# Why an Editor’s Cut Should Look Nothing Like The Finished Film ## Метаданные - **Канал:** This Guy Edits - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg - **Дата:** 16.08.2024 - **Длительность:** 23:29 - **Просмотры:** 36,989 ## Описание An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Emmy-nominated editing of FX's critically acclaimed show, *Reservation Dogs*. In this video, we sit down with editors Varun Viswanath, ACE, and Patrick Tuck, who have just been nominated for an Emmy for their work on the final episode of season three. Discover the secrets behind their cutting-edge techniques as they share insights into their creative process, collaborate with the showrunner, and how they seamlessly work with directors to bring this powerful story to life. Take advantage of this chance to learn from the best in the business! Watch "What Editing a Big Movie Looks Like": https://youtu.be/dPXBDjcCrSw?si=8WEYUwO7sWJmpZuP ★- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ★ THIS GUY EDITS (TGE) is a YouTube channel by film editor Sven Pape, an A.C.E. award nominee whose credits include work for directors James Cameron, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Sundance filmmaker Mark Webber. ➜ MY FREE MINI-COURSE- https://secreteditinghacks.com ➜ ONLINE EDITING TRAINING- https://thegotoeditor.com ★- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ★ 00:00 Intro 01:42 The First Cut 04:40 Editing Dialog 09:02 How to Become a Go-To Editor 10:28 The Editor's Unique Approach 14:46 Script Sync vs Select Reels 20:47 Working with the Showrunner 22:50 What Editing a Big Movie Looks Like #reservationdogs #filmediting #emmys2024 ## Содержание ### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg) Intro (somber music) - [Sven] How do top-level TV editors- - Whoo! - Shape a scripted show and get it ready to air? - How is it going? - How are you? - [Sven] Patrick Tuck and Varun Viswanath, ACE. - Nice to meet you! - [Sven] Are the editors on the Golden Globe and the Emmy nominated FX show "Reservation Dogs. " - Two hot coffees. - I don't eat that shit! - Star People food? - No, it's white people food. - [Sven] Cutting over 25 episodes between them. - [Sven] So that hair play transition was already in the editor's cut? - Yes, and it was directed as such. If I could play here, you can see- - [Sven] The series received widespread critical acclaim, including numerous Peabody and Independent Spirit Awards. - [Speaker] Mm-hmm. - [Sven] And Varun and Patrick got an Emmy nomination for Best Editing just last month. - I've been following you, following you on your little Instagrams and your little TikToks, yeah. - [Sven] And is created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi. It features all indigenous writers and directors, and an almost entirely indigenous North American cast and crew running for over three seasons. - You should move the truck over here, so- - Keep pulling, you guys! - Come on, Bear, easy one! - Just hold on a lot to back. - I said. - Ah! - He's wounded. - Maybe we should just drive the truck. - As far as the dialogue goes in terms of changing the voices. - [Sven] I was lucky to not only meet with Varun and Patrick, but also to see their actual editing timelines. When they walked me through their initial editor's cut to working with the directors and showrunners notes to get it to picture log. - Edits that I consider darlings and stuff, I try to break those down in order to understand rhythmically how to make things better. And so part of my process was... - [Sven] This is a rare glimpse on how a TV show comes together in the editing. Are you ready? Let's go. (upbeat music) ### [1:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=102s) The First Cut You wanna give us a little bit of an introduction of what we're gonna be doing today? - We wanna talk about the editing on "Reservation Dogs", special focus on the "Episode 303" titled "Deer Lady. " Both of us worked on together. It went through a lot of restructuring, it was very good on the page, but it needed a lot of restructuring. We're very excited to give you an insight into- - Right. - How we work on TV shows. It opens in flashback. The goal here and the script perspective was to immediately kind of give you the sense that, okay, we're looking at something period. Don't know exactly what the time is, you're trying to pick up the cues, and it takes this slow burn approach that you get hints that's gonna be a traumatic experience, but we kinda ease you into it. If we scrub forward like we have, the children are coming into the school. (somber music) (church bell ringing) - Do any of them speak English? - If they did, they don't like they didn't. Two escaped. - Oh! - Yep, rough country. They won't survive midnight. - And then you start getting an idea of trauma starting here. (speaker speaking in foreign language) Like we show their hair, their braids, which are sacred in most indigenous cultures is cut. And usually kids in this situation, the only time that an indigenous person's hair is cut is usually in mourning when somebody has died, but the stories from these boarding schools is that when they were brought in, they basically got buzz cut, or the kids, the experience for them was traumatic. They thought their parents had died. And so we used that as the trauma point, and it was written in the script to like go from a haircutting to our present day Deer Lady playing with her hair. (somber music) (upbeat music) (somber music) (hair trimmer buzzing) (somber music) - [Sven] So that hair play transition