4.1 CADENCE—DIALOG AS YOUR MELODY

After we find our opening shot, and then make sure the audience is safe in the scene with the use of our master, we begin to introduce the dialog of the scene. Sometimes it is the reverse; we pre-lap the dialog of the scene, and then find our opening shot or master to let us know where everyone is in relation to everyone else. Either way, as soon as we have begun our dialog, we have created the first measure of our song. It has a cadence—the actor’s meter sets a pace, and the editor must decide if it needs to be sped up or stretched out. The dialog will be your melody—it is your constant, and sets the pace of the entire scene. It can pick up in tempo, it can have an interval of silence—a rest. But each new phrase will continue inexorably to the end of the scene. The pictures will be woven around these lyrics. Once you have your dialog click track honed, then the additional SFX you add will become integral parts of your proverbial song. They become the additional instruments you add to pepper the dialog and complete the soundscape.

When you have your first cut of the scene, the timing will already be impeccable because your sound track has been incisively trimmed. Your structure will be sound because you have carefully infused your master, or wide enough coverage that allows you to see where everyone is in relation to each other, into your cut periodically. All you have to do to finesse the scene will be to choose which takes you might want to trade out, which cutaways you need to infuse, and which beats might have been missed, and need to be elongated, or possibly removed. Getting the dialog cadence right on your first pass will help make the rest of the work that needs to be done that much easier.

4.2 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 FRAME RULE

•The 2-frame rule—this rule was pointed out to me by my colleague John Heath (Warehouse 13, Picket Fences, St. Elsewhere) while we were cutting Picket Fences. The theory behind this rule is that it is best to cut on motion. For example, you are on your actor’s face in close up and you want to cut to the three-shot as he looks up to see someone enter the room. Allow the performer to turn their head two frames in the close up, and then cut to the three-shot with two frames missing from the start of that action. If the speed with which the actor moves his head is the same in all coverage, this will be a smooth cut. This rule also works if you allow the actor to turn their head for three frames in the close up; just trim three frames off of the ‘B’ side of the cut. And four and four, and so on. It gets harder to match, and therefore less seamless, the more frames you allow on the ‘A’ side.

However, if the actor is inconsistent with the speed of his head turn, you will need to make adjustments on either the ‘A’ or ‘B’ side of the cut, adding more to the side of the cut in which the actor turned their head faster.

•The 4-frame rule—this rule was taught to me by James Galloway ACE (Kane and Abel, A Death in California, Lou Grant). Count four frames before cutting after a question is asked. This is a good place to start, but the scene will dictate whether you need to shave off a frame for cadence, or possibly add one frame because of a cycle of motion. Remember, do not let your actor start to blink at the end of a cut. Allow no dirty frames.

Just like the 8-frame rule, you can play with the timing of these four frames and manipulate the emotional tension and intent of the cut. For example, when the editor starts the response to the question sooner, even creating an overlap, the intensity shifts. When you add a longer pause on the ‘B’ side of the question, you invite the audience to wonder about whether the person is telling the truth, or are they taking the time to make up a story. This will necessitate shaving some frames off of the ‘A’ side of the cut.

Another example of the manipulation of the timing of questions is in the courtroom setting. When a witness has finished their statement, if you have the lawyer quickly pose the next question, the tension rises. After another question is asked, and the momentum is accelerating, there is no time to wait for four frames until you cut to the person on the stand. Each silent frame is given to the witness. We watch them choose to lie, or not. Each frame we add to the head of the ‘B’ side affects how we evaluate their answer.

• The 6-frame rule—this is half a beat. For those of you with a faster heartbeat, it is the 5-frame rule. It is used when you need to add a bit of a moment but not make a meal of it.

• The 8-frame rule—this is the offstage start of a sound that can be placed 8 frames before the on-screen character turns their head to look. It is where you start your pre-lap.

• The 12-frame rule—this is a beat—for some editors with a faster heartbeat, call it the 10-frame rule.

4.3 AIR ON THE ‘A’ AND ‘B’ SIDE OF THE CUT

It is boring to have air on the ‘A’ side of the cut as well as the ‘B.’ Choose who you want to give the moment to, perhaps whose scene it is, and give the extra frames to their side of the cut. If you are having a hard time deciding, think about being that invisible person in the room, and who you would be looking at. Remember, it is your job to keep the story moving forward with each splice and that includes the amount of frames you give to the head or tail of each cut.

4.4 PROJECTILE RULE—CAUSE AND EFFECT

As explained to me by Lou Lombardo ACE, the projectile rule is—if you are on the character as he throws the football downfield, and you let the ball exit the frame and then count two empty frames before cutting, then the ‘B’ side of the cut will be two empty frames before the ball enters. Three-three, four-four, etc. The further the distance, the greater the number of frames. This rule is a great place to start; however, I am not a fan of empty frames, so I keep the timing, but add more of the frames to the ‘B’ side.

Cause and effect cuts should always go together. For example, if you cut to a person throwing a ball, the next cut would be to a person catching the ball. Fire a gun, see what the bullet hits. If an actor shoots someone a dirty look, cut to the recipient of that look.

