editing my first feature film as a commercial editor

documenting my first foray into ~*movie-making magic*~

first of all, can i just say it absolutely blows my mind that months and years of prep, writing and production—all the combined hard work and man-hours of the entire production crew and cast—gets condensed down to just this?

nothing but pixels and data that fit neatly in my hand. technology, amirite?

and then i sit in my lil study at home, working through a freakin' feature film on a humble imac (on proxies of course). absolutely surreal and kind of dystopian in a "we live in a simulation and we're all just floating data" way

speaking of which, this opportunity came at a great time—right at the start of lockdown so i had no new projects to edit due to the lack of shoots. which meant i could dedicate 2-3 months rather uninterrupted to finish the film in time for its sundance submission! it does feel like the stars aligned for this one

i guess i thought i would write this post because i've always been curious on the process and experience of working on a feature film as a commercial editor myself. it's also a nice way to look back and reflect on what i've learnt to wrap up the experience nicely

workflow

• assembly

i went into editing armed with only the numbered sequences and the script. there was an assistant who prepped all the footages into their corresponding scene number in XMLs and i was told to just start editing from a scene number onwards.

and that, i would say, would be the biggest difference in workflow. i only had the script to work from—no storyboards or shot-lists or additional notes (although i'm sure those were prepared for production). i wouldn't know what the coverage for the scene was until i watched through the rushes, or which shot the director wanted to cut to at any particular moment. it took some time for me to get my footing at the start because sometimes the scene would be long and the amount of information to digest was overwhelming but after i got into the groove of it, it was frankly liberating.

i actually relished having the autonomy of making my own editing decisions that conveyed the information and emotion required for the scene. it really showed me how much power an editor has...not to make this sound like a weird ego-trip hahaha. for example, one scene could have all the action covered on a wide-shot, two-shot, close-up, close-up with camera movement (eg. a dolly-in), reverse shot and cutaways. the decision on which shot to cut to at any moment; and which character to hold on to and for how long, all make a subconscious impact on the viewer's experience. i know this might sound really obvious but after doing many commercial jobs where every shot has been planned and boarded at pre-production, and shot options are actually little to none when it reaches post-production, this was a refreshing reminder on the responsibility and influence of an editor. you really had to tell an emotional story with the materials available on hand.

when i first started tackling the edit, i would make selects while watching through all the takes, but only start assembling after i've watched everything and gotten a full picture of the scene. i wanted to "know everything" before i started "making the cut" and that's my usual process when editing most commercial jobs. this process turned out to be really slow and if there is a lot of footage, sometimes i only finish watching everything after 5 hours (with breaks in between) and by then i had already forgotten what were the good bits at the start.

so i changed to assembling as i watched—i laid a foundation of the shot with the widest coverage on the base layer, and while watching the takes if there was a moment that for sure was better than the previous take, i would replace that moment immediately. every time a moment was good and served the story i would stack it on the sequence, and added to it as i went. at the end of the day i had a frankenstein, messy timeline of the best performances. then i take the next day to watch through it with a fresh mind, clean it up, and discard the pieces that don't fit.

an ~8min sequence would take me about a week and looked a little like this:

2 days - watching through rushes and assembling rough cut

1 day - clean up + pacing for story & dialogue

1 day - add music + re-pacing story to music

1 day - audio + visual effects

~upload, start working on next sequence while waiting for feedback~

1 day - revisions whenever feedback comes in

i actually don't know how other feature film editors do it or what's the most efficient process. there's another editor who assembled the offline for this film alongside me but i've never actually met him and i'm really curious to hear about his workflow and if there is a "proper" process hahaha but unfortunately that conversation can only happen after lockdown.

because the team was rushing to get the film ready for sundance submission and the director was only halfway done with only 2 months to the deadline, myself and another editor split the load and did the remaining of the film. we would polish our sequences and after approval, send our XMLs to the director who put everything together with the help of an assistant. i don't think this is common practice to have multiple editors on one film but this process was great for me! it was like a relay-race so the workload didn't feel overwhelming.

