After 2 years of writing, production, and editing, our latest feature film Teacher’s Pet is officially picture-locked!

While it’s fresh in my mind, I thought I would share a glimpse into the editorial process. Specifically, the picture lock – which relied on a slightly different workflow than I’ve used in the past.

Let’s take a brief look, starting at the very beginning:

The Assembly Cut

Much like other films I’ve cut in the past, the first assembly came together very quickly. At least once I had finished reviewing all the footage and had marked my favorite takes.

In the past, I would make my initial selects by prioritizing shots that not only had great performances but were also free of any technical issues – whether with camera or sound.

Over the years though, I’ve completely shifted my approach to making selects. Now, I build the entire assembly based solely on performance. If there is a camera bump, the framing is off, or there is an issue with the audio – it doesn’t matter.

So long as I am choosing the absolute best performance, I know I can always deal with the superficial issues later.

Using this method, I was able to put together a solid rough cut pretty quickly. It included every line from every scene in the movie – even some moments that I knew would eventually be cut. The goal (as always) was to see it as a whole, so I could assess it from a high level.

The Rough Cut

Once I had a full assembly cut of the film (which ran about 105 minutes), I was able to move on to the rough cut phase. This is where I spent the majority of my time in the edit.

Multiple versions of the rough cut were completed, with each pass focusing on a different aspect of the process. I started by refining the dialogue, tightening up pacing, and occasionally swapping out performance takes if something wasn’t working.

I then spent a lot of time fixing technical issues from the assembly cut. For example, I might cut away from dialogue to a reaction shot in order to mask a visual issue on a performance take that I liked. The goal wasn’t to make everything perfectly smooth (yet), but just to ensure I could eventually get there.

At this point, I also started working on the sound. First, by dropping in some simple background ambiances and temp sound effects. Eventually (after I had several rough cuts in) I began to place the temp music too.

I intentionally used no music at all for the first several cuts of the film. Generally, I find I get way better results when I wait to add music. It’s too easy to use music as a crutch, and not realize it is actually hiding some important underlying issues.

If a scene can work without music at all, it will only work better once the right cue is dropped in. So only once the cut worked with no music did I start temping in some soundtrack. All of which were curated from 6 – 7 scores from recent films in the same genre.

The Fine Cut

Much of the fine-cut stage relied on feedback from our team and a handful of others we shared the movie.

I got lots of great notes on everything from story to dialogue and tried out every note that was given. I would say about 60 – 70% of the notes resulted in actual changes to the film.

One challenge when editing based on notes is knowing what to take and what to leave. That’s why I will try virtually every note that’s given to me. If I don’t choose to implement something, I never want it to be out of laziness. It’s too easy to convince yourself a note isn’t good because it would take you a lot of time to do it.

I’d rather spend a lot of time doing extra work, even if it means I have to un-do it all if the note didn’t quite click. At least that way I know for certain that what’s in there is the best version.

Once our biggest round of notes was applied, I took a couple of weeks away from the film. This let me see things with fresh eyes, and fine-tune some of the scenes that had now been changed more dramatically.

After 4 different versions of the fine cut, we were ready to enter the picture lock phase.

The Picture Lock

From the beginning of the editorial process, my composer was working on music cues for the film. But only one of them (the opening scene) was dropped in at this point. The rest of the cut was filled with temp music from other movie soundtracks.

With that in mind, my biggest focus with the picture lock was incorporating our full score. And along with that, re-cutting scenes to better match with the music.

It’s common practice to fully lock your picture and THEN have a score added to it. But I often prefer the opposite approach. Mainly because it’s easier to slip and edit a few frames to better match the timing of the music than to completely change the tempo or pacing of a music cue to match pthe icture.

So I went scene by scene, dropping in each cue and making slight adjustments to maximize the score.

At the same time, I was also making final picture edits. Shaving 6 frames here and 4 frames there. Cutting into a scene a beat later, or ending a beat earlier. Adding a cutaway shot or simplifying a transition…

Those final adjustments made a world of difference. It really reinforced to me that the last 10% of the process matters as much as the other 90%. The tiny little details may seem insignificant individually, but collectively they completely alter the viewing experience.

Once complete, our picture was finally locked. But like any project, it could have kept going on forever. Thankfully, we had to deliver our files for post-sound which created a natural deadline.

Roughly 4 – 5 weeks from now we will have our final version. Music, sound, VFX, and color will all be complete. Then it’s onto the next phase of festivals, sales, and distribution.

There’s still a lot of work ahead, but it’s a great feeling to have the edit officially complete and to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

---

For exclusive filmmaking articles every Sunday, sign up for my newsletter here!