7 Editors Take Us Behind the Curtain on Cutting a Sundance Feature

Our editor's roundtable covers many important topics... like what to do during renders.  

During Sundance 2020, we gathered a group of top-notch editors to discuss a variety of topics, including how they got started, details on their editing setups, plus advice for future editors.

How does the idea of a film evolve? How does a story come together in a cut or a performance? These are a few important questions we talk about in this roundtable discussion with some of the best editors in the world. Other topics discussed include:

• Preparing yourself for the director’s response to the first assembly
• What top editors cut on and where (at home versus editing suite)
• During renders: write emails, check Facebook, or play Pokemon Go?
• How to work with directors and get gigs
• How to make a living as an editor
• Advice for editors at the beginning of their career

These editors explain their role in the process alongside their directors rewriting the story, and how they often have to show the worst version of the movie possible. 

Editors featured on this podcast are Gabriel Rhodes from Time, Tyler Walk and Maxwell Anderson from Welcome to Chechnya, Sofi Marshall from Save Yourselves! Eileen Meyer from Crip Camp, Pete Ohs from Beast Beast, and Matt Friedman from Palm Springs.  

For more, see our ongoing list of coverage of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.