I continue to be amazed at how miscommunication is the root of all sorts of evil. After recording all the actors in July and starting to do my first edit at the same time, i was surprised at how long it all was. I clocked in at 102mn. Working with the animator and the distributor, we had originally agreed on a final "product" that would clock in at about 60mn. So, obviously, i had a lot of work to do... And a lot of work i did. I edited, and edited, at a very fine grained details, removing unnecessary pauses, words here and there, and sections that seem to work so well in writing but didn't work so well when all was said and done. After several weeks of intense work, i got a cut at 75mn. I guess that's my Director's Cut :)

And this is when problems started to happen. I talked with various parties involved in the production, and we seemed to agree that 75mn, although more than the original 60mn target, was acceptable for the material. After all, we had all worked really hard to get there. I put the finishing touches, polished the music and the sound effects for the new timing, and thought i was all done.

Then, Nick, the lead animator, co-producer and distributor came back from vacation early September and was upset. He insisted on a final 60mn target. Having very little leverage on my side, i didn't have much choice but to comply... I guess it's not the first time or the last that creative disagreements occur at the editing table. Often, the creative side loses. That sucks. But at the end of the day, he is the one marketing the product and making money out of it, so my choices are limited.

In any case, for the past 3 weeks now, i have been working again very hard to redo the soundtrack from scratch and cut cut cut to get close to 60mn. I am close to exhaustion and not sure i care anymore about how compromised i think the final work will be compared to the original vision. I have to cut whole pieces of dialogs, redo many songs to accomodate the new timing etc... I did a thorough and enlightening job. I am still not done as i currently clock in at 62mn30s, and Nick won't bulge.

But the process is fascinating and reminds me of the current tension in the industry between theatrical and director's cut releases. In many cases, "Director's Cut" are really a marketing ploy to sucker movie goers and buyers into spending more money for a film they have already seen. Sometimes, you'd even be hard-pressed to see the differences. Sometimes, however, you realize how much depth and details were cut out. One clear example to me was Kingdom Of Heaven, which was an average movie at best in its theatrical form, but a fantastic movie in its Director's Cut form. The politics of the story and the character details that were initially cut out for time reasons really hurt the final product. I also recently saw the new Blade Runner cut (a fantastic film and a fantastic restoration piece of work) and realized how the little details really make a great difference, especially since this last Director's Cut was pretty much the same length as the theatrical cut. Here, another form of editing was done that tightened things in some palces, and expanded them in others. Those 2 films exemplify two very different editing jobs (one about length, the other about content) and show how powerful editing really is.

And this is why i now feel so unsecure about what i have in my hands... I am just learning this stuff. Did i cut too much? Did i cut the wrong parts? Did we have something that actually could fit in 60mn in the first place? There are lots of characters, story details, and side stories or lines that, to me at least, flush out the story and its inhabitants. Those last 2mn30s i have to cut are proving very hard to do and i have been stuck for several days now not making progress... My normal job is keeping me busy this week and next, but even in the back of my head, no progress is being made, so i worry. I am really editing for length here.

What are the next steps? Do i have to cut out a character? Do i have to cut out yet another subplot? Do i have to redo a song or two and significantly cut some of the "musical" moments? I am completely alone making those decisions. Not sure yet what i wil do. Am i compromising the final work, or making it better?

Editing is VERY hard, and definitely an area i'll try to do a better job at for my next story. Can timing be better planned during the writing stage or are we constantly doomed to doing a cruel editing job because what is filmed will always be too long? I don't know the answer, but history seems to indicate that Editing remains a critical piece of work that is hard to plan in advance.