Timing Is Everything

So, I am still deep in the mire of editing, re-editing and re-editing my new film. It is a very interesting process. This being despite me almost continually wanting put my foot through the computer screen in a blind rage. You see, when editing comedy, it is very difficult to "find the funny" as I seem to keep finding myself saying. It's all well and good putting together the various parts so that you have at least a cohesive piece of work, as in, it tells the story and gets us from A to B with minimal fuss. However, the real art is in finessing each cut so that things which were originally intended to make people laugh, do. Not as easy as it sounds my friends.

It lis literally, with dialogue at least, a matter of frames. One minute it's "meh", the next, you shift if one way or t'other a few beats and you're laughing. A very odd phenomenon. It is all about the timing. Now, watching a film, or indeed TV show, while in the middle of this process is enlightening in itself. Because my eyes have been fixated on continuity, timing and all that jazz, you start to notice these things in proper films...and how 90% of them are just as shabby as yours.

So, while watching multi-academy-award winning "Kramer vs. Kramer" this week, I found myself rather appalled at the absolutely shocking editing of the film. The style of editing seemed to be the absolute antithesis of everything we'd been trying to achieve. Yet, interestingly (or not) enough, this matters absolutely not one bit as I finished the film thinking "that was bloody good...could've been better, but still good".

This left me wondering what really makes a good film. It is apparently not the editing. So, what is it?

The answer lies by my observation of the film "Gigli" - the universally derided turkey starring Bennifer (Affleck and Lopez). I went in to this thinking it would be hysterically bad and inadvertently genius , in the vein of "The Room". However it was not. As I sat there watching, I thought "Script's fine. Shot well. Editing's fine etc" however I also found myself at the same time thinking ".....it's just cack". And it is. Not for any other reason, it would appear, than the fact that it's rubbish. Not in a hilarious way either, literally in a "I will never get that two hours of my life back" kind of way.

"Hi, I'm a twat" "Me too. Let's fuck"

When suddenly it hit me. You see, the one thing Kramer vs Kramer had was Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep at the top of their game (not to mention the little kid, who was great). Gigli had two absolute twats preening at each other. Therefore the answer can only lie in one thing. Acting. For all the sweat and painstaking attention to detail that goes on behind the scenes, it doesn't mean a thing as the audience only sees one thing, performances. That and a not insignificant amount of luck. I can only pray that I have both on my film.

Pointless exercise over and out.

JB.