• feedback and revisions

...were done like any commercial job—after finishing a chunk of the film i would upload it on frame.io and make revisions after comments have been made on them.

i also used to wonder if the editor and director would sit through the entire 2hrs of the film while assembling or reviewing it and thought to myself "damn that would be a freakin' long session" but looking back it's quite silly hahahaha i actually just worked on sections of the story at a time, which were usually about 8-10mins screen-time.

• music and pacing

i also used to wonder how editors would pace the film out without any music composed yet. for this project, this director shortlisted and selected soundtracks from other movies he referenced or liked, and we used them as temporary tracks for the offline assembly. after this, i had a renewed appreciation for film scores and composers. some tunes are so memorable they become characteristic of that film, and i love seeing how one melody can be adapted into so many versions and mood to fit the arcs in the story.

initially, i took a long time, around 2 days, to finish placing the music for my sequences. i just wasn't used to such long-forms and silence during dialogue felt comfortable to me hahaha. also, there were so many music tracks to listen through!! and then i took the time to label the temporary music and that's when it clicked and saved me so much time afterwards. also after a few weeks, the tracks start sounding familiar to you so laying the tracks down became more instinctive.

labelling segments in the music tracks according to the mood it invokes

i tend to be very perfectionist and obsessive about music—the transitions have to sound seamless and i have to milk the best bits to fit the story so that took up quite a bit of my time. but it turned out great because i received compliments on my music editing!

and as with commercial jobs, sound effects are so important to give a fuller experience of the film. at little red ants, we always do sound design at the offline stage so this was one workflow that translated well for feature film editing.

difficulties faced

initially, i was daunted by the language barrier—how was i to cut dialogue spoken in a different language? the script i had was in english, this was a vietnamese film...and my command of vietnamese is that of a 1-year old, with the addition of bad words. i was afraid i wouldn't be able to tell if a take was good or bad, and if the actors fumbled their lines.

thankfully, body language is pretty universal and i chose to focus on the emotions in the delivery more than the accuracy of the lines. i figured if the lines were wrong, the director would flag it out to me anyway and i just had to make the revision. that worked out pretty well! i was also lucky to have a personal translator on hand whom i could pass the earphones to and ask "what did they say"when a line or two sounded like it veered off the script :) i must say i think my vietnamese improved after weeks of trying to match the sound of words to the limited vocabulary i knew...

how i got the gig

i believe it was the combination of

1. a prior, positive working experience i had with the director

2. actually manifesting or expressing interest in the film and work ("it would be interesting to try cutting a few scenes for *****!")

3. an existing relationship between my production house and the production team for the film. more specifically, i had the support and backing of my company to pursue this new challenge

i told you, the stars aligned! but you also have to shoot your shot!

some little trivia (i love reading these about films)

• once i was editing so much i reached full inception and dreamt about the film's villain giving me a full back tattoo...but that full back tattoo was just a huge outline of a... rectangle?? yeah i don't know man

• i took so long to edit the last bit of the film because i was crying so much after watching each take i had to pause and clear my vision. the acting was just so goooood

• the whole time throughout the last 3 months, i never had a call or verbal exchange with the director. everything was conveyed through viber, texts and frame.io comments. crazy huh.

• at this moment in time, i have not watched the full assembly of the film! i don't actually know how much of the 35minutes i edited will end up in the final because they are trying to cut down its screen-time now

final reflections

i loved seeing the film in its rough, initial stages. it feels like an exclusive peep behind the magic—what are the effects that are going to be done in online, which were the shots that were done in a green-screen studio... and bloopers!

still kind of surreal i worked on a movie with just a simple setup from the comforts of my home surrounded by cute assistants.

and that's it from me. excited to see this one in cinemas when it's released!!!!