Mark Hajek is senior editor at Stealing Time Editing. He has over a decade in the business cutting commercial spots and documentaries. His favorite equipment includes the Avid Media Composer and the HAL 9000.

What lies ahead in post-production for the year 2002? Only Kubrick knows. A barrage of new software…undoubtedly. A new batch of talent…perhaps. A new house to post at…maybe. What can I say? Dammit Jim, I’m an editor, not a butcher with a ouija board!

We can only hope for a good year ahead with plenty of work for us all. And let’s also hope that it’s good work; and if not, fun work; and if not, work with good people. Better still…all of those things and more.

Since 2001 was so erratic and unpredictable, Hal knows, embracing comfort and consistency was at a premium. Making everyone comfortable and at ease is a part-time job in itself. Personally, I enjoy the role of host inherent in my job and always believe that we are all just people first, who also happen to advertise; and so if we’re going to spend time together let’s have fun, let our hair down, and do some good work.

The real challenge as an editor will always be the same – find the best cut in the footage that you’ve got, in the time that you’ve got. There’s only so much you can do with what you have and so much you can embellish. You have to let the board go onto the next plateau of commercial evolution and let the spot live. Hack ‘n’ slash, slice ‘n’ dice, julienne or filet, a great cut lies in every dish of footage whether served up cold or steaming hot. It’s there. It just has to be found.

Presumably, the editor’s eyes are there, best suited to the work, and most able to extract the choice moments. Bells and whistles sure can help but technology definitely rides sidesaddle to a good pair of eyes and a strong sense of timing. Timing…

That brings me to the schedule.

Hal: I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid there is no schedule.

Recently, on a triple (good people, good creative, good footage), I scratched my head, thinking, ‘Where’s the time?’ Over the course of however many weeks of developing this fine ad, how was it that I had so little time to turn this cut around?

I guess I could have embraced technology and cut on set. Switcher solo! But the straight-ahead nature of the spot didn’t really call for that. So, at the rushes screening, knowing that there might not be enough time for approvals prior to finishing, (don’t cringe fellow editors) I showed rough cuts. Everything was there and fell into place quite nicely. Some minor adjustments took place (tweaks happen) and we were close. Run scored.

Now wait a minute here, Hal…er…Hajek! Are YOU MAD!?

Hal: I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

It so happens that the familiarity/trust factor was high in this case. I was lucky enough to know all the principles quite well, the story was an easy one to tell with a nice selection of strong footage, good performances, and consistent direction. Pretty much a dream. But what if all the ducks hadn’t been in a row? It’s our job to become instant experts on any footage/product/market that we work with.

But do 36 eye-bleeding hours of offline, to approval, to transfer, to finish really yield the best results?

One time, according to the still unwritten Editors Book of Wacky Cuts and Screenings Gags, myth has it that someone in the room asked the dreaded question, ‘Are those the best takes?’ To which the editor replied, ‘Well, no. Actually they’re the second-best takes. The budget didn’t allow for the best takes.’ The person then leaned over to their producer and asked, ‘Is there any way that we can get more money so that we can get the best takes?’

A version of this myth might have the editor being slightly less of a smart-ass and replying, ‘I don’t know. The schedule didn’t allow for the best takes to be uncovered, let alone for them to be assembled into the best cut.’

The best cuts, certainly of the more complex spots, usually come out through the editor’s ability multiplied by time and added to collaborative, creative input. If the spot, now in the can, after so much time, effort and money, doesn’t have the time to ease into its 30-second format and shine, who wears it? We all do.

Hal: I honestly think you ought to calm down; take a stress pill and think things over.

There it is…the second to last 2001 reference I’ll make, along with the saying, ‘It’s all good.’ Time is a luxury, but isn’t it great to be decadent and have the time to come up with even better work in the home stretch? Even though the HAL 9000 ‘is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error,’ you still need time with a monkey boy like me to get a monolithic spot out into space. I welcome the challenge, as do we all, to get the best spots on the air. So let’s have fun and bathe in the footage a bit more and come up with the cleanest cuts possible in 2002.

Hal: I feel much better now, I really do.

-www.stealingtime.com