Directors shouldn’t edit their own movies: Norman Hollyn

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

Directors shouldn’t edit their own movies: Norman Hollyn

Saturday, 15 March 2008, 11:16 pm by Dan Carew

Interesting argument on this subject by Norman Hollyn, who talks about “No Country for Old Men” and how the film (which he liked) could have been improved by better editing. And how this editing could have done more easily by an editor who was not also the writer or director, who has some distance from the material. Not sure I totally agree (as I edited my own feature), but a pretty compelling argument. I do agree that any editor (especially if they’re also the director) needs many different people to look at the film as it’s being edited, to point out problems that only “fresh eyes” can.

Posted in Coen Brothers, Indie filmmaking, film editing | 1 Comment

One Response

on Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 2:32 pm at 2:32 pm | Reply Seemantini Bose

Well…in that case I doubt how much justice can be done to the film maker’s point of view. I mean think if someone else who doesn’t have any of idea of the context of the film had edited Kurosawa’s films or the famous film of Dessica ‘Bicycle thief’. I really doubt the films would have had the same appeal they have now.

I feel the editor should have perfect knowledge of what is the director’s point of view and where does the focus lie! The rest have to be left upon the audience as how they read the film.