[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What makes an edit feel right?
Lucas Harger, Film and Commercial Editor, Supervising editor, and Partner at Bruton Stroube Outpost: So many things. I think the shots feel right from one to the other. It’s the sequences next to each other, it’s the scenes right next to each other, to make the axe and the axe feel right together. It’s the very minute feeling that impacts the overall feeling. You can’t get as an editor too particular and specific with something. It just demands so much attention because what you do in the shot to shot (the frame trimmings) matters from the meta standpoint as well. For me it comes down to tone and rhythm that’s what makes it feel right.
-Does this tonally feel right?
-[Does this] emotionally feel right?
-Does this rhythmically and editorially [feel right]?
-Does the pace feel right?
Those are the two things that I’m always focused on when I’m cutting or if I’m giving notes to my other editors. It’s the tone and the pace, the tone and the rhythm. Those things have to be right. If those things feel right, it’ll feel right when you zoom out.
Film Courage: Maybe I’ve heard you say this in your prior Film Riot interviews but you say you don’t use a regular dissolve, you find different workarounds, that it kind of ties it through a little bit smoother?
Lucas: Sometimes you can do a quick dissolve and it’s fine, but for me I feel every film demands a different aesthetic approach to something. Sometimes you can use an out of the box transition or the quick and easy one, but then also there’s times where you can accentuate this transition whether it’s a hard cut, a dissolve, a flash cut, doing overlays, these different things use something that tonally feels right in the moment. I don’t really…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Lucas Harger is an acclaimed film and commercial editor, supervising editor, and partner at Bruton Stroube Outpost. Interspersed between long-form editing, Lucas cuts broadcast and web commercials for nationally recognized clients such as but not limited to: Nike, Enterprise, Anheuser-Busch, Uber, Amazon, Apple & Disney+. Priding himself on being a key collaborator across diverse project categories, Lucas brings passion and creativity to every venture. Building timelines and teams are his passion.
CONNECT WITH LUCAS J. HARGER
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