was already in the editor's cut? - [Varun] It was in the editor's cut. - Oh, yeah! - Yeah. (upbeat music) - [Sven] That didn't really read to me as a hair play transition. - Hmm. - [Sven] But later it was much stronger. - [Patrick] Yeah, sound helps a ton with the transition, you're talking about of like, you're hearing the scissors cutting the hair more, (hair trimmer buzzing) and that helps that transition a ton when we got to the next stage. (somber music) - [Sven] So it was actually the sound that made the transition? - Yeah. - [Sven] When I watched it, I would've bet that I saw her as a kid- - Oh right, right. - Hmm. - Hold her hair- - Mm-hmm. - [Sven] And then transition to the shot. Like I was convinced- - Yeah, yeah. - To see that now online. - Yeah. - It's not there. - And I think it's just like boosting up, the razor sound which was already there, and then also- - Mm-hmm. - I'm a firm believer in track effects where... So I always have like a dedicated reverb track that I'll throw stuff on when I need it to sort of bleed through something else in order to feel- - Yeah. - Like things have connective tissue between them. ### [4:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=280s) Editing Dialog (upbeat music) - Ready? Or do you need more time? - Nope, I think I've got it. I can't decide between them, so I'm gonna have an apple pie and a cherry pie. - Okay, a slice of cherry and a slice of apple. (Deer Lady chuckling) - No, not a slice, a whole pie. - [Sven] Varun, you mentioned that it's actually quite good to edit it the way it's written. Can you talk about why it's actually important to have these scripts sort of be maybe a little bit overwritten, or there's more information than we need? - So I make it a point to present an editor's cut that's as close to the script as possible. Not that I don't wanna take a license to change things. One of the big parts of a relationship with the director is to put them at ease that they were able to get what they planned. This is the editor's cut. - You want a whole cherry and a whole apple? - Yeah. Is that allowed? - Okay, I wish I had that kind of metabolism. - (sighing) It's a blessing and it's a curse, believe me. (waitress chuckling) - Well, if I had your figure, I'd be married to some rich asshole laying out by his pool. You want a whole cherry and a whole apple? - Yeah. Is that allowed? - Okay. I wish I had that kind of metabolism. (Deer Lady chuckling) - When the director sees an editor's cut that's exactly structured as the script, I think it puts them at ease because they're also like doing an expectation versus reality check. When they're watching their own work and they're in a very vulnerable place, so managing that is, I believe, it's part of the editor's journey. (keyboard clacking) (swooshing music) (plates clinking) And then I pitch ideas of like, "Hey, I think that we can make these changes, we can lift these lines, we can pull this out. " But also editing is a team sport, filmmaking is a team sport. I don't wanna make decisions without consulting a director. It's my place to pitch changes, and show options, but I don't think I can make it by fiat, and to say this is how I want it to be, that wasn't good enough. - You want some pie? - No, thank you. - Are you sure there's apple and there's cherry. - Yeah, I'll take some pie, some apple pie. - Yeah, I'll take some pie. - That's what I thought. - [Sven] And having extra lines in the script is actually also good for the actors. - Right, it's super, super-beneficial. It gives the actors more of a chance to shape their own performance, and it gives us a chance to help shape their performance as well. Shape the tone and the pacing and everything. And when there are repeated beats or there are points of contention in terms of dialogue that maybe isn't necessary, sometimes that ends up being super-necessary. And so there is sort of like a trope with editors I think- - Hmm. - Where they're like, "Oh, this isn't... No, that should have gone back to the script. " - Yeah. - And I think that's sort of an excuse. It's better if an editor is able to think like, "Oh, but how can I shape this with what we have, even if that's too much? " - A book. (chuckling) - Got it. - [Deer Lady] Still in me. (somber music) - Here! - [Patrick] I think there's a fluidity to it too in terms of the craft. There's things that you can't see on the script like, "Oh, I'm gonna hold on to this zoom in. " - You don't look so well. - [Patrick] And there's gonna be a rise that gets us into the next scene. (plate clinking) And that's the kind of stuff that the editor, I think it's great to bring in to the first pass. You're really focusing on like, how do I do things to execute what they're trying to express? And then the director gets to tell you like, "Oh yeah, that was a great way of doing that", or like, "Oh I didn't think of it that way", or "That's not how I wanted it, I actually want it this way. " And then so that allows for the sort of experimentation on the first cut. - Gabriel? (somber music) - Are you okay? - [Patrick] We'd start hacking away, or we'd start like focusing on pacing changes and stuff, have conversations about these things. You don't want your voice to be the only one making the edit. - Yeah. - And because if you make an edit feel isolated like that, it feels stale. ### [9:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=542s) How to Become a Go-To Editor - [Sven] Now you just learned a very important step in the editing process. Next we're gonna explore how each editor's unique approach