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Hi Everyone!
A warning: This is going to be longwinded.
I'm putting down some thoughts about how I approach the more artistic side of fanedits vs. the technical. There's tons of great advice for faneditors involving technical editing skills, but there's not a ton of discussion on structure, character, narrative, etc. In my personal opinion, a strong focus on those items can really separate good edits from great edits.
I also am posting this with modesty. I do not think I'm an expert on this. However, I can back up that I slightly know what I'm talking about. I studied screenwriting, filmmaking, and editing. I am one of the OG faneditors, my first edits were using dvdrips and Womble. I have a lot of edits with a 9+ review average, and I've won a few FEOTM and FEOTY awards. Again, not showing off, I just want you to know who you are getting advice from!
One of the things that I think makes my edits successful is my approach to story, pacing, and character. I'm not the best editor technically. I can't do special effects. I struggle to even get believable titles in my edits. A shot other editors could mask in 10 minutes will take me 2 days. Point is, I know my strengths.
So without further adieu, let's get to some thoughts.
1. Story
Any good story, and by extension any good fanedit, starts with a question. One specific question, which is "WHAT IF?" Even if you don't consciously think about your What If, you have one. I'm going to talk about making that What If work for you.
I'm going to use Zack Snyder's Justice League as an example. For my edit, the obvious What If is "What if ZSJL was under 3 hours?". Yeah, that's technically correct, but it also gives me no indication of how to approach what I'm about to do. Cut it down to 3 hours can mean literally anything. I could just cut the last hour out and with one cut, I've accomplished my What If.
But my What If was actually "What if Snyder never left the production, and the studio made him cut his workprint down to a theatrically viable release?" Well now, that's more interesting. Now I have something to guide what the story is. To accomplish this, I have to keep the same overall plot and character beats that Snyder has in his extended version, but imagine him trying to cut it down to something you could release in the theater. I know what needs to stay and needs to go. I may have to make a tough call about a couple of scenes, but in this situation Snyder would have to make that call too.
Dune wasn't "what if the miniseries was actually a film?" It was "What if Dune was a big, Cecil B. Demille-esque old Hollywood epic?" Final Order wasn't "What if Rey isn't a Palpatine and Leia dies early?" It was "What if Rey no longer has a famous lineage or mentor to lean on, and has to navigate her way through this story she shouldn't even be a part of?" Interesting questions lead you to interesting answers, which leads to interesting, cohesive fanedits.
Now you know what your story is going to be, it's time to start looking at how best to tell it.
2. Pacing
Pacing is the speed at which the plot moves. This can be determined by the speed of camera shots, length of dialogue and movement. So, essentially, everything is pacing. That makes it hard to technically pinpoint how to have good pacing.
Honestly, it isn’t a technical thing. Pacing is, unlike a lot of elements of filmmaking and editing, about feeling. Your gut knows when it’s there and when it isn’t.
Pacing is absolutely one of the most important elements of any fanedit, and something that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough. The difficulty with pacing is that 90% of Hollywood movies have terrible pacing to begin with, so you're almost always trying to make an improvement.
You ever watch a 3 hour movie and feel shocked that it’s already over? You ever watch a 90 minute movie and can’t wait for the credits to roll? That’s the gut feeling. We all have it. Our sensitivity and preferences will be different, but we can all tell when something just isn’t really working. It’s not about length, it’s about the route the story takes from beginning to end. 2 hours is more or less the standard, but I’ve seen great pacing in movies that were 80 minutes or three and a half hours. I’ve also seen terrible pacing in both.
There’s a temptation to force through your ideas when making a fanedit. You want something to work so badly, that you might ignore that gut feeling. There might be a scene you put a ton of work into, or you love very much, or did a neat visual effect for. Technically it works. The problem there is that it’s not just about one scene working. It’s about how each moment ties together to create a seamless, enthralling whole. Removing these things you love is commonly referred to as "killing your darlings" and it's something filmmakers have to struggle with all the time. It's no different for faneditors.
We live in a world of bloated epics and bingeable series that are really just long form movies. Things are created now with the assumption that you’ll have it on while you’re doing the laundry, or while playing on your phone. Many modern films lack immediacy, urgency, and that indescribable “oomph”. Find the oomph! You want your audience fully engaged in what is going on from beginning to end. That might mean faster editing and movement, but it also might mean keeping one of those “unnecessary” scenes just so everyone can have a breather and a moment to catch up. It’s very important, and it’s very undervalued.
