I've never made any film that I wouldn't go back and re-edit.
As for me, my foundations were laid in the south. We did the post-production of 'Hum Paanch' in Chennai, with many technicians from here working for us.
Same thing with film, by the time you've finished shooting and you've really been into everything, you've touched up everything in the editing room. You've gone in there and taken little bits from everything.
I don't look at rushes, or I don't go to the dailies. I don't even really look at playback... unless it's an action scene or a move that I need to do better, something like that.
I don't do any editing while we're making the movie. I sit down and watch it all with my editor, we make longhand notes on pads, and then we begin our work.
Each movie I make has its own heroes, and the two heroes for me in 'Arrival' are Amy Adams and Joe Walker, the editor. We worked very, very hard, and it was, by far, the longest editing process.
Sometimes when you're editing a movie, you have the thing that you don't expect - which is you make it longer and longer as you go along.
A lot can change in the editing room.
With film sometimes you're thrown in there and you literally hit the ground running, taking your best shot and just leave it up to the editing.
I always like to hang out with whoever's directing and watch what they do. I hang out at Video Village, the area where the directors and the writers and script advisors are.
In the editing room, 20 percent of the time you're using stuff from before the actor knew the camera was rolling or you're taking a line from somewhere else and putting it in his mouth.
Most of the films I've done were ruined in the postproduction, not during filming.
Editing is where movies are made or broken. Many a film has been saved and many a film has been ruined in the editing room.
The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics - the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room.
Jim Brooks is a very powerful director and it was a lot of intense work.
Movies remind me of recording. Just the process of it - the intricacies, the technicalities, the days and the long hours, and mastering and mixing and editing. But seeing the final product, it all pays off in the end. That's the rush - when you see things come to life.
If you worry about what's going to end up in the final cut, it's like you're thinking about the endgame.
I treat recorded tapes the way a film director treats his rushes.
When I got back into the film business after college, I started out as a production assistant.
I can lock myself for months in the editing suite with no noise or distractions. It's fascinating to see the film taking shape.
You have to find the movie in the editing room, and it can't be four hours; it has to be two hours.
We were working with this lousy print and it just wasn't going to be good enough. I said that we should get the original negative and do it from that. Well, a couple guys pointed out that the negative was locked up over at Deluxe.
There's no such thing as a non-final cut director.
Of course, when you're making a documentary, you don't have actors, but nonetheless, there is a writing process that does take place in the editing room.
I film quite a bit of footage, then edit. Changes before your eyes, things you can do and things you can't. My attitude is always 'let it keep rolling.'
