The Eye is Quicker Read online

  “A brilliant ‘splice of life’ from a visionary teacher and editor. Pepperman challenges the routine and cliché by offering a new and vivid conversation about the art of film editing.”

  — Joan Brooker

  Director of the award-winning documentary We Got Us

  “An inspirational guide for editors. Richard’s book transports me back to his class — a nice place to be.”

  — Núria Olivé-Bellés, Director/Editor

  Official Selections: Montreal, Max Ophuls & Sitges Film Festivals

  “Pepperman not only shares his knowledge of editing’s art and craft, he gives wholly of himself — insights, philosophies, humor, and risks of being fully alive to seeing and feeling. To study with Richard is a privilege; to read this book is to receive a profound gift.”

  — Louis Phillips

  Playwright, author of The Last of the Marx Brothers’ Writers

  “A distinctive approach to the education of all those wanting to understand visual structure. It all makes sense!”

  — Salvatore Petrosino

  Director of Operations

  Film Department, School of Visual Arts

  “Pepperman brings decades of experience as an editor and teacher to lessons supported by example and illustration. Here is a voice that is caring and supportive. [To read] The Eye Is Quicker is [to attend] a master class.”

  — Vincent LoBrutto

  Author of Selected Takes; Kubrick: A Biography

  “The qualities that have made Richard so inspiring and beloved a teacher — passion, curiosity, humor, and humility — make this book as alive and enticing as a class or conversation with him. The Eye Is Quicker will benefit future generations of film editors. It is a very good read for film lovers, and a rich mine for practitioners in the other arts.”

  — Jennifer Dunning

  The New York Times

  “Pepperman goes beyond the mechanical rules of cutting to help us better understand the filmmaking process. The Eye Is Quicker increased my awareness of the Shot/Actor/Audience relationship.”

  — Igor Sunara

  Director of Photography, The Keeper

  (Official Entry: Sundance Festival)

  “A highly informative book — stimulating material.”

  — Chris Newman

  Three-time Academy Award-winning Production Sound Mixer

  “Pepperman’s clarity and insight are unsurpassed, and contagious. Years of experience and wisdom [have brought] this monumental book to fruition. The Eye Is Quicker should be read by all in the industry.”

  — Leonard Lionnet, D.M.A.

  Composer & Member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

  Honored for outstanding work in international television

  “No one has Pepperman’s perspective on film editing.”

  — Everett Aison

  Screenwriter

  Co-Founder, School of Visual Arts Film School

  MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS

  www.mwp.com

  We are delighted that you have found, and are enjoying, our books.

  Since 1981, we’ve been all about providing filmmakers with the very best information on the craft of filmmaking: from screenwriting to funding, from directing to camera, acting, editing, distribution, and new media.

  It is our goal to inspire and empower a generation (or two) of film and videomakers like yourself. But we want to go beyond providing you with just the basics. We want to shake you and inspire you to reach for your dreams and go beyond what’s been done before. Most films that come out each year waste our time and enslave our imaginations. We want to give you the confidence to create from your authentic center, to bring something from your own experience that will truly inspire others and bring humanity to its full potential — avoiding those urges to manufacture derivative work in order to be accepted.

  Movies, television, the Internet, and new media all have incredible power to transform. As you prepare your next project, know that it is in your hands to choose to create something magnificent and enduring for generations to come.

  This is not an impossible goal because you’ve got a little help. Our authors are some of the most creative mentors in the business, willing to share their hard-earned insights with you. Their books will point you in the right direction but, ultimately, it’s up to you to seek that authentic something on which to spend your precious time.

  We applaud your efforts and are here to support you. Let us hear from you.

  Sincerely,

  Michael Wiese

  Filmmaker, Publisher

  the eye is quicker

  film editing: making a good film better richard d. pepperman

  MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS

  12400 VENTURA BLVD. #1111

  STUDIO CITY, CA 91604

  Tel. (818) 379-8799

  Fax (818) 986-3408

  [email protected]

  www.mwp.com

  Cover Design: agdesign.com

  Layout: Gina Mansfield

  Editor: Paul Norlen

  Printed by Sheridan Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  © 2004 Richard D. Pepperman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Pepperman, Richard D., 1942-

  The eye is quicker: film editing : making a good film better / by Richard D. Pepperman.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 0-941188-84-1

  1. Motion pictures–Editing. I. Title.

  TR899 .P465 2004

  778.5’35–dc22

  2003021825

  for

  Melvin & Ruth Miller

  table of contents

  Acknowledgements

  Preface

  Foreword

  The Eye Is Quicker

  Mind Watching the Cuts

  Editing With Two Left Feet

  Small Time Operators

  It Beats Ticks & Tocks

  Juxt About Right

  Cutting Emotional Attachments

  Cuts Both Ways

  A Wealth of Distributions

  Zoom In From the Cosmos

  Where’d the Time Go?

