Every Cut Is A Lie: Discuss
- Posted: 9th Sep 2010
- Category: Articles
- Tags: The E8 Summit, DFG, Steve Stevenson, Ben Stark, Susan Brand, Wolf Koenig, roundtable debate on editing, documentary editors
“Every cut is a lie. It's never that way. Those two shots were never next to each other in time that way. But you're telling a lie in order to tell the truth.” Wolf Koenig
Filmmaker and pioneer of direct cinema Wolf Koenig unwittingly brings to mind the controversy that rocked the world of factual television in the UK three years ago. Suddenly, all eyes in the industry were on the role of the editor. That particular row may have faded into the niche history of TV, but in this age of the all-singing, all-dancing, multiskilling filmmaker, the role of the editor in shaping documentary’s relationship with reality is still very much ripe for discussion.
Ahead of The E8 Summit, we asked a few of the UK’s leading editors to respond to the (yes, edited) provocation: every cut is a lie.
Steve Stevenson (Human Zoo; Extreme Pilgrim; George Orwell: A Life in Pictures)
In July 2007 the BBC was embroiled in controversy. A Trailer for a documentary appeared to show the Queen storming out of a photoshoot after the photographer, the celebrated Annie Leibovitz, suggested she remove her crown. It transpired that the documentary’s production company, RDF Media, had edited the trailer misleadingly. When you watch the full scene, it’s clear that the Queen ‘walking out’ is actually her walking into the session, just moments before she meets Annie Leibovitz. It also shows the Queen breaking into a chuckle. Annie Leibovitz later testified to the essential harmony of the exchange. The buzz word at the time was manipulation. The infernal practitioners of this wickedness were the editors. For filmmakers the most extraordinary thing was that everyone else, from politicians to Joe Public, considered manipulation per se as something questionable. I lost count of the number of times an editor, director or producer said to me, incredulously: “That’s what editors do! If we didn’t, the broadcasters would have to screen unedited rushes!”
Ben Stark (The Last Nazis; A Boy Called Alex; 9/11 Falling Man)
Life is lived in full, but unfortunately, for most of us that is pretty dull. There’s an old truism of film making that one of its unique features is being able to collapse and expand time in a way that no other creative medium can but in doing this you are in many respects lying.
For me as an editor, the question is more fundamentally which truth are we telling? Everything has multiple interpretations, perspectives and realities and it is our job to find and toe a line and whilst not misrepresenting, find a telling to create a better story - one that connects more wholly with an audience and carries a message further.
Susan Brand (Britain From Above; Wonders of the Universe)
Every cut is a lie because every cut is a jump in time. What an editor does is manipulate what happened in time to tell us a bigger story that was not apparent in the moment to moment experience of reality. They select and combine images and sound in a way which aims to tell us a bigger truth. Fragments of time are discarded to allow other moments to be foregrounded. By compressing time, the filmmakers reveal patterns that we cannot see when we experience all of time in its second by second passing.
Russell Crockett (The Nazis and Me; Undercover Mosque)
If every cut an editor makes is a lie, how can a film containing two thousand cuts claim to be anywhere near the truth? Documentaries are an interpretation of a reality, a reality already filtered (edited) long before the editor gets to practice their dark arts. The director deciding who not to interview, the cameraperson deciding how to frame a shot, the production manager deciding that the schedule is too long, all collectively conspire to portray reality whilst collectively knowing it is ultimately impossible. If editors sometimes take the flak it is because our lies are sometimes more visible. What has been left out, or manipulated can be easier to spot (or so people like to think). We editors of course know, that often, the better the cut . . . the more invisible . . . the better the lie.
This is just a taste of what's to come at the E8 Summit, a roundtable of editors discussing their individual approaches for both consensus and difference.
It's held at DFG on 16 September. Book your ticket now to attend this pioneering event.
Extras:
Want an example to bring these thoughts to life? Have a look at Exile on Main Street a film cut by Ben Stark for the Rolling Stones, to see his thoughts in action