LBB’s Zoe Antonov asks leading editors from across the industry how they approach emotional edits and how they balance craft and storytelling.
Skillful editors can play our emotions like a violin – from tender romance, to tear-jerking tragedies and can’t-look-away PSAs. Masters of the behind-the-scenes process, they weave thread after thread until the storyline is complete, and better than ever.
There are some crucial moments that are not to be overlooked, and an editor’s trained eye is the only one that can catch it before it’s even happened. Perhaps a heartbeat of silence, a split second of shock, or a long pause that seems unworkable. It’s up to those who will push the project to its final form to chop up the silence, or let it linger.
Some are led by emotion, others by the script, and another contingent by the music, but no matter what the guiding light is, it remains true that the editor is the master puppeteer, without whom the soul of any project would be lost. So, how do they do it? How do they plant it where it was wholly unexpected? Read on to find out.
Jim Rubino
Editor, BANDIT
Editors have a lot of control over the pace and speed of the edit when storytelling, which cues different emotions in tandem with music and sound. Lingering on a reaction or a moment longer – letting the music carry you out from one scene to the beginning of the next – can have an impact on the viewer. You can feel this particularly if it’s a poignant moment, or if you need to jump-start the energy of the next scene. This can be used in commercials or longer formats.
With ads, you are usually using one music track. Sometimes starting the track later, or dropping the music entirely, can highlight the delivery of an emotional moment. It is fun just to try things, whether it’s cutting to high speed at a critical juncture or cutting something a little more frenetic to put the viewer on edge. These are some of the editing decisions I enjoy making and it makes already dramatic content even more intense.
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