  Influence of Sphere

  All Bets Are Off

  Conflicts in Interest

  Stones Unturned

  Reactions Speak Louder Than Words

  Ask Gertrude Stein

  Tipping the Scales

  Lip Smacking Good

  Who Could Ask For Anything More

  I Have My Doubts

  Dear Reader

  About the Author

  Bibliography

  Filmography

  Index

  I’m concerned that the tradition of passing on essential knowledge from an experienced mentor to new assistants and apprentices might be lost and ‘replaced’ by tool-intensive training alone.

  I hope this book can help preserve that vibrant, more complete way of learning.

  – rdp

  acknowledgements

  Thank you Betsy and Christopher for your never-ending encouragement, beneficial criticisms, and an abundance of helpful ideas.

  Andy and Ollie, I thank you for your patience, and companionship, at the computer.

  Thank you Jack Haber. You took my job search telephone calls — from March 1963 through February 1964 — at Mecca Film Lab. You never, not once, sounded irritated by my imposing upon your busy schedule; nor were you ever exasperated by my continuing reminder that I had no film experience nor knowledge. You invited me to the Film Center Building, and i
ntroduced me to Bill Dorr at Liaison Films.

  Thank you Bill for giving me “Three days to learn how to track read” for the animated Tennessee Tuxedo and Underdog shows. Somehow, though I was initially convinced that track reading was impossible to learn, I did. You let me assist the shows’ editor Corky Smith.

  Thank you Corky. You taught me to cement splice on a grand old foot pedal model, and to use the Upright Moviola — a noisy green hazard, until I mastered the thing. Later you called with a job offer at East-West Films. You introduced me to Armond Lebowitz.

  Thank you Armond. You made me your assistant. You taught me how to simplify. I’ve yet to meet anyone who takes as much pleasure — or enjoys more intuitive talent — in being a film editor. Watching you work convinced me to stay in the editing room. The first film you ‘turned over’ to me was a documentary about the sounds and music of Polynesia, directed by Sid Shaw.

  Thank you Sid. You were kindly tolerant as I made my way through your thousands of feet of material. You were a delight as a friend. One day you suggested that I would make a good teacher.

  Thank you Mr. Silas Rhodes, Chairman of the School of Visual Arts, for the opportunity to teach at SVA; for your encouragement, and appreciation of my best efforts; and for your ongoing generosity to me, to colleagues, and to students.

  Thank you Mr. David Rhodes, SVA President; Mr. Reeves Lehmann, Chairman of the Film, Video and Animation Department; Mr. Salvatore Petrosino, Director of Operations; colleagues and staff at SVA. You have added heartwarming fulfillment to so many of my years.

  Much of what I know results from the devoted learning of my students: They allowed me to ‘touch’ their work; they ‘persuaded’ me to be an everlasting pupil of film editing. I thank them.

  Thank you Michael Wiese, Ken Lee, Paul Norlen, Gina Mansfield, Mark Pacella, Amy Taubin, and Barry Grimes. You have — no doubt about it — made my book (much) better.

  preface

  I’ve thought about writing a book ever since a student in my Advanced Editing class asked me if I’d read Ed Dmytryk’s On Film Editing. I hadn’t and said so. But I got the feeling that the student didn’t believe me. “So much of what you’re teaching is a lot like what Dmytryk writes about.” I asked to borrow the book. I read it, and it became the first book about (or on) film editing that I required for my classes. It is still on my growing list of suggested readings.

  It was comforting to find concurrence with many of my ideas on the subject. Good to see that I was not ‘off-the-wall.’ I understood the student’s certainty that my syllabus was derived from Dmytryk’s writings. Many of Dmytryk’s proposals and approaches to “cutting” were comparable to my instruction. But, in truth, my syllabus was derived from many semesters struggling to learn what it was that I knew about film editing.

  Teaching film editing is a few measures more complicated than being a film editor. Working does not necessitate comprehensive explanations or ‘near scholarly opinions.’ Teaching sometimes does.

  The first thing I learned as a teacher was how much I trusted my instincts when I worked. I also learned how little I understood my instincts; and how my work experience had not only provided me additional know-how, but had also expanded the array and accessibility of my instincts. Like know-how, instincts are not stagnant. And finally, I learned how inconsequential my instincts and know-how would be if I couldn’t find a way of communicating them to my students.

  As it’s turned out, I’ve been attempting to figure out instincts and know-how for decades. The abiding practice readies me as a teacher, and it has greatly improved my film editing.

  From time to time the impulse to write a book would return. Two things would interrupt. Additional books about film editing, many very fine, would show up on bookshelves. And second, writing is an arduous undertaking. I found the first a good excuse not to write. What else need be uttered? The second was a powerful reason not to begin — especially after spending a good part of each week talking about film editing. Nevertheless, the impulse to write my book has come again.

