Editors might be the most unfairly overlooked artists in the film industry, which likely stems from the fact that their art is the art of going unnoticed to the average viewer. A film, when shot, is a huge, haphazard thing with a story buried somewhere in its dark, ungainly heart. Editing is what turns a couple hundred thousand feet of film into a two-hour movie. But it’s also so much more. It’s about finding the perfect take, creating a rhythm, building tension, invoking romance, fueling anger, and just about everything else. It’s where a movie comes together, and it can easily make or break a film.
READ MORE: Watch: 8-Minute Video Essay Reveals ‘Birdman’ Editing Secrets
And though we seem to be in the middle of the long-take era, there is nothing like good old-fashioned fast editing to pace an action film and really ramp up the tension. Quick edits are propulsive: They move things forward; there is never the sense of stagnancy. They also help to highlight the chaos of a fight, bringing the view into the melee (one sneaky technique is to show punches twice in the blink of an eye to make them feel larger than life).
But, to break down some of the woes of fast edits, Vashi Nedomansky has cut together five films that have roughly 3000 shots (the average film has about 1250 shots) and sped them up to 12 times their normal speed. The resulting video, “The Fastest Cut: Furious Film Editing,” is a bit of a clusterfuck for four of the movies. “The Bourne Ultimatum,” Domino,” “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” and “Taken 3” all become incomprehensible. But “Mad Max: Fury Road” (Best Editing Oscar-winner and our favorite film of last year, for good reason) manages to still make a certain amount of sense, which is no small feat.
So, whether you’re a fan of editing or not, ‘Furious Film Editing’ is a fascinating look at what has become of the modern action flick, and maybe just what ought to be done with it. Check out the video and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below. [One Perfect Shot]