4.5 MATCH/SHMATCH

Continuity is wonderful. When actors match their physical action throughout their coverage—using the same hand to pick up their coffee cup or wave goodbye—it is marvelous. That is one less handcuff the editor has in the cutting room to make the scene seamless. However, there will be times when trying to match will be impossible. The discontinuity becomes what you must use in the scene so that you can preserve the far better performance of a given actor.

If the scene is working, the dialog is good and the pace of the story is right, chances are the audience will not catch that the actor’s coat is now unbuttoned, or that they kicked the soccer ball with their right foot on the ‘A’ side of the cut and then follow through with their left foot on the ‘B’ side. Match shmatch. Performance and storytelling supersede a match cut any day. Unless of course, the mismatch is so odious that it throws you out of the scene. For example, the actor says their line in the master while entering the room, but then says the line after sitting down in the coverage. No great fixes for that, but if you have to choose which one to use, stay in the first bit of coverage until you can gracefully cut into the closer coverage.

I still prefer matching, but I have learned to use tricks to get around it when necessary. Some hints for circumnavigating matching hell:

• Cut on motion at the start of a cut.

• Recompose the image you cut to with a blow up to create enough of a size change.

• Use sound to distract the audience.

• Cut wide to the master as a last defense. This will help make the audience’s eye get lost in the cut and not see the mismatch.

4.6 OVERMATCHING IN THE MASTER

When you cut out to the master within a scene, you try to match a person’s action from the two-shot or close up on the ‘A’ side—sitting, standing, turning their head—the rule of thumb is to overmatch the action on the ‘B’ side. This means that you repeat two or three frames of the same action from the wide to the close. The reason this works is that the eye gets lost in the frame. If you are editing a feature for the larger screen, overmatch an extra frame or two. This harps back to the ‘10 o’clock rule.’ If in the following shot, you mean to direct the audience’s eye to something that happens at ‘5 or 6 o’clock’ on the screen, you might even add a third frame for more time. If you do not overmatch, the action might be lost in the cut, leaving the audience with a missed moment.

4.7 SPORTS—FOLLOW THE BALL

When you cut a sports sequence, a good rule of thumb is to ‘follow the ball.’ The forward thrust of the story is intertwined with the ball’s progress. The editor must orient the audience frequently to see the ball going from right to left, and left to right. Once you establish which team is going which way, the audience will come to expect that continuity, and will feel safe in the scene. In a courtroom setting, you ‘follow the eyes’ of the participants. When character ‘A’ looks at character ‘B,’ cut from ‘A’ to ‘B.’ In a chase scene, you ‘follow the cars’—being careful to have the pursued car going the same direction as the chase car. It is essential for the editor to orient the audience with a shot that includes both cars. Following the proverbial ball is your center pole.

4.8 DANCING—SEE THE FEET

A note that one of the producers on Divine Madness, Howard Jeffrey (West Side Story, Turning Point, Divine Madness), gave me was that it is essential to always see the footwork of the dancers. This often meant cutting to the master, the only shot that incorporated the feet. Since the master can disengage the audience, the editor must try to utilize the master judiciously, saving it for the extra special bits where the feet ‘fly.’

4.9 MONTAGE—JUXTAPOSE IMAGES

A montage is a series of shots with jump cuts or dissolves, and is useful to condense time, to add comic relief or heighten emotional moments. It is often underscored with music, or sound effects, or lack of added sounds for a dramatic effect.

We have talked about joining images, and how gracefully we can connect them when the editor knows where the audience’s eyes are in the frame. It is essential for the editor to also place one image on top of another in a careful juxtaposition when creating dissolves or montages. For example when the actor is on the left side of the frame, dissolving through to something on the right side of the frame will look planned and elegant—it fills the frame evenly. The idea is to edit seamlessly from one image to the next, with as clean a transition as possible, honoring both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides of the dissolve.

When choosing a stock shot to precede a scene, make sure the stock shot will follow the previous scene artistically as well as lead the audience into the first shot of the new sequence with either cuts or dissolves. Determine where you left the audience’s eyes, choose a stock shot that is pretty, informative and will juxtapose well with the outgoing and incoming scene.

During a telephone call scene, the editor must try to make the conversation intimate, almost as if the actors were in the same room. It will orient the audience to have each character facing each other. Often, these phone conversations are shot on different days and if either the script supervisor or director has overlooked the screen direction, then the editor is left with two characters facing the same way or looking opposite ways. One trick solution that works on occasion is to flop the film. If the camera is tracking around the actor, look for places to cut that will put the characters facing each other if only for a cutaway (see Chapter 5.9).

4.10 COME BACK TO A CHARACTER IN THE SAME POSITION

When you cut away from an actor for a reaction shot or responsive dialog, and then cut back to the first actor, it is less disorienting to find them in the same position they were in before you cut away. This applies especially to telephone conversations. If they are standing, cut back to them standing, before they sit down. If they are in the doorway, cut back to them in the doorway before they cross the room. If you change their position off screen during the cutaway, it will bump on the return cut. There will be times when this is impossible. Then the editor should explore other coverage or the master to obfuscate this discontinuity.