  Sam O’Steen said, “After you’ve (edited) for a long time, as I have, you’ve done all the cuts.” The reader can be grateful that I delayed writing my book. With my many additional years — it’s been more than fifteen since the student lent me the Dmytryk book — of working and teaching, I must surely know something about film editing; and I am now confident that my observations and comments are not presumptuous — my hair has thinned, and it is — well beyond 18% — gray.

  I am optimistic that I can address some unexplored perspectives, and offer considerable practical guidance. The School of Visual Arts has graciously given me a sabbatical. I won’t have to talk about film editing for a while. This will help make the writing chore more than manageable for me, and (I do very much hope) the reading beneficial for you.

  I have chosen films for this book that I believe give clear and comprehensive illustration to the concepts and topics presented. Many of the examples come from the same films — at times from the same scenes. The fact is that all of the examples might well come from any single film — in large part, every film has every choice that can be illustrated. Several of my choices come from the work of my students.

  I make no attempt to have you like or dislike any of the films that I’ve included; or to have you alter a previously held opinion about them. Long ago I learned that likes and dislikes develop from intricate personal associations and feelings; and that the pressures of popular culture — of which movies are a big part — pretty much forbid my considering, let alone giving, lessons in taste.

  The maestro violinist Isaac Stern said it best, “You cannot force someone to think as you do, or to feel as you do, but you can teach them to think a little better, to think a little more, to listen more critically; to listen to what they’re really doing, not what they think they’re doing.”

  I am not offering film reviews, but reflections on editing choices, which exist in every film ever edited. There are editing judgments — one can argue forever whether judgment is subjective or objective — which most would agree do make a film better. I have participated in the editing of well over 5000 films, and been an eyewitness to more than several hundreds of thousands of revisions during the editing and re-editing process, and (nearly) all those observing the changes agreed that they made an auspicious difference. By no means am I taking credit for each and every improvement — spotting ‘problems,’ and suggesting solutions, are offered by a great many collaborators in the postproduction process. I am proposing that there are lots more objectively reliable choices than you might suppose. The requisite purpose of this book is to examine the possibilities, to illustrate their worth, and to prove that you can always think more critically.

  Frequently it is the simplest — the tiniest — of touches that provide the greatest advantage. Yet, it is unexpectedly tricky to simplify. All great work is simultaneously complex — not complicated — and simple. Jazz bassist and composer Charlie Mingus pointed this out: “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

  I believe it is possible to understand — as in “I see” — what is common, and constant, in all great work. Although it is never easy to achieve, it is imperative — I don’t know that there’s a choice — to make the attempt.

  This book is not about theory. When I work I do what’s practical; that’s what I teach, and that’s what I’ve written — what to look for; what to look out for; what works, and why. I have attempted to present an ordered assembly of principles, methods, strategies, examples, and distinctive techniques in the art of creative film editing. Truly creative editing is nonlinear in process; and frequently, so is creative learning. To sustain this idea within a linear book I have included HINTS to link topic to topic — back and forth; and TIPS to emphasize chapter topics, and provide highlights on work concepts.

  I now approach forty years of work, and thirty years of teaching. I’ve done ‘
all the cuts!’ Here is what I’ve learned about film editing from students, colleagues, teaching, and working. The Eye is Quicker is an ongoing chat, offering a collection of wherewithal, and handy know-how, from which to make yourself a better — maybe even a far better — film editor. I wish the reader enjoyment and discovery.

  foreword

  As a film critic, I know only too well how little recognition is given to editors. To my chagrin, I have often ignored the best of them in my reviews. In a film culture where directors rule (in theory if not always in practice) and stars are mass audience magnets, it can sometimes seem as if no one else’s work counts in the making of a movie. Oh yeah, we sometimes praise the cinematography (the adjective “ravishing” is much in vogue) or we might quibble that a script is “incoherent,” but editing — who knows what that entails. And yet, some of the reviews of which I’m most proud give credit to editors: to Dede Allen for making Wonder Boys swing; to Susan Littenberg for evoking, with one or two remarkable cuts, the desperate feeling of impossible love in the low-budget romantic comedy Tadpole; to Thelma Schoonmaker for her rapier cutting of the knife-throwing scene in Gangs of New York, a movie redeemed by her work and the acting of Daniel Day-Lewis.

  Still, I was surprised that my immediate reaction to Richard Pepperman’s The Eye Is Quicker was to want to believe in reincarnation so that I could come back as a film editor. Critics, as we all know, tend to be power-mad exhibitionists. Nothing could be more opposed to the temperament of the ideal editor, who must be self-effacing, collaboratively inclined, and an obsessive puzzle-solver in a situation where finding the solution may be the only reward. The better the editor, the more invisible her or his work will be and the more likely that the director will get all the kudos. But what could be more rewarding than the kind of immersion in editing that Pepperman, using his 40 years of experience as an editor and teacher of editing, vividly evokes. The Eye Is Quicker is a rare guidebook in that it is both practical and inspirational. It appeals to the head and the heart, and one of the first lessons Pepperman teaches is about the necessity of applying both to the task at hand.