helps make the episode even better. There's so much more to becoming a top pro editor, something I call a Go-To Editor. The best way to learn is to experience editing yourself. So I wanna encourage you to take the next step and look a little deeper into our premium editing programs where you get to cut real scripted scenes from a feature that premiered at the LA International Film Festival, and also stars Oscar winner, Melissa Leo. As a Go-To Editor student, you get to cut several scenes. - Ah! - Are you focused? - [Sven] We'll show you start to finish how to put them together, and create an entire story arc. You get detailed feedback from us and your peers, and then when you've cut at least two scenes, you become eligible to participate in any of the upcoming editing bootcamps that are only available to our students. These are with real directors looking to hire. And so far every director that participated has hired one or more of the students to cut a full length feature or a documentary film. These are real films, real dailies, real performances, and you get real skill training on-the-job. So check out the Go-To Editor website to get more intel, enroll in our free mini course, and please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions, or are interested in becoming a Go-To Editor. ### [10:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=628s) The Editor's Unique Approach (upbeat music) - [Sven] So Varun, at this point, so you were on vacation? - Yeah, it was my birthday, there was a wedding in the family, so I was gone for a week and a half, and Patrick agreed to take it on. - [Sven] And then you fixed it. - That's right. - I didn't fix it. - (chuckling) I fixed- - I messed it up and Tuck fixed the others. (Patrick and Varun chuckling) - I mean, it's so important to emphasize how much of a process this is. I do believe that if Varun continued, it would be the same episode. You don't wanna be rude, and you don't wanna say like, "Oh, this doesn't seem right because it's the other editor", but you have to because that's what he would do if he was continuing on the project. And Sterlin said, "Yeah, watch the cut, tell me what you think, and then we'll talk about it. " And then I just watch the cut on my TV, which is also like something I highly recommend because if you watch it on your computer all the time, it feels like you're watching your editing system playback. And I try to watch it on my TV, so it feels like, oh, I'm watching TV, and this is how I would experience TV. And I just note all those things down and then go back. One of those things was, I felt like we weren't in young Deer Lady's POV enough. - Do any of them speak English? - If they did, they don't like they didn't. - [Patrick] I wanted it to be even more in her mindset. The first thing you'll see is, you hear the gibberish sooner. (speakers speaking in foreign language) And I had done that for a small chunk, and when I showed that to Sterling, he was like, "Well, let's do even more, let's push it even further, like let's make this even more disorienting. " (speakers speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (speaker speaking in foreign language) - Because what they're saying is actually not vital, and I think we end up getting it, and you kinda wanna feel with her of like, what is going on? What is this? The more the audience understood was actually making it a weaker POV from young Deer Lady. - [Varun] I remember when I came back, Patrick asked me to watch the cut saying, "Hey, this is where we're at. " (speaker speaking in foreign language) Have a watch, make sure I didn't break anything, right? I really wanted to see where the gibberish landed. (speaker speaking in foreign language) Sometimes like having another editor's perspective gets you out of the structures that you and the director have created yourself. And I think in TV, we've always had this opportunity to have other editors on the same season that we can bounce stuff off, and you're not just by yourself, or just with your assistant editor and the director. (somber music) (speaker speaking in foreign language) - As far as the dialogue goes in terms of changing the voices, we've put on a filter that just like reversed the dialogue, and the mixers went in and recorded ADR that it's just like syllables that are sort of cut into place, very similar to how they did it on the day. (speaker speaking in foreign language) (speaker hitting the girl with stick) (speaker speaking in foreign language) - [Sven] Did I understand this on set they were speaking gibberish? - In some places, in some places. The mix of gibberish to English on set was very different where there was a lot more English and very little gibberish. (speaker speaking in foreign language) That was performed on set like that. - [Sven] And then did you get an alternate take where she speaks English, or that's it? - Yes. When we had both, I always picked gibberish from the source material. We just didn't have enough of it that was gibberish, so we had to figure it out. (speaker speaking in foreign language) - No savage tongue in the house of God. (thrilling music) (speaker speaking in foreign language) - Eh! - Ugh! - Then some of them were like clearly syllabic reversal that you can just write down, not just reverse the word, but take each syllable and like write it the opposite. (speaker speaking in foreign language) (speaker hitting the girl with stick) (speaker speaking in foreign language) The very important thing we wanted to make sure that people weren't like trying to listen, and