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Lesson 2
Interviewer: Is film editing a
complicated job?
Film
Editor: Oh yes, a lot of people probably don't
know how complicated a job it can be. It's far
more than just sticking pieces of film
together.
Interviewer: How
long does it take to edit a film?
Film Editor: Well, it depends. You can
probably expect to edit a 10-minute film in about
a week.
A
35-minute
documentary,
like
the
one
I'm
editing
at
present,
takes
a
minimum
of
four
to
five
weeks
to edit.
Interviewer: Can you explain to me how
film editing works?
Film
Editor: There are different steps. 'Synching up',
for example.
Interviewer:
What do you mean by synching up?
Film Editor: It means matching sound
and pictures and that is usually done by my
assistant. The
film and the sound tape
have numbers stamped along the edge which have to
be matched. The details
of
the
film
and
the
sound
are
also
recorded
in
a
log
book,
so
it's
quick
and
easy
to
find
a
particular
take and its soundtrack. This operation
is called logging and is again done by my
assistant.
Interviewer: So
what do you usually do yourself?
Film Editor: A lot of things, of
course. First, I have to view all the material to
make a first
selection of the best
takes. There's a lot of film to look through
because to make a sequence work
the way
you want, you need a lot of shots to choose from.
Interviewer: Does that mean
that you have to discard sequences?
Film
Editor:
Oh
yes.
On
average
for
every
foot
of
edited
film,
you
need
twelve
times
as
much
unedited
film and therefore
you have to compromise and, of course, discard
some of it.
Interviewer:
What do you do after selecting the material?
Film
Editor:
First
of
all,
I
prepare
an
initial
version
of
the
film,
a
'rough
cut'
as
it
is
called.
That
means
that
I
actually
cut
the
film
into
pieces
and
stick
them
together
again
in
the
new
order.
Interviewer: And after this
'rough cut' what happens?
Film Editor: Well, after the 'rough
cut' comes the 'fine cut' when the film takes its
final form.
The producer
and
the
director come in for a
viewing.
Some small changes
may then
be necessary, but
when the 'fine cut' has been approved
by everyone, this is the final version of the
film.
Interviewer: At this
point is the film ready for distribution?
Film Editor: Oh no. After
the final version of the film has been approved,
there is the dubbing,
there are voices,
music, background noises and sometimes special
effects to be put together for
the
soundtrack. And after the dubbing, the edited film
is sent to the 'neg' cutters.
Interviewer:
What do the 'neg' cutters do?
Film
Editor:
They
cut
the
original
negatives
on
the
films,
so
that
these
match
the
edited
film
exactly.
And after all that
comes the best part
—
I can
sit down quietly with my feet up and enjoy
watching
the film!
Man: Hi.
Woman: Hi.
Man:
What'd you do last night?
Woman: I watched TV. There was a really
good movie called
Soylent
Green
.
Man:
Soylent Green
?
Woman: Yeah. Charlton Heston was in it.
Man: What's it about?
Woman: Oh, it's about life
in New York in the year 2022.
Man: I wonder if New York will still be
here in 2022.
Woman: In
this movie, in 2022 ...
Man: Yeah?
Woman: ... New York has forty million
people.
Man: Ouch!
Woman: And twenty million
of them are unemployed.
Man: How many people live in New York
now? About seven or eight million?
Woman: Yeah, I think that's right.
Man: Mm-hmm. You know, if
it's hard enough to find an apartment now in New
York City, what's it
going to be like
in 2022?
Woman:
Well,
in
this
movie
most
people
have
no
apartment.
So
thousands
sleep
on
the
steps
of
buildings.
(Uh-huh.) People who do have a place to
live have to crawl over sleeping people to get
inside. And
there are shortages of
everything. The soil is so polluted that nothing
will grow. (Ooo.) And the
air is so
polluted they never see the sun. It's really
awful.
Man: I think I'm
going to avoid going to New York City in the year
2022.
Woman: And there
was
this scene where the star,
Charlton
Heston,
goes into a
house where
some very
rich people live.
Man: Uh-huh.
Woman: He can't believe it, because
they have running water and they have soap.
Man: Really?
Woman: And then he goes into the
kitchen and they have tomatoes and lettuce and
beef. He almost
cries because he's
never seen real food in his life,
you
know, especially the beef. It was
amazing
for him.
Man: Well, if most people have no real
food, what do they eat?
Woman: They eat something called
soylent
.
Man: Soylent?
Woman: Yeah. There's soylent red and
soylent yellow and soylent green. The first two
are made out
of
soybeans.
But
the
soylent
green
is
made
out
of
ocean
plants.
(Ugh.)
The
people
eat
it
like
crackers.
That's all they have to eat.
Man: That sounds
disgusting.
Woman: Well,
you know, it really isn't that far from reality.
Man: No?
Woman:
Yeah.
Because,
you
know
the
greenhouse
effect
that's
beginning
now
and
heating
up
the
earth
...
Man: Oh, yeah, I've heard about that.
Woman: ... because we're
putting the pollutants in the atmosphere, you
know?
Man: Mm-hmm.
Woman:
I
mean,
in
this
movie
New
York
has
ninety
degrees
weather
all
year
long.
And
it
could
really
happen.
Uh
...
like
now,
we
...
we
have
fuel
shortages.
And
in
the
movie
there's
so
little
electricity
that people have
to ride bicycles to make it.
Man: You know something? I don't think
that movie is a true prediction of the future.
Woman: I don't know. It
scares me. I think it might be.
Man: Really?
Woman: Well, yeah.
The native Americans, the people we
call the 'Indians', had been in America for many
thousands
of years before Christopher
Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus thought he had
arrived in India,