Editing: The Importance of Letting it Land
I always have a book or two in my bag so that down times on set are never wasted. Meryl Streep knits. Stallone writes screenplays. I read. Everyone does something. Recently I had the pleasure of reading producer/screenwriter Phil Rosenthal 's book You're Lucky You're Funny , a smart and hilarious page-turner about the creation of the hit comedy Everybody Loves Raymond . Included are lots of advice about acting, writing, navigating the sometimes shark-infested waters of Hollywood, and a great piece of advice on editing, which I decided to share here because I had a conversation on this very thing with a young filmmaker a few days ago. Editing dialog in a film should serve as a guide to the audience on the emotional subtext of what is being said. I called it "including the reaction." Rosenthal calls it "clarity" and "letting it land." He said it better than I did. Here it is: "Clarity. At any point along the way the clarity can be muddled, ...