Law of the Jungle and why it [rocks]

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Monday, June 03, 2013, 23:21 (4189 days ago) @ Cody Miller

"It's neat."

In all my years as a film editor, whenever I ask a director justify his vision when I disagree, and he comes back with this, then that's a guarantee that the idea is bad.

I honestly don't know what's more jaw-dropping, the fact that you just said that, or that nobody else has called you out on it.

Why would anybody call me out on it? That's what you're supposed to do as an editor. You are supposed to draw out the director's vision and make the best thing you can. By posing it as a question of that sort is actually helpful to them, and it's helpful to the editor to understand that vision. The good directors appreciate this. The bad ones hate it. The best editors do this well. The not so good ones don't.

I'm calling you out on it because you're employing an appeal to authority-- with yourself as the authority.

"This idea which I have in this area, which is correct, is correct because it's similar to this other situation in which I have ideas, in which I was proved to be correct, according to me. And no, you can't ask who or what ideas because that's deleterious to the creative process of these Hollywood directors whose films I am saving from stuff that they think is neat, but I think is crap."

Holy crap. Literally.