Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 8 The Production Process 315

the completed motion picture—whether a thirty-second commercial, a

television episode, or a two-hour feature fi lm—are built up and put together,

then broken apart and built up again. Th e fi nal steps in this entire process are

the ones familiar to you as post-production. In fact, building blocks of this

aspect of fi lmmaking have been presented to you from the fi rst unit of this

text, and you have been using the editing process throughout your exercises.

Moreover, during your studies of the sound department in Chapter 3, you

investigated the work of post-production personnel such as sound designers

and editors, foley artists, and composers. To complete our investigation of

the production process, you will examine how the work you are familiar

with compares with standard division of labor and techniques observed on

professional motion picture production.

Head editors generally begin to work on a fi lm just before the start of

principal photography, at which point they may off er recommendations on

certain editing choices from the information in the script. However, the major

contributions of editors typically commence from the fi rst day of shooting

when they assemble the takes that have been selected by the director. On

professional productions, they will work with a team of assistants to sift

through the material and give initial structure to the footage. Editors work to

solve problems of performance between takes and in separate shots, establish

appropriate pace in sequences, oversee the development of rhythm across

scenes, and off er suggestions to the director to fi nd new storytelling solutions

that were not previously apparent through script readings or during shooting.

In addition, editors must develop an eff ective synergy with the sound editing

team and visual eff ects department.

Contemporary Editing

In the early twenty-fi rst century, most editing of moving images is being

performed digitally, even if the initial cinematography is completed on fi lm

negative. Th is has not necessarily reduced the personnel for editing teams,

in particular because the increase in digital shooting has been accompanied

Figure 8-33 Filmmaker Ross

Martin at the editing table in

a twenty-fi rst century digital

home-studio setup with

dual monitors for tracking

source images, sound, and

edited picture on full screen.

(Courtesy Ross Martin)

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