The best, easiest way to quickly improve your edit is to punch up the pacing.
3. Character
Character is tricky. Your edit might be making some huge changes to the story. You need to stop and think how that impacts the various characters, and also the audience's opinion of those characters.
Let’s say you want to cut all of Jar-Jar’s silly dialogue in The Phantom Menace. You could absolutely technically do that. However, what’s left? Not much. So now we just have a nothing character floating through the story, doing and saying nothing. This is not an improvement. I’d rather have a toned down version of the goofy guy than a random frog man I with no personality, and most people are going to feel the same way.
It will be easier to keep a grip on your characters if you have a clear “what if” and are paying attention to pacing. Because, you know what? When you look at the pacing of The Phantom Menace, you can start to understand why some of that Jar-Jar stuff was there in the first place. He’s there when we need to slow down to offer a comedic beat. He absolutely exists for a genuine story and pacing reason. So when altering that character, you have to think about what it does to the story and the pacing. It’s also possible to create a stronger character by having them do less, which will also impact the story and the pacing.
Do you see how all this connects yet? I hope so, because when story, pacing, and character all intersect in just the right way, you get…
4. MAGIC
Luke Skywalker flies down the trench, the last fighter pilot left that can get the job done. Darth Vader is right on his tail. He doesn’t have enough time.
He’s unsure if he can make the shot using the targeting computer. The last guy couldn’t make the shot. Vader is almost in range.
The ghostly voice of Luke’s mentor reaches out, and tells him to trust his feelings. He can do it. Luke believes in himself, in The Force.
But he's out of time. Vader locks on. It’s all about to be over. Until Han Solo comes back (I knew he cared!) and blasts Vader into next week.
Luke makes the shot, there’s a huge explosion, the heroes win the day, and the audience erupts.
Story, pacing, and character all intersect in the best possible way to give us that moment of magic. A moment that’s really just models, music, and some actors sitting in fake cockpits. Instead, it’s one of the most iconic scenes to ever hit the silver screen.
All filmmaking is magic. It’s the act of making something appear out of thin air, and making people care about your creation. Magical moments happen all the time in movies. Like pacing, sometimes it’s just a feeling. A neat idea. A “hmm, I wonder if I…” and then suddenly something incredible happens. You're looking for those moments of magic when making your edit, but sometimes they'll just find you.
An example: When I did my edit of The Hobbit (What if The Hobbit was always intended as one film?) I came up to a difficult moment. I had cut one of the secondary villains, an Orc general, for pacing reasons. We didn’t need him when we had the other main Orc villain, and I minimized Legolas’ part of the story, so it was a good move.
However, when I got to the end, I ran into an issue: Legolas still had Thorin’s sword, which Thorin needed to have in order to face the main antagonist. The scene that involved Legolas giving the sword to Thorin involved the villain that I cut.
What should I do? Do I put him back in just to get the sword to Thorin? That would ruin my pacing and make the film longer. Do I just, like, pretend Thorin had it the whole time, or minimize the importance of the sword? Well that hurts the character and creates a logic gap. I also would lose out on a nice moment of an elf helping a dwarf, something that will echo through the Lord of the Rings films after this one.
Then, out of nowhere, a simple solution hit me: I have a shot of Legolas unsheathing the sword, and I have a shot of the sword flying into an Orc. What if I just combine those….
And suddenly, I had magic. It’s implied that Legolas throws the sword at the Orc, which is sold by the geography and the sound effects. It's now a rousing moment in a string of big action beats, and an important and satisfying interaction between Thorin and Legolas.
I created a moment that didn't exist, and it worked because I paid attention to my story, my pacing, and my characters. It’s one of the simplest cuts I’ve ever done, and it made one of the best moments in the whole edit, and it’s a moment that doesn’t show any clear signs of being fanedit, since it’s just a simple cut.
Magic makes itself available to you, it sometimes just takes a few minutes (or days, or weeks, or 20 failed other tries) to see it.
However, do you really want to maximize your chances of finding that magic? Of creating not just a good fanedit, but a great movie?
