Student Perspectives – The Edit

Elexis Goodwin on constructing story through editing:

“One of the biggest things I learned with this film was the power of editing to make or break a project.

I had a lot of things go wrong during production, and for a while, I was trying to force the story together exactly the way it was shot, and it just wasn’t working. After some really helpful notes, I found that the dialogue I had originally in the hair scene wasn’t working with the story. I was able to go back in the edit and recut the scene so you weren’t able to see the mother’s face when she’s giving her lines, and I rewrote the scene and had the actor ADR lines that worked better.

This turned out to be the scene a lot of people connected with the most, and it helped tie the film together much better than the original version had.

This is why I believe that the editing process is not just about stringing together the scenes you shot, but also providing a final opportunity to reconstruct and elevate the film to its greatest potential.“

• Film Title: Smile, God Loves You
• Logline: A young girl’s playground reputation is threatened by her mother’s wishes for her to be a church praise dancer.
• Password: runmyfade

Tucker Somberg on fixing problems from production:

“During the process of editing How’ s Diggy?, I learned just how much editing can not only fix problems from production, but also reveal emotion that lies beneath individual shots.

Like most filmmakers, I encountered endless problems during the shoot. Due to several technical issues, we lost a handful of shots from key scenes. When I looked through the footage afterward, I felt pretty certain that I didn’t have what I needed and that I hadn’t shot the film properly.

After the first edit, it was clear the film as written wasn’t working. I decided to cut the entire opening scene and reorder several others. The first shot we see, Harper on the staircase, is the only image that survived from the original opening. Originally, Harper’s conversation with Tyler at the snack table came toward the end of the film, but I swapped its placement with the scene in which the donation basket is passed.

The placement of the final monologue remained untouched, but my approach to the scene changed significantly from how I had originally envisioned it. It was planned as a long dolly-in that slowly crept closer to Harper. During the edit, I realized this approach dramatized a moment that needed to feel authentic and grounded. Instead, I used alternate coverage that allowed us to sit in a close-up as the actor delivered a beautiful performance.

In the end, the film became an emotional portrait of a young woman desperate to connect and escape her isolation. If I hadn’t been willing to tear down and rebuild what I had created at the script and production level, the film wouldn’t have worked.

This process taught me that we can’t be precious in the edit, and that our only obligation as filmmakers and editors is to make the best possible film — which, more often than not, is different from the one we originally imagined.”

• Film Title: How’s Diggy?
• Logline: At an anonymous meeting, a young woman confronts a past hookup and the isolation she’s been carrying
• Password: HowsDiggy2024!