editing Hatboxes

The Hatboxes shoot wrapped late the night of Wednesday, 26 June.  Our editor, Justine Gendron, submitted a rough assembly not quite two weeks later.  A rough assembly puts the best footage in the order the script dictates.  That version came in at a little over 21 minutes.  You could see everything, but it did drag.

Justine and I have met four times since, refining the film as we go.  As of today, Hatboxes is coming in at just over 17 minutes, right on target at about a minute per page of script. 

Editing detail, Hatboxes, scene 4.

This is no time to get sentimental about the words on the paper, or even some thrilling little fragment; if something doesn't serve the story, it has to go.  Whole scenes have made their way to the cutting room floor (now a dated metaphor, since this is all happening digitally...what used to be "slice" is now "click").  We don't want to rush the story, but we also don't want to drag it down or burden it because someone (usually me) can't let go of something.  An unnecessary turn of someone's head, a line that is, in the end, just "yadda-yadda," one blink too many:  gone.

What's astonishing is how much the actors brighten towards incandescence as we tighten the film.  Its emotional heft seems to be deepening, too.  Like everyone else, I'm anxious to see it when it's done.

Susana Darwin