be like, "Wait, should I have understood that? " Because that would break it entirely, that would break the illusion entirely, and it's so easy to be that. - Mm-hmm. And then we sort of determined in the mix of what felt better, whether it was doing the reverse, keeping it the way that we had it in the cut, or doing the new like syllabic mix up in- - Hmm. - The ADR versions and stuff. And so we cherry-picked like which ones were working and which ones weren't. (somber music) (speaker speaking in foreign language) (speaker hitting the girl with stick) - Ugh! (speaker speaking in foreign language) ### [14:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=886s) Script Sync vs Select Reels (upbeat music) - [Patrick] Script Sync is a tool in Avid where you can literally take the text file of the script from the writers and line up your dailies to the actual lines of the script, so you can click through and watch each take for each line. And it'll actually jump through to the exact point in which that line is, which an assistant editor manually enters into this program. - It is a Avid's representation of a script supervisor's line script. - [Patrick] And these lines will indicate the slate name and the script it starts, where it ends. - Script Sync is invaluable for most editors who work in that space. It helps you navigate through your different takes and your different improvs much quicker. I tend not to use it as much while I am doing my editor's cut, but when it comes to a director's cut or a network cut where they say, "Hey, okay, can we look at other performances of this? " With a script saying, you just click through each of them in quick succession, look at all your takes and say, "Okay, I like that, I don't like that. " - I actually don't use Script Sync that often. - Okay. - I actually use a different method, which is, I make a multi-group of each scene. And much like Script Sync have my assistant go in to this multi-group, which has all the dailies of the scene in it, a red marker for a start, a white marker for a cut, and then in between there all the blue markers are gonna be for each line, but it's not really lines, it's more like beats. Doing each line is too tedious, and I don't usually end up needing that anyways. I have my assistant write out the take one of each line, he'll write it out. If let's say, I am cutting, and I'm looking for a different performance, or coverage of a certain moment, I can just hop through each one, and it jumps through automatically. And what's also super-helpful is when this multi-group is in the timeline, I can just match back to the clip. It will take me straight back here without opening up any bins, without doing anything. So it's very self-sufficient in that way. Much like Final Cut Pro 7 was where like you didn't have to have anything open really to have access to everything. Let's say you're watching takes with a director, and there's multiple takes that he or she likes, then you can go into the comments and write, "Oh yeah, this was Dan's favorite. " Whereas in Script Sync, you would do like a color or something, but I like this 'cause then it's like, Dan's favorite because, and I can put like. If we're looking for more comedy in the scene, or if we're looking for da-da, so it's just like a more malleable way of going through dailies and taking notes. Anything and everything that I think is interesting like, oh, him grinding coffee looks cool in this light, and I like this shot, I'll just pull that bit, and I have a sequence of selects that I'll- - [Sven] Okay, so you pull things as you're watching into a- - Yes. I'd be watching it back and be like, okay, something is interesting there. I like him wiggling in the wide. - [Speaker] Anybody there? - And then maybe I'm probably gonna cut tight, so I probably don't need anything after that, and I'll just plop it in. And as I go through the scene of watching all the dailies, I'll eventually collect a sequence that looks something like this. What this is, is all my selects for the scene, and they're sort of organized by the beat. These are all my selects for the bits of them entering the room. And then the next beat will be, oh, they're having this part of the conversation, and looking at the projector, and we're gonna cut back and forth between that. Okay, we start to get a little more intense, things are a little intimidating. - So are there certain parts of a take that are not in this reel, or you have every version? - Oh no, there's certain parts of a take that are not in this reel. This is my way of weeding out what I consider the fat. And there are repeats, there's tons of repeats. - Yeah. - 'Cause this is just my first step in being like, okay, I like this take, I like this moment, I like this visual, I like this. It's really just a taste-check in terms of what I wanna incorporate into the scene. And it's not my Bible either, I'm going to go back to the dailies, and I'm going- - Okay. - And that's where the markers really come into play and are super-helpful because I can just... Like here this says, line six, take 12. Well, you know what? In the scene, line six, take 12, doesn't work as well, so I'm gonna match back, and it's gonna take me straight back to line six, take 12. And I can see here in the marker window, I have all my line sixes, and all the takes right here, and I can just go, "Oh, let's look at line six, take 13. " "Oh, that's on his back, I don't want that. " - Okay. - Now I can go to 11 and look at that. - Hmm. - And so, for me it's just like a more direct way of going, boom, boom, instead