Listen to this post:
We got almost everyone on our team to writ e a guest blog post so you could meet them. The timing of this newest one is great because it’s been a long time since this blog had any info on the documentary! Please meet our Editor, Emily von W. Gilbert. The audio recording is my voice. Emily’s really a behind the scenes person, not one to steal the attention by projecting her voice in the microphone. Please enjoy this creative post to introduce you to Emily’s experience of the editing process. (Also, I tried putting the image descriptions right into the post like I usually do. But after more than 30 revisions to get the formatting correct, and it still was super wonky, I took them out. Click on any photo, and the typed image description should pop up with the picture as alternative text.)
For any of you readers on the more literal side of things like I am, be warned: this post has a lot of metaphor and spoof, and it isn’t really what our process was for editing this film. In fact, I didn’t even understand this was a spoof even after the 45th revision of the page. Thankfully, Cynthia clued me in. So funny, that. We all have such different ways of processing images and words, which makes collaboration and community so neat. And this is precisely what makes Emily such an incredible editor, that she can see a series of pictures of just about anything and tease out a story from them. That’s why I often work in collaboration: as sarcastic and satire-oriented as I am myself, I often don’t recognize it when other people use it!
If the pictures Emily chose for this post don’t look familiar to you, they are all from the TV show “Twin Peaks.” If they do look familiar, double-enjoyment.
What Is Editing?
What does the editor do? The editor chops all the footage into little pieces and puts it back together into a film.
How does the editor do it? The editor channels his or her inner Log Lady.
Let’s start at the beginning!
The editor listens:
And then says “Sure, why not?”
The director/producer hands over a hard drive that has all the materials on it. The editor picks up the hard drive and morphs it into a log that can talk (but only to the editor.)
Time passes during which the editor talks to the log and the producer/director wonders what the hell happened.
The producer/director points this out to the editor:
The editor responds with a really thoughtful breakdown of all the important themes and plot points, ideas about arcs and counterpoints, and how to shape the Film to reflect its inherent truth:
The editor relishes these moments that heighten our collective understanding of why we’re making the Films we’re making, and how we can make them even better. Film-making truly is team work!