This same rule applies to the emotional changes of a character. A mood change, facial change, as well as a physical change must not happen off screen. The audience will feel robbed of the transitional beat and the emotional content of the moment. You will lose an opportunity to see into the character’s thought process that helps propel the story.

Sometimes it is best to stay with a performance from one given take—so that both physical and emotional arcs remain continuous and organic in performance. Be careful when you do interchange takes. Make sure that the camera size remained the same. If the new take is framed differently, resize the image to match the previously used take.

The editor strives to cut in all the beats, moments and nuance of the performance and script—including the unwritten dialog beats that are the undercurrent of the scene. However, one of the first changes the producers or studio might ask for is to take out the air in the scene. There will be various ways within the scene to accomplish this note. Though I am not a fan of post-lapping dialog, it is a better fix than finding the actor in a different position. It allows the dialog to continue which will pace up the scene, and still captures the change of position. I suggest you trim up the scene elsewhere, before you sacrifice the ‘same position’ rule.

4.11 THE EYES HAVE IT

We naturally seek the eyes of our actors to help inform us what they are thinking and feeling. When character ‘A’ seeks eye contact with character ‘B’ in the room, the editor can use that look to motivate the cut from ‘A’ to ‘B.’ Just like the ‘projectile rule’ and the ‘cause and effect rule,’ when character ‘A’ looks (cause) at ‘B,’ we cut (effect) to them. This causal relationship will get you ‘around the room’ in your cutting pattern. For example, in a courtroom scene, as the witness testifies, we cut to a reaction of character ‘A,’ nodding her head and then looking over to the jury, where juror ‘B’ is nodding his head too. Each look gets us to the next cut gracefully, and we end on the juror agreeing with ‘A.’ We have told the audience who is agreeing with whom, who might be winning this case and the veracity of the witness. Their looks have made the cutting pattern simple and clean. These looks between characters get you ‘around the room’ in dialog scenes, parties, sports events, conference rooms, dinner tables and countless more. It is how you lead the audience to know, feel and understand the subtext of a scene.

4.12 NEVER LEAVE ANYONE HANGING TO DRY

When you choose the takes to use in a scene, always protect the actors’ performances. You must also protect the director, the DP and the script. For example, if one take has a boom shadow across an actor’s face, look for another so that you do not leave the DP hanging to dry. If none exists, then the editor needs to red flag it for VFX to remove the shadow. If VFX is not an option, then the editor should adjust the cutting pattern so that the part of the take used does not include the shadow. As the editor, your choice of performance and which takes to use for reaction cutaways is paramount to the success of the story being told. If the performance is strong and believable, but there are matching issues with the counter coverage, the editor must sacrifice matching for the best performance. The same theory holds true for dialog—if there are written lines that do not ring true, either at script level or once it has been shot, the editor should at least try to defend taking out this dialog, risking the ire of the writer/producer. If the actors have strayed from the written dialog during the scene, the editor should look for the takes where the correct dialog is spoken. If there are no takes with the correct dialog, consider cutting away from the actor so that you might loop the correct line in post. If there are bumps in the camera move, wardrobe mishaps, hair or makeup mistakes, or sound issues, always look for another take that will not leave any crewmember hanging to dry.

4.13 ONE-EYE RULE

Jonathan Pontell (The Practice, Ally McBeal, Nashville) shared the one-eye rule with me on Picket Fences. It helps so much, and supports the theory that the audience is really watching the performers’ eyes. As the actor exits frame, and one of his eyes is no longer visible, cut to your next shot. The audience loses interest when they can no longer see at least one eye, so our attention as the viewer reverts back to the now-empty frame. You want to avoid this, and keep the attention of the audience moving forward with the story. This rule is a great place to start when deciding where to cut away, but the speed of the exit or possible head turn will determine if you need to add a frame or two. If there is an eye blink as they exit frame, then cut before or after the blink is completed.

4.14 METER—PAUSES, COMMAS AND PARENTHETICAL PHRASES

Meter is defined as a measured rhythm in verse. There is a rhythmic flow in film that is set forth by the actors’ performances and their dialog. Language, music and film share this common bond. Once the editor sets the pace of the dialog by altering slow or fast deliveries of lines and changing the meter of the scene, there will be a natural cadence to the sequence.

When there is a natural pause, or a comma in the dialog or a parenthetical phrase, this is a good place to cut. For example, Shakespeare wrote, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Each of these phrases, separated by a comma, would be a natural place to cut. There is a measured rhythm in the sentence that allows the audience to be ready for the next bit of sound. This is a guideline, and overuse will make your cutting patterns predictable and mechanical which will diminish the desired effect. Changing the syntax of your cuts, by changing their duration, will help keep your editing fresh.

As we’ve discussed, the dialog is the first thing you consider before you make your initial picture cut in the scene. The cadence of the dialog sets the tone of the scene. It is the essential ingredient in what will become the sound architecture. The editor is not compelled to keep the rhythms of the actor; you must feel empowered to pace up performances, pull up dialog or stretch it like taffy and create the beats and moments that the script calls for. It is what I refer to as the ‘click track’ or metronome of the scene. The dialog is the first ‘musical instrument’ of your orchestrated scene; it comes in measures—with a cadence, divided into beats. It has a life of its own. The syntax of the first phrase prepares us to expect the next phrase to come in similar cadence—you know it is coming and you feel ‘safe.’

