“Editing is a bit of a misnomer. Just as the computers we all carry are called phones, even though making phone calls is just a fraction of what we use them for, editing film is just one facet of the job. We editors spend a great deal of time building up the first cut. It’s as if we are given a big box containing all the parts needed to put together a gizmo of some kind, except there is a lot of junk in the box as well. We sift through all of the footage shot each day looking for and extracting the useful parts of each angle or setup. We then cut these together into longer and longer sequences, or scenes. Sometimes these useful parts are analogous to sentences; other times they are like phrases or individual words, or even syllables, strung together to form meanings greater than their constituent parts. The shots drive their meaning from their context. Context is everything. You can take the most affecting moment of a four-hankie movie and cut it in the middle of a broad comedy, and it will seem absurd. We must choose with care how to frame the best moments. Looking through dailies (raw footage shot on a particular day) is hunting for jewels and once they’re found, we have to mount them to maximum effect. What precedes a shot is critical, and the art of editing is, in part, how to make each shot achieve its full potential in the sequence.” (x)
from A long time ago in a cutting room far, far away…. by Paul Hirsch