Film Editing: A Lost Art?

That's what Jessica Winter argues in a recent piece in The Boston Globe. She acknowledges that "film editing remains perhaps the least heralded and least understood of the cinema's technical arts," and then laments, "2006 marks the moment that the dizzying pinball effect of hyperspeed editing has finally permeated every last corner of mainstream American cinema." The strongest observation to back her up comes from editor Steve Hamilton, who has worked on TV commercials as well as features by Hal Hartley and Ang Lee. Hamilton says, "There is much more pressure on an editor to try to do something 'noticeable,' or perhaps there are more editors who've grown up thinking that they have to make edits that are noticeable." His kicker conclusion: "I think this mentality is leading to a mistrust of the shot."

Check out "The Lost Art of Film Editing" here.