All language subtitles for Module 25

Let's talk about screenings and feedback.

I guess my theory
is that that that is that

it's it's very subjective
what you feel in your gut.

So if you're looking at something
as an editor, I think you have to trust

what you're feeling, trust
what your gut is.

I think
in terms of listening to other people,

I think you listen to yourself first and

and then I think when you get to a place
where you lose objectivity, where you say,

I've been looking at this for for way
too long, I can't tell anymore.

I think a great tool
is stepping away from it

and putting the film up on the shelf
after you've cut it up.

If you can somehow have time
to put it up on the shelf to heal,

you'll find that when you go away from it

and you come back,
you'll look at it with different eyes.

You get you, you get objective.

I think also
it is very important to listen to others.

It's a balance.

And that's what you have to kind of
you have to kind of do it

enough to get a little more experienced,
to know

when, when to listen to yourself, when,
when to listen to others.

But it is valuable to listen to others.

And something that Damien Chazelle
and I do a lot.

And we did it a lot,
especially a lot on First Man.

We do friends and family screenings. We

take friends and trusted people.

We screened a rough cut of the movie
for them.

In the case of First Man, we would use
theater on the Universal Studios lot.

We would project the movie in a theater
with an audience of 25 people.

It could be ten people,

but in our case on First Man,
we get 25 people, sometimes 50 people

that we recruit, people we trusted
friends, people that our producers knew,

and we would screen the movie
and then we would actually

write questionnaires
that the people could answer afterward.

Does this part of the story make sense?

Are all these people getting it?

But I will say that

it's extremely

powerful just to just for you
as an editor, to watch the movie

with other people, even if they don't ask
to answer the questions,

even if you don't talk to them,
you will feel a certain thing

when you watch the movie
or seen with other people.

So sometimes when I'm editing something
and I reach a point where I,

I feel like I'm drawing water from a stone
where I can't tell anymore.

I'll have my assistance come in.

And that's something I think is important
to to think about as an editor.

I think I think you want to work
with certainly good people who are good

assistant editors, good at at technical
things, good at managing the editing room.

That's their job.

But I think you also have to think
of your assistant editors

potentially as as their own editors.

So I will I will bring them in
and show them rough cuts

and I'll see how they react.

I want to hear what they have to say.

And and some of them
I've worked with for a long time.

So I trust them.
You know, you have to have that trust.

But but assuming you trust them,
I want their opinion.

And assistants are good
because they're part of your team.

They should be part of your team.

Sometimes I don't have to talk to them.

I can just feel what?

What they're experiencing in the room.

I can just I can tell if I do a cut
and I show all you people

and if there's a cut, that
that and I cringe and I feel embarrassed,

well, then that probably means
I need to change the cut.

I need to change it
until I can show it to an audience

and not feel embarrassed or bad about it.

So you'll find that

it's incredibly powerful to show it,
to trust it, be a rough cut show

to trusted people and just sit in the room
and see how that feels, you know?