay

the thing about

is that she knows how to put it together

she knows what I intend in the original drawings

um even if not looking at the drawings

I could describe it to her

and she knows a certain patterns

she knows what I like that way

and knows how to achieve it technically

and then it's okay

now it's gonna go from here to here to here

and why isn't this working in the mid shot

and why is the third

the middle shot

not quite working

it's a series of three cuts

one two three

and why is the second okay

maybe two frames too long on the second one

take two frames off the second

and so what about adding a frame on the third yeah

add a frame on the third

see that still off

how about taking one framework the second

and putting two frames on the tail on the third

and that sort of thing

understands what to do

and doesn't turn to you and say oh

this is ridiculous

I don't wanna why don't we just leave it as it isn't

going a purer way and simpler

no this is what I'm doing

you know um

and doesn't argue with you on that point you know

it it winds up to in the editing where um

certain things that you think are clear

when you shoot them

are unclear

and so we find different ways together to

clarify those things that

I agree should be clarified

in in many cases

this is taking me to unshotted territory in a way

films that are

pretty much based on strong narrative

or strong storylines as you say

plot more than narrative plot

and I have an aversion to that sometimes

and so screenings are very important

and we get a feedback from people

whether you understand certain things or not

she deciphers it with me for me

and then we talk about those issues

which we try to to clarify

and then at a certain point

I realize the ones I don't want clarified

that's the cast of the

the dye is cast that's it

these won't be clarified

some will get it some won't

some will like it some won't

together we work that out

and it's never been a situation of

losing touch with the picture

because she'll get me there they say

and it's always for the film

not for the

with respect to the studio

with respect to the financiers and other people

other people have great deal of power

in the process

the loyalty is to the film in me

rather than anyone else

and in some cases too

that's one of the reasons I kept working with De Niro

in the 70s you know

a lot of the actors

number of actors

great actors

did at certain points

have that power to recut a picture

but he never took advantage of that

and so um you tend to work with the people

who you see eye to eye with in terms of philosophy

life background

and no matter how many suggestions

no matter how much they work at you

uh the real

uh support is

um my editor

collaborator at Thelma

to keep me on the line

there are certain scenes that I love very much

but we've had to lose them you know

one of the key uh

films we Learned that we Learned to a certain extent

well at least we think anyway um

was after hours

we didn't have the ending of the script for some reason

I forget I'd

it's again as I say

I was trying to learn how to make

try to not learn but yeah

I guess learn is the way

or trying to find a way to make a movie again

along with Michael Ballhouse and the style of the film

all of the sort of thing and so

the ending of the script wasn't very clear

but I figured let's get there

which is not a thing to do by the way

John don't try that

was it even Roman Polanski a few years ago

I told him about the Ghost Rider

I said that last shot is great

he goes always get the last shot first

that works for him

but it worked

last shot on that film is terrific

all his films

you know so once I get the last shot

I know how to do the rest of the film

it's great but again

that's a process for him here

here I was talking about oh

after hours

we didn't really have the ending

I don't know where the hell he was gonna wind up

you know and so I shot the script as

as it was structured originally

and the first cut

I think was two hours and 35 minutes

and you know it's funny

the film is funny but

two hours and 35 minutes it wasn't funny it was heavy

disturbing I don't know what it was

but it wasn't the picture that we had mind

I found that reading something and imagining something

when you shoot it it goes

it takes longer

the time on screen is

is longer for some reason and so um

we had to find ways to trim the story down

until finally we got it to 90 minutes or 87 minutes

the film might forget exactly what

we tested with audiences too um

for the laugh lines

for the laugh

to see if the audience was gonna go

with the game

you know today it's different

today they have cell phones

something like this wouldn't happen

happen a different way

but at that time

there were no cell phones and

um he could not get back uptown

of course you couldn't take it literally anyway

but if you're not willing to go

um if you're not willing to do to

to play the game

then you're not gonna watch the film

so that's something

you're gonna lose that person

that's it but here

when we got them hooked and they went with it

the faster the picture went the better

and so I had to rewrite some scenes

and do some reshooting

uh for like

four days or so

um I shown the picture of Terry Gilliam

um Michael Powell um um

Steve Spielberg um

they would call me with suggestions and things and um

and so what we wound up doing

was cutting two to three of our favorite scenes

out of the picture

that was a painful

painful situation again

what I mean by that is to um

we're very lucky because the film was very low budget

we're able to experiment

and the idea then was to um

learn about script construction even more you know

and understand that certain things read one way

play out longer um and

it's advisable to least

kind of know where the story is going for an ending

to a certain extent

not all the time but in case like that it was

ultimately uh uh

will screen a picture first

we don't show it to anybody's just ourselves

um as something George Lucas always said

he says if you like your first cut

you're in trouble

if you don't get physically ill

seeing your first assembly or rough cut

something's wrong

you always think by the way

you're not gonna get physically ill but you do

maybe a lot of other people

even when the final

final product is shown

I don't know

but um you know

it's not what I wanted

that this is complete

this is misfiring here

that isn't happening there

and we use the edited patterns

but it's not working here and there and so

um we then hone in on what could be

for certain reasons

maybe special effects

visuals or certain problems with availability of actors

certain sections of films

first map to do the middle first or the end

or we find that we got to keep going back to the end

because we always

when we got to the end

we were getting tired and wanted to screen the picture

and we did less work on it

so that needs all the work

then we fix that

and the beginning is long

so we go back to that

and it goes been

just as is a working pre

there is no way to describe a process

you know now

there are some directors who

give the same scene to three editors

they work that way and they

brilliant brilliant

there's some directors

who give a scene to three or four editors

and don't tell them

and come up with some great films

they used to do that

were writers too

that baby still do

have two or three writers working on the same picture

nobody knows

um uh it's so

so there are different ways to go

everybody has a different process

ultimately though

you do have to look at it when it's finished

or you think it's finished

and it's never finished right

it's never finished so