Story + Pacing + Character = Magic
A warning: This is going to be longwinded.
I'm putting down some thoughts about how I approach the more artistic side of fanedits vs. the technical. There's tons of great advice for faneditors involving technical editing skills, but there's not a ton of discussion on structure, character, narrative, etc. In my personal opinion, a strong focus on those items can really separate good edits from great edits.
I also am posting this with modesty. I do not think I'm an expert on this. However, I can back up that I slightly know what I'm talking about. I studied screenwriting, filmmaking, and editing. I am one of the OG faneditors, my first edits were using dvdrips and Womble. I have a lot of edits with a 9+ review average, and I've won a few FEOTM and FEOTY awards. Again, not showing off, I just want you to know who you are getting advice from!
One of the things that I think makes my edits successful is my approach to story, pacing, and character. I'm not the best editor technically. I can't do special effects. I struggle to even get believable titles in my edits. A shot other editors could mask in 10 minutes will take me 2 days. Point is, I know my strengths.
So without further adieu, let's get to some thoughts.
1. Story
Any good story, and by extension any good fanedit, starts with a question. One specific question, which is "WHAT IF?" Even if you don't consciously think about your What If, you have one. I'm going to talk about making that What If work for you.
I'm going to use Zack Snyder's Justice League as an example. For my edit, the obvious What If is "What if ZSJL was under 3 hours?". Yeah, that's technically correct, but it also gives me no indication of how to approach what I'm about to do. Cut it down to 3 hours can mean literally anything. I could just cut the last hour out and with one cut, I've accomplished my What If.
But my What If was actually "What if Snyder never left the production, and the studio made him cut his workprint down to a theatrically viable release?" Well now, that's more interesting. Now I have something to guide what the story is. To accomplish this, I have to keep the same overall plot and character beats that Snyder has in his extended version, but imagine him trying to cut it down to something you could release in the theater. I know what needs to stay and needs to go. I may have to make a tough call about a couple of scenes, but in this situation Snyder would have to make that call too.
Dune wasn't "what if the miniseries was actually a film?" It was "What if Dune was a big, Cecil B. Demille-esque old Hollywood epic?" Final Order wasn't "What if Rey isn't a Palpatine and Leia dies early?" It was "What if Rey no longer has a famous lineage or mentor to lean on, and has to navigate her way through this story she shouldn't even be a part of?" Interesting questions lead you to interesting answers, which leads to interesting, cohesive fanedits.
Now you know what your story is going to be, it's time to start looking at how best to tell it.
2. Pacing
Pacing is the speed at which the plot moves. This can be determined by the speed of camera shots, length of dialogue and movement. So, essentially, everything is pacing. That makes it hard to technically pinpoint how to have good pacing.
Honestly, it isn’t a technical thing. Pacing is, unlike a lot of elements of filmmaking and editing, about feeling. Your gut knows when it’s there and when it isn’t.
Pacing is absolutely one of the most important elements of any fanedit, and something that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough. The difficulty with pacing is that 90% of Hollywood movies have terrible pacing to begin with, so you're almost always trying to make an improvement.
You ever watch a 3 hour movie and feel shocked that it’s already over? You ever watch a 90 minute movie and can’t wait for the credits to roll? That’s the gut feeling. We all have it. Our sensitivity and preferences will be different, but we can all tell when something just isn’t really working. It’s not about length, it’s about the route the story takes from beginning to end. 2 hours is more or less the standard, but I’ve seen great pacing in movies that were 80 minutes or three and a half hours. I’ve also seen terrible pacing in both.
There’s a temptation to force through your ideas when making a fanedit. You want something to work so badly, that you might ignore that gut feeling. There might be a scene you put a ton of work into, or you love very much, or did a neat visual effect for. Technically it works. The problem there is that it’s not just about one scene working. It’s about how each moment ties together to create a seamless, enthralling whole. Removing these things you love is commonly referred to as "killing your darlings" and it's something filmmakers have to struggle with all the time. It's no different for faneditors.
We live in a world of bloated epics and bingeable series that are really just long form movies. Things are created now with the assumption that you’ll have it on while you’re doing the laundry, or while playing on your phone. Many modern films lack immediacy, urgency, and that indescribable “oomph”. Find the oomph! You want your audience fully engaged in what is going on from beginning to end. That might mean faster editing and movement, but it also might mean keeping one of those “unnecessary” scenes just so everyone can have a breather and a moment to catch up. It’s very important, and it’s very undervalued.
