Editing is referred to by many editors as “The Invisible Art”, By popular definition, if editing is done well, the audience of a particular film should not even notice or pay attention to the details of the editing itself, In other cases, editing is used in unconventional ways to make one pay close attention to the transitions and juxtaposition of certain images and sounds. Watching The Cutting Edge gave some very interesting insight not just into different methods of editing, but the mindset that editors have when piecing together visuals and sounds, as well as the development of editing from the film era to the digital age The power that editors hold in the creation of a film is undeniable, as is shown throughout the documentary, and as is seen clearly throughout every film.
The editor can save a movie, or they can destroy it, a concept that I have often thought of is the way that editing transcends time and place, but it was interesting to think about it being used in ways that I had not thought of before, taking out bad parts, tightening up dialogue, and using shots out of the order they were meant to be used, Editing has the power to completely change the meaning or the feeling of a scene, In contrast to many filmmakers of his era, Eisenstein reveled in his cuts and edits, with the belief that film was a “clash of images and ideas”, This concept of films not merely being a set of parts, but rather the creation of a “third meaning” apart from each image as an individual idea, I think that this holds true in many different ways, as movies can be used to invoke many different emotions, as can individual images.
When viewing a picture, context is either gleaned from visuals present in the photograph, or outside sources, such as a subtitle, caption, or otherwise obtained information. The context of a film, however, is obtained through the interweaving of various visuals and sounds supporting each other and telling a story together. A particular area of conflict that I found interesting was the disagreement on which whether or not the actors should be involved in the editing process, Whereas Walter Murch held that he shouldn’t ever see the actor out of character or outside of the context of the film that he is editing, several other editors invited the actors in to help them edit, allowing them to give input and clarification on certain scenes and shots.
In my personal history, I have found that having actors being involved in the editing process is tricky, many of them want to have their own personal say in what the end goal of the film is, and it often turns out to be a different vision than what I have in mind. One of the things I also have difficulty with is confrontation and standing my ground on matters such as these Overall, it most certainly depends on the people you are working with and the vision of the film. Even though there are many different techniques presented and discussed during the entirety of The Cutting Edge, the focus of the film is not to merely explain how films are made, but rather why they are made.
The only reason why any of the material or techniques are of any significance is because they are used by creators to tell a story The Cutting Edge shows how powerful editing can be in terms of storytelling and the presentation of ideas and art, I have often considered editing as something that is difficult and rigorous, and that it is, but it is also so much more. Editing is an art form that relies on the intuition and artistic talent of the editor and their use of the tools and materials presented to them An interesting aspect of The Cutting Edge was that not all of the people interviewed agreed on everything. The aspects of conflicting beliefs and ideas only further support the concept that editing is an an that is not only objective in terms of purpose of storytelling, but it is subjective to each individual and how they choose to go about telling those stories using the resources given to them That is what editing truly is about, using the material given to you and making the best of it.
