What does a film editor do?
You decide what the film is, out of everything that was shot, and the order and the timing are the performance.
Also called: picture editor, offline editor, cutter.
A day looks like
- 1You log and watch everything before you cut anything, because you cannot use material you have not seen.
- 2You build an assembly that is far too long and does not work, on purpose, because it shows you the shape.
- 3You take four frames off a cut and the whole scene starts to play.
- 4You back up. Twice, in two places, because a project file is the only copy of months of decisions.
Hardest part
You have to be willing to lose the shot everybody loves, including you, because the film is better without it. Cutting your own favourite material is the entire discipline.
Best part
A scene that did not work at all, and then works completely, because of a change of eight frames nobody will ever notice.
How you actually become a film editor
- At schoolCutting anything you can get hold of — the portfolio is the qualification.
- TrainingFilm courses help; most editors learn assisting and then cutting.
- How longThree to five years assisting before cutting long-form.
- Your first jobAssistant editor — media management, syncing and backups.
Frequently asked questions
- What does an editor actually decide?
- Which takes are used, what order scenes go in, where a scene starts and ends, and how long every shot lasts. Those choices determine pace, meaning and performance, which is why editing is regarded as a creative role rather than a technical one.
- What is picture lock?
- The point at which the timings of the edit are declared final so that sound, music and grading can be built on them. Changing the cut after lock forces all of that work to be redone.
- What is 'temp love'?
- Becoming attached to a temporary music track that the edit was cut to. The sequence ends up shaped around music that often cannot be licensed, and rebuilding it afterwards is genuinely difficult.
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