Before the editor hands the film over to the director and the producers, he sets the pace of the movie, decides which angles to use, what size the shot should be and which actor to be on for which lines. We massage the emotional heights of the audience’s experience with a chosen shot and the performance they hear. The auditory experience is of equal, if not greater, importance to the visual tale. It is the editor’s job to marry these worlds, picture and sound, so that they fit together in an intricate tapestry.

4.15 PRE-LAPPING AND POST-LAPPING SOUND

In Chapter 3.7 we discussed layering sound and pre-lapping as a form of pulling your audience forward. When we hear the offstage voice, and see our actor look towards that voice, and then cut to that voice, we have gently asked the audience to follow—organically guiding them to the next bit of story. We are using the ‘8-frame rule’ (see Chapter 4.2), the ‘projectile rule— cause and effect’ (see Chapter 4.4) and the layering rule (see Chapter 3.7). If the editor does not pre-lap the incoming dialog (or sound effect or music), the audience will feel pushed rather than pulled. This can be an advantage if you mean to impact the audience with some force. Cutting on the first frame of dialog is crisp, adds tension and will make the audience pay attention closely. Pre-lapping is a device that can be overused, but when in doubt, err on the side of the pre-lap instead of post-lap.

Post-lapping sound must be used judiciously, because the audience will feel like they have ‘missed’ something if you cut away too soon. It does help to take out the air in a scene, but at what cost? The editor can often succeed with post-lapping if the dialog is predictable. For example, if an actor sings ‘happy birthday,’ by the time you get to the final phrase of ‘happy birthday to you,’ the audience is ready to look at the reaction of the birthday girl before the phrase has ended. Any predictable phrase is fair game for an earlier cut to a reaction without fear of shortchanging the audience.

I like to pre-lap my dialog as I edit so I use the Steve Cohen ACE (Editor/ Author of Avid Agility) editing tip to make this a simple procedure (option/ overwrite with three point editing). Follow this method to the end of your scene, and if you are diligent about the pacing of the dialog, you will find that when there are changes made by directors and producers, they will come in the form of dialog lifts, performance alts or the size of the shot—not the pace of the scene.

Cutting your dialog in syncopated time is interesting too. This could be a cut of long duration followed by a couple of much shorter cuts. It’s a disturbance of the regular flow of rhythm that adds interest to the pacing of the scene. It is a storytelling choice that is as musical as the pattern described previously. You have changed the beat but it is predictable and safe in its own way. It keeps the hopefully captive audience engaged and on the edge of their seat.

Either way, it is most important to choose which style serves the story best. It changes from scene to scene, based upon the emotional construct of the film.

Whichever style of editing you use, and whatever the pace of any given scene, treat your audience to a layering of each sound, from dialog to music, so that the soundscape is enmeshed in an orchestrated concert—always tumbling forward. You will have created a symphonic support structure for your movie.

4.16 BAND-AIDS^®—CONSONANTS, SPEECH BLENDS, SFX AND MX

When problems arise with dailies, the editor can resort to using sound as a Band-aid®. One of the many reasons that pre-lapping dialog works is because any sound that starts on the ‘A’ side of a cut and continues onto the ‘B’ side helps mitigate the discomfort to the eye when we splice from one image to another. Use consonants and speech blends that are called digraphs (i.e. ch (‘chip’), sh (‘shut’), ph (‘phone’), th (‘theater’), ng (‘sing’)). Use sound effects and music as a Band-aid® to obfuscate mismatches, hard 180º cuts that cross the line and transitions to a new scene. These digraphs and consonants work because they are more than one frame. Notice that the letters ‘s’ or ‘f’ are easy to use when splicing together two separate takes. It is because they take more than 2 or 3 frames in a recording. When you use the first frame of the ‘s’ on the ‘A’ side of the cut, and then make the transition to the ‘B’ side using the second frame of the ‘s’ from the other take, they will go together seamlessly.

After the editor makes his first pass on a scene, there might be an area that needs some tidying up. Perhaps you have struggled with discontinuity and chosen the best performance instead; there might be difficult angles to mesh together because the director has ‘crossed the line’ or covered the scene in 180º reverse angles.

Sound effects, backgrounds and walla make great Band-aids®. A Doppler horn-by, a distant train whistle, crowd noises, a door slam and many more help an edit. The sound can be introduced on the ‘A’ side gently, at first just a part of the symphony of sounds, and slowly reaches the audience’s consciousness before the cut, so that when it finishes on the ‘B’ side they are unaware of its visual purpose. Be sure that these additional sounds do not fight the dialog. The editor must never fall in love with their soundscape so much that the levels overwhelm the written word. The SFX are just a Band-aid® in some places, but the story must always take precedence and the extra sounds must fit around the dialog the way instruments in a symphony layer together to become part of the whole experience. Every once in a while, they get a solo. It is the editor alone who will know the intricate patterns of where and when the sound intermingles with the dialog and picture.

