Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures

CHAPTER 3

A Quick Look at Picture Editing

More than any other sound editor, the dialogue editor needs to know what happens in the picture department. When we remain ignorant of “that picture stuff,” things go wrong and we don’t know why. If we don’t understand the way picture editors think, we can’t understand the tracks they give us. And without a decent grasp of the picture cutting process and the issues facing picture editors, we don’t know if we’re being snowed or if it really is impossible to give us what we need.

The picture editor and the picture department assistants have huge responsibilities. At one level they must organize, absorb, and edit the vast collection of shots from the filming in order tell a story, develop characters, and ...