Think/Point/Shoot

Introduction to Section Three

Postproduction and Distribution

Annette Danto and Mobina Hashmi

IMAGINE you are editing a film that is set on the outskirts of Nevada, near a Shoshone reservation. A brawl breaks out among drunken teenagers. You have been instructed to edit the footage at a fast and furious pace to convey maximum violence using a frenetic soundtrack, even though the footage itself isn’t particularly violent. Should you appeal to the viewers’ lowest common denominator, even though that is likely to intensify negative stereotypes of the Shoshone community?

When editing a slow-moving documentary interview, you are faced with the need to speed things up. This can be done by removing words, sentences, and phrases. However, such cuts are ...