If you cut your scene with the cadence of your dialog paced carefully, you will make fewer passes and save so much time. The second line of dialog you cut in will help determine where your next picture cut should be. The editor has to choose the selected take, the size of the coverage, but the sound will dictate where you cut away on the ‘A’ side and where you come into the dialog on the ‘B’ side. If the sound is right, the picture will follow, and you will only have to adjust a frame or two to compensate for dirty frames, stray movements or awkward moments. This shortens the amount of time it takes to make your scene architecturally sound.

Using MX as a Band-aid® is even easier than finding the cadence for your dialog. If you have ever edited a music video or even a home movie, you know that music is a saving grace for many cuts. This is because there is a beat we can easily identify and use to our advantage. Cutting on the beat is simply keeping the cadence of the music as we try to do in a dialog scene (see Chapter 4.1).

There are many sound Band-aids® for your splices that help smooth a cut. If you have exhausted your film cutting options, and the splice remains challenged, your sound becomes your next resource. Use a train-by to span the cut, use an offstage waiter calling out in the background, add the sound effect of a glass breaking, anything that will bridge the ‘A’ side to the ‘B’ side of the cut.

4.17 SOUNDSCAPE

One of the ways to elevate your worth as an editor on a film is to take total responsibility for the soundscape, from dialog (cadence and selection of performance), to a full palette of backgrounds (presence, walla, exterior sounds of traffic, horns, birds and cars), and music (score and needle drops). Sound is more than 50 percent of your creative input while sculpting a film. It supports, it heightens and it is a vital component without which your first assembly is incomplete.

A simple rule of thumb about what sound effects to put in is, ‘if you see it, track it.’ For example, if there is a pigeon flying by, a child crying in the crowd, a cash register in the restaurant, you must add these sounds to your editor’s cut. They are elemental. Go above and beyond with these sounds, and add your own backdrop of sounds that add relevance to the scene.

There is an art to adding SFX to the movie. Many editors leave it to the SFX editing team, allowing them to formulate a sound design. There are many brilliant supervising sound editors who will not only elevate the picture with their innovative techniques, but contribute to the ‘stories’ that are told off stage in the backgrounds. However, the SFX department works in a bubble. They often do not communicate with the MX composer, or know which needle drop will be played during the scene or when it starts or stops. The sound department divvies up the movie amongst many editors—the SFX editor, dialog editor, ADR editor, foley editor—creating a cluster of sounds that might occur at the same time which will compete for the audience’s attention. There is a supervising editor, who is charged with overseeing these glitches, but oftentimes the only opportunity to hear all of the tracks played together is on the dub stage. It is too late to make substantial changes. However, your sound work will be archived for the dub stage so that if the producers or director want to revert to your original work, it is available.

A fix for this possible occurrence is to take charge of your film and carefully lay in all the tracks that will complete the picture. If there is a bicycle in the road, cut in the sound of the spokes turning, the brakes squealing, the whoosh of wind as it goes by. If there are people in the street, hear their footsteps as they come by camera, cut in a general walla, with a few specific ‘call-outs,’ and Doppler conversations as they pass by your actors—perhaps in a language other than English. Sweeten silverware, glasses clinking, dishes rattling, cash registers, wooden seats creaking, doors sliding, allowing walla to raise when the door is opened to the outside world, and then lower it as the door closes. There are countless sounds you can use to your advantage.

After you are content that you have tracked every sound you need to, you may add music if the scene calls for it. If you feel music will elevate the story or heighten the emotional content, you must identify where the music will start, where it will end, which character or story point you are scoring. Some editors prefer to wait until they have watched the entire movie before they score or add a needle drop. I am more inclined to wait to add music on features when I have the luxury of time to screen and feel where the music belongs. However, in television, the editor often has to hand over their cut without the benefit of a day or two to ruminate about music and I feel that I have done a disservice to the film to deliver it without both SFX and MX. The editor is the only person who has full knowledge of every dialog track, every sound effect and every picture cut, and therefore sits in the best seat to determine how to layer all the elements that work symbiotically in a scene. For example, you do not want to have a musical drumbeat on top of a horn honking, or a walla call-out if it steps on an important line of dialog. Your editor’s cut is sometimes the last time you get to have input in the overall feel of the film, from pacing, to shot choices, to performance choices and the soundtrack package. Make it count.

4.18 MUSIC

Placing music is a bit tricky and ultimately subjective. There are so many decisions to be made—where to start the cue, where to stop it, what emotion are you playing to, should it be a needle drop with lyrics, should it stop and start again, where does the mood shift—these are just a few of the issues. The biggest problem, however, is that music is a matter of taste, and it becomes a challenge to please different producers’ sensibilities. Be mindful of the generation gaps between you and the producers and know which audience you are playing to. There are minefields in some venues.

One task that you should accomplish is to archive scores from movies. Give each cut a description—which genres it supports. Listen to the scores in your car driving to and from work, at home, and every chance you have, to familiarize yourself with an eclectic array of composers. Listen to all sorts of music—rap, hip-hop, classical, rock, techno, house, R&B, soul, urban, opera, country and world music. Stretch. Being able to temp track a show will set you apart from your contemporaries, which allows you to shine in one more area.