of clicking through a script sort of thing. - [Sven] And then once you've got to sort of your select real gold moments, how do you get to the cut? - Then what I do is, I just start a sequence with the name of the scene, and I just start plopping things in. - [Sven] You're building basically. - Yeah, I don't always start with the first shot of the scene. Sometimes if I don't know how I'm gonna get into a scene, whether that's transitioning from the scene before or something, I'll start with the meat of the scene, and try to figure out like what I like there. And doing that allows me to sort of set up the rhythms that I like in the middle of the scene without focusing- - Hmm. - How to get to the middle of the scene. - Yeah. - Because that part's not really that important. Like it can be, but not always, sometimes it's more important to make sure you're understanding the emotional beats within the dialogue before you're understanding how they even like walk into their mark. (somber music) - Yeah, that's very cool. - [Sven] You have a completely different process? - I tend to do it kind of traditionally where I like literally load up, I watch the dailies, and then I put markers on my dailies for like, I like this line. You can see my keyboard, like this, all these different markers are set up on these function keys. So like good reaction shots, like yellow; if it's a good improv, it would be the dark blue; a line that I like, it would be a light blue, so on and so forth. - [Sven] Do you do your markups on the individual clips? - On the individual clips, yeah. - That's what's cool about collaborating with another editor too. It's not just about the creative aspect too, everyone has their own process- - Yeah. - Of organizing, and their own process of digesting things that they've spent years figuring out, and it's really cool. Most of our conversations are usually about that of like- - Yeah. - "So wait, you do it what way? " (Patrick and Varun laughing) Which is fun. (Varun laughing) It's like it's cool to- - Yeah. - To make the program work for you. - [Sven] There is no one perfect process. - No. - There isn't, no. (upbeat music) ### [20:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=1247s) Working with the Showrunner Sterlin, our showrunner, made independent features based on indigenous topics and sketch comedy trope. So he is very used to doing the entire gamut, so he has edited a lot himself as well. When you hear him directing, he tries to get as many options as possible on set knowing that they're gonna be cut down. And so having a director/showrunner be in that editorial mindset is very useful. And he's told me a couple of times, he said, "I'm pretty sure I got everything that you need, but it's all over the place, so you have to find it. " In many ways I can see that in the script as well from the script stage, not just from the directing stage, the writers puts a lot more on paper than we might need on screen. The script is to get the actors where they need to go, the directors is to get the footage where it needs to go, and in the editing we get it to what it needs to be on the screen for the audience. Our team has gotten very self-aware about that process. What it helps with the actors, especially when we're dealing with topics and communities that haven't had a lot of screen time before where they're really breaking new ground themselves, I think it's very good to be more loose in the beginning, and then honing it as you go down the process. Embrace the idea right from the beginning that editing is the final rewrite. And it helps the actors also play these new trope, which they don't have a lot of comparison or inspiration to take from, creating new ground. It gives them more to play with. It might do a scene that's three pages long, and it has a lot of like life advice back and forth, but in the end it might only end up being 45 seconds. (speaker speaking in foreign language) (footsteps clumping) (utensils rattling) And it's wonderful. I don't see it as much in other shows, but "Reservation Dogs" is where I've experienced it the most where they kind of let everybody in the process explore for themselves. - And I think it goes both ways. - Yeah. - I think if there is a line that was important, there's a conversation there of like, oh, okay, great, then we should get that in there. It didn't click with me, but let's understand why and- - Yeah. - Make sure it makes sense. We are getting everyone's voices from the show into the show. It's just a matter of like, how do we spend our time wisely to make sure we're getting the best output. (upbeat music) ### [22:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxarZ_eZlg&t=1370s) What Editing a Big Movie Looks Like - [Sven] This was TV editing. If you wanna know what it takes to cut a studio movie, check out this video with editors, Arielle and Austin, who cut the thriller "Missing" that made close to 50 million in theaters. - We're back to finishing process, we had everyone working on the computers, so we were just putting computers everywhere. - [Sven] What are we gonna do today? - Today we're gonna take you behind the scenes a little bit of our editing process. - You can see here we have our timelines, we actually built the whole wide like this, and then used adjustment layers. - Okay. - So what the adjustment layers are doing are essentially allowing us to build shots. So anytime there's a new stack of adjustment layers, we're cutting from one shot to another. --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/18136*