Creative solutions
The surest obstacles to creative film editing are the seduction of matching action and the obsession with staying in sync.
Richard D. Pepperman in “The Eye is Quicker“
—alex4D old blog
Editing organazized – Alex Gollner's 2007-2013 blog
3 comments
alex4D old blog 
To be a bit more precise, the quote should include the words “obsession” and “with”.
“…seduction of matching action and the obsession with staying in sync.”
Perhaps “matching action” is an obvious obstacle in comparison to “staying in sync,” because it (more than any other single approach to editing) promotes benign constructions with a concentration on ‘in & out’ points; easily ignoring larger and far more vital considerations.
Sync. obsessions interfere with the fullness of an actor’s film performance, especially because they give too little credit to rhythms and reactions, focusing instead on the dialogue and speaker; thereby encouraging ‘words’ to drive the film scene.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve changed the quote.
I’ve blogged about not letting the words drive the editing more recently than this post: https://alex4d.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/practice/
Hi Alex,
Let me apologize for taking all this time to ‘reply’ to your ‘reply’, but at my age time zooms right on by!
Your blog about “not letting words drive the editing” is terrific, and I’ll use it as an exercise in my editing classes.
I have also found that the eyes of characters render excellent clues to editing (cutting) motivation; in large part because we tend to look into each other’s eyes during conversation – whether live or on screen!
Keep up the ongoing good work. I thank you,
Richard