Understand that songs are comprised of intros, choruses, verses, bridges and outros (or codas). Mark the first module of sound, the first frame of the lyric, the first downbeat of every verse, where the chorus starts and ends, the start of the outro, the last mod of the lyric and the final phrase of the last measure. These are the cut points when tracking, and the editor determines where these hits should be placed in conjunction with the dialog as well as the start and end of a scene.

Music makes the heart soar. It is a powerful tool in your film because it can make your audience cry, or laugh or feel more involved and a part of the actors’ world. It adds a sense of fun, sex and entertainment. It can change the entire tone of the movie.

Knowing how to choose your score comes naturally, especially if you take some time to listen to your favorite films, and reverse engineer how these films were scored.

Here are some standard rules:

• Play-on (score)

This is the piece of music selected for the start of an act in television. In general, most acts have a play-on. They add energy at the top of an act, they invite the audience to the screen and offer up a bit of intrigue or fun, and set the tone for the incoming story. Towards the end of the film, the play-ons can be darker and more mysterious. Not all acts have a play-on, but it is wise to have one selected for your first cut. It is easier to delete it than to search for one with a room full of producers or your director. It might not be exactly right, but it will be in the ballpark, underlining the right emotions. Some editors prefer to track the movie after their first cut viewing, when they have a better idea of where the story as a whole needs to be supported with music. This is a personal choice. Just remember to save enough time before your cut is shipped to the director to address the many scenes that will need music.

• Play-on (needle drop)

Sometimes it is a needle drop that fits the opening, and your main obstacles to overcome will be to decide where the lyrics should start, how long they will play before dialog begins and how to elegantly segue the drop to a ‘quieter’ section of the song or a part with no lyrics. One trick is to ask your music supervisor to send the instrumental version of the song as well, making it easier to switch back and forth, in and out of lyrics. There are at least three or four cuts you will need to make in the drop: an intro, cut to lyrics, cut to instrumental to make room for dialog and an ending (that hits the last cut and spills over into the next scene). It is important to make these cuts and stay in cadence so that no one can hear your edit. I like to tap my fingers starting with the music on the ‘A’ side, and when we get to the ‘B’ side, if my tapping is in sync with the meter of the song, then I have not butchered the song too badly. As a backup—if you are pretty sure that the song will be used, and the picture will not change drastically, you can ask your music editor to take a look at a QuickTime of the scene, and help you with the MX cut. They might suggest shaving a frame or two, or adding a beat to one side of the cut or, if you are in good graces, perhaps they will make a better MX cut for you.

• End of act cues

There are some occasions when sound design alone can end an act, but more often than not, the editor will have to find a musical out. There is usually a second or two of black that the editor is allowed to add to the end of the act over which music can resonate. Choose a wonderful downbeat to hit the last splice, whether it is a needle drop or a bit of score. Be aware that you must leave the audiences during the early acts with hope, the middle acts with mystery and problems to be settled, and the ending act with resolution—these emotions are communicated with the piece of music the editor chooses and can often be found in your MX bins from previous seasons.

• Naming the tracks

When the music editor numbers and names the cues from a locked show, there is a roadmap for finding your play-ons, end-of-act cues and a title that will indicate the kind of music you might be looking for. For example, 2M01 is Act 2, first bit of score. If it were a needle drop, it would have been labeled 2ND01. The final piece of score in Act 2 might be 2M15. The first bit of score in Act 3 is 3M01. They have names assigned to each piece, ‘Annie finds the safe,’ or ‘Auggie chased by terrorist,’ or ‘Joan and Arthur kiss.’ Using this numbering and naming system will help the editor track the current project. When looking for a play-on, you simply go to 1M01, or 2M01, or if you need an act out piece, use the last bit of music in the bin labeled 2M15, or 3M16. The rest of the score you need will be obviated by their titles, so that you can quickly find chase music, love scene music, or mystery music. It will also help if you tag the score in the comment column so that you can sort them by play-ons, act outs and various emotional signature pieces.

• Temp track

The question arises about which score to use in your temp track. I like to use my composer’s library, or past seasons’ score for several reasons. I like to honor my composer, and I know that the composer’s body of work is what my producers like. I know which pieces of his work are successful for chases, love scenes, fights, danger, montages and play-ons. When I cannot find a piece from this body of work, I will look outside and find film tracks that will work. Oftentimes, my favorite scores from movies are too big for the small screen, and I have to narrow my search away from large orchestral pieces. On features, the sky’s the limit, but I still prefer to use the composer’s body of work. The chances of the composer on a television show being able to replicate a James Newton Howard score in five days is small. If the producers have fallen in love with my temp track, and the composer does not have the time, nor possibly the talent, I will have set an impossible task for him. The flip side of this is that there are some successes with an incredible temp track that the composer will be able to emulate, pushing him to stretch beyond his normal palette. It is great when this works, but ever so disappointing when it does not.

• Where to start the cue

This is a subjective decision, varying amongst producers, directors and editors; differing between television and features. A good guideline for choosing where the music comes in can be ascertained by asking yourself some key questions:

− Who does the scene belong to?

