Do I tend to overthink things in filmmaking?

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

I do wish that you'd watch deleted scenes with interest, and not as if there was something wrong with them. Maybe the lines were removed because without them, the edit looked better, and losing the lines didn't mess the plot line, so it was a positive thing. The Dior just felt that it moved things on, and it was not a repair, which you of course assumed it was. Edit decisions are art, and frankly, I find this hard, so sometimes cutting things to make flow work better, or ease an awkward move are good things to try. If it means losing a few unimportant words so what? You often find deleted scenes that you know when you watch them, we're just pointless and waste time, or just add nothing. Not every edit technique is there for fixing mistakes.

Oh yeah, I am not cutting out a few lines as repair, I just thought it would the edit would move better without a line here or there perhaps.

[Josh Bass]

Everyone here is missing the obvious answer: every scene needs to have a cat.

The cat sits in a corner of the room/forest/volcano away from everyone else. The cat is aloof. The cat don't give a crap about nuffin'.

Every time a line needs to be removed, cut to a CU of the cat, as if to say "this cat is above your petty human concerns, and cares about none of what is happening here".

Problem solved.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I like your cat idea. Mine was to fly Brian out to direct Ryan's movie but only on the condition he may never ask a question here again.

[Josh Bass]

Good idea, but going by Paul's post length HE'S the most obsessed and so should direct. It would free his soul. Bryan seems pretty chill already.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Yeah but Brian is chill like the cat and that's what's needed. I can't blame Paul it only takes me a few exchanges with Ryan and I've exceed my daily quota and need a day to recoup.

[Brian Drysdale]

My answer is that Ryan should experiment with his editing and learn from his own mistakes, so find out what works and what doesn't. Otherwise, he'll always need someone holding his hand.

As one of the moderators on another forum advised, Ryan has to go out and make films, so he can learn. It's like trying to learn how to be a bricklayer by just asking questions on a forum, after a certain point you need to lay bricks to progress.

[Paul R Johnson]

The great thing about this forum is that Brian and I actually met! Out of the two of us, he's absolutely the best director. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at putting out fires. The thing with all of us is that everything we say here genuinely helps other people. I doubt we will ever help Ryan, as to help, he'd need to change how he does things and he's stuck to a path we can't change, but the content if archived would be so useful in places that teach film making. You could use this as so much useful info and an explanation of why things go wrong. We're all educationalists!

[Josh Bass]

kinda. someone would have to comb through each thread and (sigh, wait for it....) edit it.

[Brian Drysdale]

Unfortunately, Ryan's threads have a non linear structure.

[Josh Bass]

Well he IS known on the web as the Tarantino of forum posters, after all.