Who's at the scrub wheel?

I have never worked in on a big motion picture or on TV shows. A coworker told me something that I find are to believe and I want to know if it's true.

He said "often times Directors are in the editing room sometimes making the edits themselves. Even though they have a professional editor"

I figure that Directors would comment on the "beta" version of the edits before anyone else sees it, or to be giving the editor the shotlist, storyboard, scripts and what not, but not actually at the helm of the editing ship.

Keep in mind I am talking big Hollywood productions of TV series.

Is this true?

There are all kinds of directors. And yes, some of them want to cut the film themselves. In my experience, the smaller the production, the more likely the director will want to control every edit point. That's kind of their prerogative if they want it -- you can't take that personally. But I think "often times" is probably an exaggeration. Directors tend to be a lot slower than editors or assistant editors at operating, and at least 70 per cent of directors I've worked with would rather let me operate so they can concentrate on watching and deciding. It also depends on what kind of relationship, if any, exists between the director and the editor.

With my main director partner, sometimes I let him operate if I feel like it would be purer or faster for him to do it hands-on rather than try to explain it to me. And if what he cuts turns out something great, then everybody benefits. Why not? I think a healthy director-editor relationship is one where things aren't set in stone.


www.derekmok.com

I like how you put that.

I just thought it was more strict then that.

Now I know.

It's totally not strict at any level. It's mainly about the director/editor relationship and the ability of the Director to actually cut.

I have one mid-range TV director who cuts selects for me for things like motox racing, partly to save money and partly because it HATE doing it, because the stupid numbers on the bikes are so small and often covered in mud. I get terrible squint headaches doing that junk.

Then, I have other Producers and Directors who have no knowledge and absolutely no interest in cutting. If they touched the keyboard in all likelihood it would just cost them more to have the cut repaired.

Then you have guys like the Cohen Brothers, who do it themselves.