Silverdocs: The Invisible Man
Shame on me for not being aware of Sam Pollard, but then that’s also a testament to his talent. Sam is an editor and the best editing is invisible to the viewer. And Pollard has worked his subtle magic on such classic docs and features as Style Wars, When the Levees Broke, Bamboozled, and many other notable productions.
In his Master Class on editing, Pollard showed examples from the above works and more, and discussed his process and philosophy of combining images and audio, which is rarely as simple as it seems. Here’s some takeaways:
- Take copious notes
- Screen the dailies and screen them again
- Constantly be watching and watching and re-watching
- You need discipline
- Every edit you make should have a purpose
- Demand transcripts. (Pollard is old-school and prefers hard copies in binders that he can mark up.)
- Have timecode on the transcripts
- Don’t use temp music. You will fall in love with it. (Pollard learned this lesson when he edited a boxing movie and used the Rocky soundtrack. Of course, the actual score could never compete with Bill Conti’s classic.)
- Your cut should inform the music, not the other way around. (I’m attending the Music Master Class, and may report another view on this subject.) UPDATE: Nope, the composers agree. Details will be posted shortly.
- Always bring tension to the material. (He wasn’t referring to relations with the director, though that can sometimes be the case.)
