Now You Can See What I’m Saying!

So, four years ago, I wrote a blog post about the movie Batman v Superman or, more specifically, a single line of dialogue from the film. I removed that line of dialogue, along with a few other lines I didn't care for, and it really changed that scene for the much better. Today, I finally…

Pulling Back Just a Smidge

As writers or creators, we can sometimes go a bit too far, and one of the best things we can do is recognize when that's happening in our work. For the below video, I looked at the final lightsaber fight in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. There are a couple of places…

Phantom Editing

You know how much I love talking about Star Wars, so I’m actually excited to begin a series of videos covering the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, the first of which will show how moving one scene within the opening of the film can help to make the opening a bit stronger. I hope you enjoy.…

How to Edit for Better Pacing and Storytelling Part 3

Here it is, the final part of my video series on The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. I hope you enjoy! 🙂 And yes, I’m already working on a video on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. My next three videos (maybe four)…

How to Edit for Better Pacing and Storytelling Part 2

Part 2 of my video series on merging The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions into a single film is now live (you can find Part 1 here). In it, I show how cutting unneeded information from the film, such as The Merovingian's causality talk, strengthens that specific scene and the character at the heart…

In Terms of Space

Think about this in terms of space. Without stars to provide light, There is dark. But stars are born; The dark simply is. In terms of space, The dark is the default, And it goes on forever. The dark is eternal. ...as the light of the stars is guided through dark space. Think about this…

How to Edit for Better Pacing and Storytelling

So, I just posted a new video to my YouTube channel, Reel Busy Editing, and what I show in it is how I re-edited The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions into a single film by cutting all the bloat present in both films. There was so much getting in the way of the story…

I Think I Just Wanted to Do a Film That Wasn’t an Action Movie

So, in my latest video, I wanted to show how subtracting one bit of dialogue from one scene in the 2000 film Cast Away could add a bit more emotional weight to that scene, and I also wanted to show how subtracting an entire reunion can add to the emotion of the ending of the…

Your Soul… er, Edit… is Mine!

Catchy title, eh? Anyway, I have a new Quick Change video up on my YouTube channel, Reel Busy Editing. If you want to see how a few small edits can make a big difference in a scene from the 1995 film Mortal Kombat, then click the play button on the video below. Enjoy! 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFqUZsIhEQA

Would This Character Say That?

Sometimes, I read a book or watch a movie, and a character will say a certain line of dialogue that will pull me out of the experience because I'll be scratching my head over why that character would say that line. That's definitely something we, as writers, have to be careful of: not allowing a…