The Mediated Work of Imagination in Film Editing: Proposals, Suggestions, Reiterations, Directions, and Other Ways of Producing Possible Sequences

In this chapter we will examine the work of editing a feature length documentary. Drawing upon existing ethnomethodological studies, predominantly of architectural practice (Murphy, 2004) we will pursue imagination as the intersubjective task of seeing the film-that-is-to-come through what is currently completed, what is missing and what can be added. The routine feature of the editing suite that this turns upon are cycles of reviewing sequences and proposing what should be done next with each sequence. The relationship between review and selection in editorial work has previously been studied in newspaper offices (Clayman and Reisner, 1998) but not documentary production.
We will present one of these film editing cycles in detail, where the editor and director are discussing the transition between two scenes. Their work begins by reviewing the sequence which the editor has recently completed editing. During their review both editor and director provide assessments of the sequence as it currently stands. Moreover in doing their expert editorial assessment of the sequence they delaminate it into the audio and the picture. Some of the problems raised by the director entail technical solutions which in
turn make relevant the workplace identity of director and editor.
As the cycle shifts forward to its next stage the editor makes the first proposal through subtle shifts in tense from what the sequence currently ‘is’ to what it ‘will be’. As part of this same shift what the filmic object is is
also formulated explicitly (e.g. an ‘intro’). With this in mind the editor then brings to bear other parts of the Final Cut Pro’s (editing software) interface to help him propose the appropriateness of the smaller sequence within the larger structure of the film as a change of scene. The fixed interface of Final Cut Pro’s layout is less central however to the collaborative workplace editing of film is than video’s properties as an animate and audible medium. Video/film is play-able which means that it is also cue-able, roll-able, loop-able, interruptible, extend-able, scrub-able and so on. These properties are realised in, and are constitutive resources, for the analysis and production of sections, clips and sequences. The centrality of the manipulation of video to editing is demonstrated through how both director and editor assess, propose and select what footage to add (and remove) for the next edit of the documentary.