CineMontage

Q1 2018

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61 Q1 2018 / CINEMONTAGE experienced documentary editors whose advice is dotted throughout the book. Richman speaks from experience: "How well you organize and think about your select reels absolutely determines how well the edit is going to go. If you don't organize your select reels, you'll get to your first cut faster, but it's a waste of time because the select reel is how you create the 1,000 cuts that come after." Others quoted include Mary Lampson, Kate Amend, ACE, Kim Roberts, ACE, Aaron Wickenden, ACE, and twice-Academy-Award-nominated (Documentary Features Street Fight, 2005; If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, 2011) director/editor Marshall Curry. Honing in on the details of pacing, Curry says, "Sometimes a breath is really nice and keeps the pacing natural and real. But sometimes a breath is just a breath and it can be removed. I look for places where I can pull out six frames, or even two frames." The book's diagrams and computer screenshots assume that those using it have access to Avid Media Composer or Adobe Premiere Pro, although this is not a manufacturers' guide on how to operate equipment. As is most often (and most unfortunately) the case with Focal Press, the quality of the printed images is disappointingly poor, making many of the visual examples frustrating. A list of eight types of raw footage — from formal interviews to re-enactments, along with the advantages and disadvantages of using each — is rendered in such small type as to be virtually useless on the printed page. The same is true of tiny diagrams of story arcs for The World According to Sesame Street (2006) and The Hunting Ground (2015). Perhaps the e-book version or accompanying website offers better images. In addition to very detailed practical notes, Documentary Editing fulfills the promise of its title, discussing principles as well as practice. Bricca quotes scholar Bill Nichols for doses of documentary theory, citing Nichol's definition of "evidentiary editing" as the type used by Ken Burns. Bricca also acknowledges the special ethical questions particular to documentary (although these are not necessarily editorial decisions), such as the validity of re-enactments; he notes that controversy about such staging goes back to at least 1922 and Nanook of the North. The author also offers advice on surviving the emotional rigors of test screenings and deferring to a director's wishes. This book assumes that readers possess more than a passing knowledge of contemporary documentary films as well as some background in documentary film history. The working editors who are quoted have decades of experience among them. Bricca writes clearly and offers an orderly roadmap for any editor challenged by the complex process of putting an independent documentary maker's vision on the screen. f CUT / PRINT

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