There is usually one character in the scene who is more important than the others. Ask yourself, who do you most want to see and who do you most care about? Chances are you will need to underline this character’s emotional journey with temp music. If the scene belongs to both characters in a scene, integrate a separate cue to underline the counterpoint emotion.

− Which emotion are you underlining?

Is it the tension of the moment, the love triangle that is blooming or the long arc foreshadowing of the tragic affair? You must make a decision about which emotion you want to highlight and elevate. Sometimes it is a combination of all of the emotions that need to be supported and the temp score will have to be cut so that each story shift during the scene is honored.

− What part of the dialog triggers a cue?

First and foremost, allow the dialog (e.g. “Let’s go!” or “I love you!” or “You’re fired!”) to reign, and let the music follow its lead. If the music precedes the story point, you will have ‘telegraphed’ the incoming dialog. In television this is an absolute ‘no-no’ since it is a writer’s medium. There is more wiggle room in a feature, and there are times when a cue may start, often insidiously, foreshadowing the soon to be revealed drama on screen.

− Do I really need a cue?

Ask yourself if the scene is made better by the tracks you have added. Does it make you cry harder? Does it make you laugh louder? Does it make you more scared? Does it hold your interest longer? If all the track is doing is hiding some ill-conceived dailies, or rough spots in your cut, then be ready to take criticism for hiding behind the music as a saving grace. The scene must stand on its own without the Band-aid® of music.

We have talked about the dialog being your melody and as you add sound effects and temp music, it must be in cadence with your dialog, carefully entering in between phrases and forming a harmonious counterpoint. These meticulously placed sounds combine to make the overall effect of your symphony that much more heightened.

• Where to end the cue?

Here are some standard guidelines on where and how to end a cue. In television, the cue can:

− End on a downbeat on the splice.

− End on the splice but allow some ending notes to resonate over the cut to the ‘B’ side.

− End on the splice but allow the last measure of the music to play into the next scene.

− End the MX before the end of the scene, allowing the last few lines of dialog to be the dramatic end of the scene.

− Music in a scene can end anywhere. It can end towards the beginning of the scene or the middle, if the emotion it is scoring has played out and the scene shifts to new ideas.

Once you have enhanced the emotion in the scene with your cue, it is sometimes wise to let the cue shift to a less informative tone and allow it to finish. It has run its course and accomplished what you needed. Take the time to find a part of the temp cue, often the last few phrases of the piece, to end your piece gracefully and not allow the audience to hear the cut. On features, the editor is able to play music through more than one scene, allowing the music to segue into the following sequence. This is rare in tele vision, perhaps because it fights the dialog-driven medium of the small screen.

• Mixing the cue

Take care to alter the levels of the cue, feathering it in, weaving it under dialog, and raising it for emotional effect in between or after the dialog has paused. Sometimes just lowering the level will sell a track to a producer as it does not fight dialog.

• Over-scoring

After the dailies are cut together into scenes and sequences, and the editor views it for the first time as a film from beginning to end, it will become obvious that there might be too much music in the show. The overall effect of that is numbing, diminishing the effect of the viable cues. If you have time, play the movie dry, then decide which scenes were most enhanced by the presence of music. Then re-infuse a portion of your temp score into the show. Change out the cues that need a bit more bite or charm or tension—whatever is lacking emotionally. Less is always more when it comes to scoring, and producers are put off by the ‘wrong’ bit of temp music more than the absence of it.

• Use several tracks to compose your own score

There are scenes that are hard to score because of the countless shifts in story and attitudes. After searching your composer’s database, and trying separate scores of your favorite composers, and you find there is still nothing you have in your bins to perfectly underline the myriad of emotions, then it is time to ‘create’ your own score. Find a bit of MX tone, and place it under the scene. Find the heartbeat, the rhythm track to drive the scene, and start it underneath the tone at a precipitous moment in the cut. Find a ‘melody’ that you can now infuse in your MX tracks that combines them well and pulls at the audience’s heartstrings during a pivotal moment in the scene. When you add sound effects to this ‘symphony’ it will increase the audience’s emotions that you are playing to. A careful placement of a church bell, a distant whining ambulance, the roar of an ocean—these will add immeasurable heights to your final tapestry.

In summary, watch a few of your favorite films and listen to the score. Make note of where/when it starts, how/when it stops. Does it creep up on your consciousness with a single note or tone? (strings, wind instruments). Does it start with a concussive chord? (guitar, piano). Note the emotional impact these different approaches have on you. Watch your producers’ and director’s body of work and discover how they use music. See if there is a pattern to whether they like to have music play through more than one scene. If you take the time to analyze the use of music in your favorite films or television shows, then you can begin to emulate, and then to finally infuse your own natural instincts.

4.19 THE ART OF JUMP•CUTS

Anyone can jump cut through a scene. However, to do it gracefully and with impact is an art.

There are scenes that lend themselves to jump cutting:

• Active searches—an actor looks for evidence, opening drawers, closets, looking behind curtains.

• Passage of time—the performer writes a love letter, tosses it towards basket, writes more, crumbles paper, leaves room, slams door.

