Editor’s Journal – September 1, 2009

I wrote a journal entry yesterday while waiting for the latest cut to burn to DVD. It didn’t have a lesson or an angle so much as it was just me venting in a round about way. I think I hesitated to post it because there was something not quite right about it, something was missing. That’s kind of how I have felt about the cut for the last 5 weeks. I had lost my momentum and my enthusiasm. As an editor, I was kind of just stuck.

The last time I enjoyed watching Heart of Now was at the test screening we had at the end of July. It was a very solid cut, not a perfect cut mind you, but it worked as a whole experience from beginning to end.

The focus group gave some really great feedback on things that we could improve and I’m grateful for that. The most significant critiques pointed toward a few pacing issues, a desire for more music, and a certain supporting character who was painted a little too black and white. This lack of grey was perhaps even influencing their perception of another character to boot.

So Deklun has been working on a few more cues for us, and I’ve been finding places to pick up the pace, as well as trying to find that delicate balance of painting in the grey for the character in question. Luckily the improv process has provided us with different options to address everything of concern. Footage that I never thought would be used is now getting the screen time it deserves. And 8 more minutes have been shaved off of the total run time.

While I liked the individual changes we were making, the film as a whole just wasn’t clicking. For 5 weeks I’ve been stuck in this seemingly never-ending cycle of trying to perfect the items on my list and then watching the cut again. Every time we watched it, it was just kind of unenjoyable and the list of things to tweak grew longer. It was becoming quite tedious.

On top of that I have been learning how truly thin-skinned I actually am. I was well aware that by having a focus group we were inviting criticism. And immediately following that process I was newly energized by their feedback. But as the days past I really started to take a few of the comments too close to heart. I’ve invested so much of myself into this movie that it was hard not to.

But finally, after watching the latest cut tonight, the 5 week bad spell has been broken. The movie has emerged more streamlined, more clear, and more enjoyable then it has ever been. My guess to the last few weeks discomfort is that the test screening cut had its own rhythm, its own pulse if you will. And by implementing these new changes I was adding a new rhythm and a new pulse that wasn’t quite connecting with the old one. And tonight the movie finally found a new groove. Granted I still have a new list of things to tweak, but now I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

A huge thanks to everyone for their interest and support in this long and ongoing process. I say with much hope that we are finally in the home stretch towards picture lock.

Editor’s Journal – May 18, 2009

When I first started the process of cutting this film, it was very hard to get Zak to consider leaving anything out of the cut. Eventually, if I made a good enough argument as to why the story would be stronger without something he would go with it. So you can believe the shock I felt today when he suggested cutting some major scenes from the film.

Let me assure you that his suggestion was not just to get Heart of Now down to a certain length. After watching the cut today it was clear that a few scenes were not as strong as others. And you know if you cut one scene it is going to domino effect a few others. So it is/was terrifying to delete them from the timeline. But after we watched it down, the story really began to move and it also became more focused. It also presented the idea that a few scenes could now be approached in different ways.

The down side is that there are 3 great scenes that were sacrificed because they make no sense without these other scenes to connect them. This may not be a permanent change, but it is something we have to try and consider to tell the best story possible. But man, it really is tough.

Editor’s Journal – February 3, 2009

A scary thought as I date this entry, this journal is a year old.

I’m sorry I have been sucking in the journal update department. I’ve been sort of stuck lately. For a lack of a better analogy, I have gone miles upon miles with this story and I’m really close to the finish line, but it’s these last few feet that are really challenging me.

To keep pushing us towards that finish line, Zak and I brought in some fresh eyes with some fresh perspective. After much time, curiosity, and patience, Kevin has finally seen Heart Of Now.

I gotta say I was scared to get his notes, but it couldn’t have been a better experience. His notes consisted mainly of compliments. And the items that he did have ideas about he referred to as only suggestions.

The most rewarding part of his feedback was to hear which scenes really hit home for him. I had felt emotional towards a lot of the footage back when I originally saw it, which is not the case when I watch it currently. So to hear that all of these decisions that have been made were working, was really exciting for me.

So you are reading this thinking awesome, its done, when can I see this baby…not yet. The running time before finished credits is still 2 hours and 9 minutes. Ideally with credits we would love to have this movie at a nice programable 90 minutes. Realistically that is not going to happen. But Zak and I have been racking our brains on which scenes we could lose since we fixed the problems of V1. We couldn’t do it.

Luckily Kevin has been through all of this before with White Knuckles and he really had the best advice. As politely as he could, without calling us idiots, he informed us that there is no way we could pull anymore scenes. To shave minutes off of the running time he said that all we should be losing is beats, not entire scenes. And he also said to only shave those beats from the first half of the film and to leave the second half alone.

So that’s where I’m at. I cut a minute and 20 seconds worth of beats today and it felt pretty good. Just 10-15 more minutes worth to go…

Editing Dramatic Improv

The hardest lesson I’ve learned while editing dramatic improv is to embrace the imperfections. Usually when editing a scripted scene you look through all of the coverage and pull the best takes with the best performances and cut them together into a tight and/or polished scene. If something isn’t working in the scripted two-shot, you can hide that by cutting to the same line in the close up and the problem is more or less solved. That is not the case when editing Heart of Now.

There was a script, but the dialogue was written only as guide knowing that on the day the scene was shot, the location, the wardrobe, the props, personal experiences, and other various factors would influence and inform something new and natural from the actors who were guided by the director. And to add to this process, the camera operators were also instructed to be in the moment, sometimes acting as the audience’s eyes as a third person in the conversation moving back and forth between the actors.

One of the first scenes I had to cut was a scene on a beach that involved 4 actors, 100% improv, and only one camera to capture it all, thereby creating five very different takes to cut from. After many failed attempts of forcing the best lines together, I finally started looking for bigger moments that could play out with each other and the scene started to present itself to me. Forcing the lines and small pieces together never worked. The physical continuity was probably there, but the emotional continuity and natural rhythms rarely were.

Do I sometimes wish the roaming camera was on this actor instead of that actor when he said that? Sure. Do I wish the actor could have said that differently to build to this? You bet I do. But when I try to change or hide these imperfections I lose the organic human element that this process was used to achieve in the first place.

So I have learned to embrace these imperfections. My job is not to create a different moment. My job is to find the moment with the most emotional truth for the character and for the story and to sculpt that into the best moment it can be for the film.