YUMI EDITING

Day 3 of editing (days and nights are a blur)

FIRST ASSEMBLY STATUS: 45:00 minutes

I'm 45 minutes into the first assembly. I'm not touching the sound or the colour, only the rough picture edit.

The best thing about this number is that I'm on page 49 of the script.

I've cut paragraphs of dialogue, moved lots of stuff around, changed the order of some scenes, removed a plot element, and cut entire scenes (including one full day of shooting).

Bresson said you write the film three times, once as a script, then again during production, and finally in editing. He knew what he was talking about.

I have no problem finding a bit of distance from the writer/director. I'm the editor now. Fuck those other guys (the editor is passionate and prone to this type of language). The editor is also fearless, and prepared to cut whatever isn't working.

I've been cutting for performance only. Camera and the rest is always secondary to the actors performances...I have had to cut around continuity quite a bit, but nothing too drastic has been lost (I hope).

It's amazing how some actors repeat all of their actions exactly the same for each take (thank you!) while other actors NEVER repeat the same hand motions/facial expressions/head tilts, EVER...it is SO HARD to cut this stuff together when every take is different.

But I'm up for the challenge. It's going to be a great film.