The best, easiest way to quickly improve your edit is to punch up the pacing.
3. Character
Character is tricky. Your edit might be making some huge changes to the story. You need to stop and think how that impacts the various characters, and also the audience's opinion of those characters.
Let’s say you want to cut all of Jar-Jar’s silly dialogue in The Phantom Menace. You could absolutely technically do that. However, what’s left? Not much. So now we just have a nothing character floating through the story, doing and saying nothing. This is not an improvement. I’d rather have a toned down version of the goofy guy than a random frog man I with no personality, and most people are going to feel the same way.
It will be easier to keep a grip on your characters if you have a clear “what if” and are paying attention to pacing. Because, you know what? When you look at the pacing of The Phantom Menace, you can start to understand why some of that Jar-Jar stuff was there in the first place. He’s there when we need to slow down to offer a comedic beat. He absolutely exists for a genuine story and pacing reason. So when altering that character, you have to think about what it does to the story and the pacing. It’s also possible to create a stronger character by having them do less, which will also impact the story and the pacing.
Do you see how all this connects yet? I hope so, because when story, pacing, and character all intersect in just the right way, you get…
4. MAGIC
Luke Skywalker flies down the trench, the last fighter pilot left that can get the job done. Darth Vader is right on his tail. He doesn’t have enough time.
He’s unsure if he can make the shot using the targeting computer. The last guy couldn’t make the shot. Vader is almost in range.
The ghostly voice of Luke’s mentor reaches out, and tells him to trust his feelings. He can do it. Luke believes in himself, in The Force.
But he's out of time. Vader locks on. It’s all about to be over. Until Han Solo comes back (I knew he cared!) and blasts Vader into next week.
Luke makes the shot, there’s a huge explosion, the heroes win the day, and the audience erupts.
Story, pacing, and character all intersect in the best possible way to give us that moment of magic. A moment that’s really just models, music, and some actors sitting in fake cockpits. Instead, it’s one of the most iconic scenes to ever hit the silver screen.
All filmmaking is magic. It’s the act of making something appear out of thin air, and making people care about your creation. Magical moments happen all the time in movies. Like pacing, sometimes it’s just a feeling. A neat idea. A “hmm, I wonder if I…” and then suddenly something incredible happens. You're looking for those moments of magic when making your edit, but sometimes they'll just find you.
An example: When I did my edit of The Hobbit (What if The Hobbit was always intended as one film?) I came up to a difficult moment. I had cut one of the secondary villains, an Orc general, for pacing reasons. We didn’t need him when we had the other main Orc villain, and I minimized Legolas’ part of the story, so it was a good move.
However, when I got to the end, I ran into an issue: Legolas still had Thorin’s sword, which Thorin needed to have in order to face the main antagonist. The scene that involved Legolas giving the sword to Thorin involved the villain that I cut.
What should I do? Do I put him back in just to get the sword to Thorin? That would ruin my pacing and make the film longer. Do I just, like, pretend Thorin had it the whole time, or minimize the importance of the sword? Well that hurts the character and creates a logic gap. I also would lose out on a nice moment of an elf helping a dwarf, something that will echo through the Lord of the Rings films after this one.
Then, out of nowhere, a simple solution hit me: I have a shot of Legolas unsheathing the sword, and I have a shot of the sword flying into an Orc. What if I just combine those….
And suddenly, I had magic. It’s implied that Legolas throws the sword at the Orc, which is sold by the geography and the sound effects. It's now a rousing moment in a string of big action beats, and an important and satisfying interaction between Thorin and Legolas.
I created a moment that didn't exist, and it worked because I paid attention to my story, my pacing, and my characters. It’s one of the simplest cuts I’ve ever done, and it made one of the best moments in the whole edit, and it’s a moment that doesn’t show any clear signs of being fanedit, since it’s just a simple cut.
Magic makes itself available to you, it sometimes just takes a few minutes (or days, or weeks, or 20 failed other tries) to see it.
However, do you really want to maximize your chances of finding that magic? Of creating not just a good fanedit, but a great movie?
Story + Pacing + Character = Magic
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