• Comedic moments—interview montage, a bevy of faces; dressing montage, an assortment of clothes being tried on and disposed of.

One of the problems that editors must help solve is trimming the picture down to format length for television. There are also features that are over three hours in first cut and must abide by certain studio and distribution rigors regardless of the director having final cut. The first bit of film to go is usually the grand openings of scenes, the crane shots that swoop down onto the set and then find the actors in the scene, before starting any dialog. David E. Kelley calls this shoe leather and these shots rarely survived his pass. Next candidate to go is the comedy, the jokes that do not further the story but only provide the usually much needed comic relief. The next extraction will be deleting a line here or there that is repetitive, or speaks only to sub-plot. The subplots are the next to go, resulting in lifting your ‘C’ or ‘D’ story. And yet, you find yourself still over footage. Short of lifting entire scenes, the editor must determine innovative ways to trim the movie without ‘hurting’ the story. One fix is to jump cut through scenes that lend themselves to this technique. The editor might even be able to preserve some of the director’s vision, and the writer’s carefully interwoven parallel stories, by taking out enough time through jump cuts.

Another problem that jump cutting can fix is when a scene is too long, and the audience’s interest begins to wane. Trimming out the fat, and getting straight to the more engaging parts of the scene, will preserve this scene in the movie. In the film Erin Brockovich, Annie Coates ACE (Lawrence of Arabia, In the Line of Fire, Unfaithful) did a beautiful job of jump cutting the scene in which Julia Roberts (‘Erin’) and Aaron Eckhart (‘George’) are chatting in bed. Stephen Mirrione ACE inspired a generation of editors with his artful jump cutting in Traffic as Benicio Del Toro (‘Javier’) and Jacob Vargas (‘Manolo’) have their car searched by the reigning junta.

Jump cutting can also enhance a comedic tone, underlining the story and allowing the audience to join in the moment with the character. For example, in Personal Effects Michelle Pfeiffer (‘Linda’) is preparing for a working date with Ashton Kutcher (‘Walter’) and stands in front of the mirror with a variety of outfits to choose from. Each dress is examined, rejected, thrown onto the bed, finally chosen and with the final toss of clothing we reveal her teenage son watching television and getting buried by her discarded outfits. The cuts add an element of humor to an otherwise contemplative scene.

4.20 MAKING LIFTS

When you break down the script, there might be whole scenes and passages of dialog that strike you as repetitive or superfluous, and it is wise to notate these parts before you see the dailies. It will be a first blush reaction—purely visceral, uncolored by the director’s vision and not yet a topic of discussion. Keep this list to yourself, as it transgresses your position as editor at this point of the movie.

Later, when the film is shot, the director has finished his cut and the producers have had their pass, you will all be faced with the task of identifying the parts of the film that drag, deciding where to tighten and how to get the picture to time. By this pass, you have already removed the ‘chaff,’ pairing down the ‘C’ or ‘D’ storyline, the light comedic dialog that does not further the plot and all the ‘shoe leather.’ Now comes the hard part, deciding which scenes can be lifted and determining which lines of dialog the writer/ producers are willing to take out. When they are ready to hear suggestions, the editor will be well prepared with a breakdown list of timed, suggested lifts and a slew of additional helpful dialog couplets to excise. Gently suggest these thoughts. Remember—these are lines of dialog and stories that have been agonized over by the writers, each plot written and rewritten, the syllables honed. There are hard-earned shots the director envisioned and fought for that took hours to shoot and cost tons of money to produce. The editor must be prepared to defend his thoughts, and to rescind them without rancor should they be shot down. The harder you fight for a lift, the more obstinate the producers might become.

When you lift an entire scene, be careful to address the new transitions into and out of it. The editor must consider whether the transition to night or day still works, and might consider inserting a stock shot to help. Sometimes the cut out of the previous scene will need to be trimmed or lengthened now that the incoming shot is different. Most often the music and the sound effects need to be revisited and recut. It might only be two new splices in the film when you remove a scene, but it affects a multitude of sounds and visuals.

When you lift a few lines from the start of a scene, or a line or two from the end, you have to again address the new transitions and the background sounds. Also, the master you used at the start of the scene within the first few cuts might be lost in this lift, leaving you without the architecture you had carefully built. Make sure you rework the scene, replacing one of the interior cuts with the master to keep the structure sound and your audience oriented. If you take out lines from the last cut or two, and you have music designed to hit the last splice, try to preserve the MX cut to button the new ending.

When you lift the middle of a scene, there is a high probability that you will remove one of the center poles and some of the eye candy the director shot that you have meticulously infused into the scene. You might have lost the 50–50 or the tracking shot or the beautiful close up in the lift. The editor must take the time to go back into the scene and infuse this coverage into the shortened version if possible. Rework the scene from top to bottom, and make the lift work story-wise, as well as construction-wise. Your director will thank you for making sure his vision was preserved.

4.21 SUMMARY

Use these rules as a guideline, a way to organize your thoughts and instincts. You will then adapt them to your own liking and style. They will only help to speed the process. As you grow into the headset of being an editor, you will become more confident and your individuality will shine through. Be empowered, and make the cut yours.