Blog 1 Make-Up: The Cutting Edge

The film, The Cutting Edge, provided a great insight of the importance and skill that comes along with film editing.  The Cutting Edge interviewed many famous actors and directors about the significance of the film editor’s job and how he is in control of how the audience will react to the shots the director filmed.  The editor and director of the film have a very close relationship.  These two members spend the most time together more then any other two crew members working for the film.  Ridley Scott says, “finding the relationship with the editor is like trying to decide whether or not get married.  Because if the marriage isn’t a good one it’s going to be a sticky divorce.”  This statement proves that the editor’s job is so vital in making a film and that his work has a monumental impact on the films outcome and success.  If a  director and an editor don’t see eye to eye for the most part, the film simply won’t work.  Tarantino states that for his first film, Reservoir Dogs, he knew that he wanted a female editor.  He felt that a female editor would be more “nurturing” to the movie and to him through the process of making the movie.  The editor for that movie was Sally Menke.  Tarantino went on to say that the film was originally extremely long and that Sally had to slowly convince Tarantino to cut certain bits and pieces of the movie.  This was a very long and intense process because it can be hard for a director to see certain shots or takes excluded from their film since they want to be very precise and explicit with their movie.  Like Sally did, it is the editor’s job to guide the director into being okay with cutting certain scenes and takes in order to create a successful movie that isn’t painstakingly long. 

While watching The Cutting Edge, I was fascinated by the relationship that the directors and the editors,  I figured that they would have somewhat of a close relationship, but hearing critically acclaimed directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Alexander Payne talk about just how close they were with their editors really gave ma great sense respect for just how powerful an editor in making a movie.  The Cutting Edge really made me excited to start this editing class and made me realize just how impactful I could be to a movie if I were to become a film editor.