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The Hollywood Career Coach - WHAT’S THE FIRST SHOT?

February 25, 2009

EXT - DAY - NYC STREET

One of my first great jobs in NY was as an apprentice
editor. I was hired to “schlep” dailies from the lab to
the office, then off for coding, then back for syncing,
then out for telecine and off to sixth avenue and 2 drops
for the network pouches (ABC and CBS) to the west coast.

In the morning I’d pick up the transferred mag stripe from
the transfer house for syncing, but I digress.

I was fortunate to overhear a fascinating conversation one
day between the assistant editor I worked for and her
mentor, the picture editor on the film.

GUARDIAN ANGEL?

He had edited this incredibly complex sequence. It was a
wonderfully choreographed confrontation between a gang of
subway thugs and a fictional version of the Guardian
Angels, a group of kids from the Bronx led by Curtis Sliwa
, who put on red berets and did their best to combat crime
in their neighborhood. (Mostly the Bronx, but I saw them
in Manhattan occasionally.)

Anyhow. The editor had created this incredible sequence. A
gang of do-gooders meets a gang of bad guys in the
labyrinth of tunnels known as the New York City subway
system.

(This scene was later recreated in Michael Jackson’s “Beat
it” video. Minus the choreographed dancing.)

WHAT’S THE SECRET?

So. The assistant said to the editor. “This scene is so
amazing. It’s got shape, and drama and it builds
incredibly and keeps the suspense up and the ends
incredibly.” She obviously noticed something spectacular
working in how the scene achieved it’s magic, from an
editorial point of view.

Finally she asked him, “How did you plan that sequence so
that it would build so well and have so much structure and
flow?”

He was silent for a minute taking it all in, thinking
about how to answer her question. He was appreciative of
her feedback and compliment, and truly wanting to answer
her question in meaningful way.

WELL, UMM . . .

Finally, as if exasperated with himself for not having
anything more profound to say, he said “Well, I don’t know
that I planned any of that stuff you’re seeing.

I just looked at all the footage and asked myself ‘What’s
the first shot? What’s my entrance into the scene from all
the footage I have?’ And once I have that one shot placed
in the sequence, I ask myself ‘What’s the next shot’ and
so on from there.”

Even I, just back from my third trip to the lab for the
day, knew there WAS something profound about this
exchange.

GOT STRUCTURE?

He did have a wonderful innate sense of structure and
pacing and storytelling, but it wasn’t where he started.
He started with the first shot and built from there. Saw
what was being created and responded to the needs of the
scene one shot at a time. After stringing together a few
shots a rhythm was created. A vibe was felt. Forward
motion was created.

LISTEN TO THE FOOTAGE

Another editor I worked for said as we sat down before
huge mess of dailies. “The footage tells us how to tell
the story. Once shooting is over we have to tell the story
the footage wants us to tell, not necessarily the one the
director thinks he shot, or the writer might have
visualized would create the final scene.”

It was a creation in progress, being laid out one shot at
a time, its’ total gestalt being drawn in front of his
eyes.

One tiny decision at a time. One shot at a time.

Structure and pacing yes. But decisions made one shot at a
time.

ACTION

And so it is with our careers which are visioned and
dreamed and planned all our lives but implemented one step
at a time.

One shot. One phone call. One meeting. One sentence at a
time.