Film Reflections
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- 10.Nov
- Why does Hollywood keep making the same movies?
A few nights ago, I watched (and enjoyed) the 70s cult classic Carrie online. When the movie was finished, Netflix recommended similar offerings I might possibly enjoy, and I sadly discovered that Carrie was remade for TV in 2002. Out of sheer curiosity, and with extremely low expectations, I watched the trailer. Not surprisingly, the TV version looked even worse than I imagined. It was a joke, a perversion of the original; a stale, vapid remake like so many other stale, vapid remakes…
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- 16.Aug
- The Art of Editing Comedy
Since the films that have inspired me the most are overwhelmingly dramas, usually darker ones, editing comedy is something I never imagined I’d be doing. But perhaps my forays into comedy not have been without reason. As it turns out, I really enjoy editing comedy and discovered I have a natural instinct for it. Maybe this isn’t so surprising since comedy and drama are really flip sides of the same coin. After all, it’s no accident that the theater masks of ancient Greece represent both comedy and tragedy—comedic moments are frequently precipitated by tragedy (however minor) and tragedies are often incited by absurd, even laughable acts. That said, good comedy is as hard to pull off as drama; in fact, it’s sometimes easier to make people cry than laugh…
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- 10.Jul
- The Hurt Locker
A high-pitch fever dream that explodes in your brain like an IED, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker leaves your head spinning, ears buzzing and veins pumping with adrenaline. “War is a drug,” the film cautions from the outset, but in the hands of Bigelow so is cinema. Though watching a film is hardly a substitute for reality, this one is so realistically shot, so well acted, so tightly edited and precisely sound designed that you come close to feeling the visceral horror, fear, uncertainty, exhaustion, and strange euphoria of war, of living at a level of pure survival where the smallest decision can make the difference between life and death…
Editing
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- 16.Aug
- Consumer Reports Viral Videos
Hip and entertaining with a focus on vehicles, these internet branding videos were intended to introduce Consumer Reports to a younger generation. Each video features a race of one kind or another, pitting funny-man Brandon Taylor against a mild-mannered Consumer Reports test driver named Jake…
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- 27.Jun
- My Dinner with Andre Royo, Part III: From Nothing to Something
What does it mean to start at the very beginning? For that matter, what does the concept of “beginning” mean? And how exactly does a beginner “begin”? These are the questions I now began to contemplate as my understanding of things was shattered by the concept of “beginner’s mind”…
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- 08.May
- My Dinner with Andre Royo, Part II: “Beginner’s Mind”
At the start of a project I’m usually fresh and energetic, and approach the edit as if it were a blank slate. I’m eager to look carefully at all the footage, objective in my assessment of its strengths and weaknesses, open to ideas and connections as they arise, and excited to think about possible themes and storylines. Beyond that, there’s the simple joy of discovering a whole new world I don’t usually know much about, and finding, in the mass of material that passes before my eyes, images which can be beautiful and poetic, meaningful and thought-provoking, when juxtaposed with one another in creative and interesting ways…
News
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- 20.Nov
- Exhibit Earth to screen at The Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen for the U.N. Climate Conference
Three years ago, I cut an environmentally themed science-fiction short called Exhibit Earth. In 2007, Exhibit Earth premiered at the Festival International du Film d’Environment in Paris, France, and was recently selected to screen at a very special film event. I’m pleased to announce that from December 7-19, 2009, the film will play at an environmental film festival in Copenhagen during the United Nations Climate Conference…
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- 12.Nov
- Rockin’ it with Rolling Stone at Bonnaroo 2009
This past summer I got a chance to cut web videos for Rolling Stone at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. Featuring some of the biggest names in music, the festival is like a modern-day Woodstock but cleaner, more organized and admirably sustainable. For four crazy days I soaked in the Bonnaroo buzz and stayed up all night editing artist interviews and live performance footage. Unfortunately, it was more work than play but, even so, it was incredible to be there. Overall, I cut more than 10 videos; here are my five faves…
- 20.Jun
- Stay tuned
This blog is currently undergoing some cosmetic changes. New posts are coming soon.
ABOUT TIMECODE
Timecode is for people who love film enough to appreciate the craft that is at its core, which is editing. It is also for people who love film but aren’t quite sure what editors do—other than trim out “the bad stuff.” Spliced, cut, recollected and sequenced from my own experience as a film editor and filmmaker, Timecode explores the aesthetic and technical concerns of film editing, the art of storytelling, and the mysteries of the creative process. Offering insight, guidelines and criteria, tips, suggestions, and commentary on film, I hope to elucidate the finer points of editing, explain why cuts “work” and help readers appreciate the extent to which editing shapes narratives, enhances performances and builds the moments that make us laugh, cry, cheer and cringe.
WORD / IMAGE
“In the ’60s I thought that editing was the moment of law and order—like the police—on the body of a movie…but in the early ’70s I met [editor] Kim Arcalli, who made me discover that editing could be a fantastic moment, a creative moment…” –Bernardo Bertolucci
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