Pro Editor's First Steps To Editing A Movie - Lucas Harger

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In this Film Courage video interview, we ask Lucas Harger what his first steps include when editing a new film project.

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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.

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#film #editing #edit

[filmcourage]

Are these the steps you take in your editing process?

[TomBouthillet]

The screenwriter, the producers, the director, the actors, and the editor all think it’s their story. It’s amazing it works in the end.

[SirReelist]

He’s worked with Ryan Connolly on a number of short films. Super cool! If you are not subbed to Film Riot, you MUST.

[tomlewis]

It's interesting how much this professional approach to film editing can mirror a professional approach to writing a novel. Most novelists are mostly inspired by other novelists. I've done what I've had to do to become one, but I've always been much more influenced by screenwriters and directors and editors. I guess I'm a bit of an outlier.

I never have ever 'read a lot', which is what novelists are generally expected to do. But I spent the first part of my life studying how story works, mostly by deconstructing all of the aspects of how film works. And as a writer now, that's turned out to be perfect prep.

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that the artistic sensibilities Lucas brings to his work closely reflect those I bring to mine. But it's actually a little astonishing how similar his approach is. His comments on collaboration are quite similar to how my conscious mind collaborates with my unconscious mind. It's not all that different from a writer-director collaborating with an editor, or with a cinematographer. I do create the story, but then I 'frame every shot' the same way that they do, to structure and tell the story in the best possible way.

The focus for both of us? Story. I don't want my readers to have the experience of 'reading a novel'. I want my readers to feel what it feels like when we watch a movie. And that seems to work.

[omidfilms]

Bad directors hire editors as employees to tell them how to edit the film. Good directors hire editors as collaborators to edit the film together.

[StephenJBGray]

Lucas and his team are a cut above. Collaborative geniuses.

[MrLucidImages]

If I'm not editing the movie myself - I usually give the assembly to the editor, ask them to just put everything we shot in script order...then once we have that, I go back over it and figure out where we have to move things around, stretch or shorten...that's the easiest process. As a style or matter of choice, I tend to choose the take that is the most flattering to the actor lighting and composition wise and always avoid cutting into a performance unless we have to...I like to avoid split edits unless the scene needs a faster pace.

[Wesley-Insley-Comedy]

When editing I’ve always been allowed to be handed a chunk of footage, the script, an idea, and then go at it hands off. This helped so much so that I can help form the story and then we revise, revise, revise to tell the best story possible

[nolantondreau]

such great insight and articulations over the matter

[krishnansrinivasan]

To me, I might've to organise the various takes, shots for a scene thereby the movie in proper folders within the editing software. Then watch & decide about the cuts & stuff. I had a nice time watching this video :) Quite a learning :)

[goetzvideo-filmmaker]

Great insights!
What I struggle with when editing a documentary, is how much time I should invest in watching the footage. Obviously, it depends on the project but still I find it hard to find a balance. Any advice from the community would be helpful ✌🏻 thanks 🙏🏻

[mallmone]

I mostly EaT from advertising and if your relatively hard working and don't believe in -PERFECTION- then FAST EDITING is vital. I never edited anything that P.A.I.D for longer than 45mins - Not Literally, made friends by risking on attempts to enter film industry but but have a home & holiday boat house & typing on 'fan' version of a maddening Samsung. So life is good if u can learn editing and do any job you can. You learn new tricks everyday because u r getting pressure from all sides.. NO friends in advertising & mtv videos but also NO enemies... stay Lucky

[SantaPorter]

Thankyou I'm watching this tomorrow

Is there any chance ya'll could go into the practical effects/props side of things

I can do basic effects but some more detailed tutorials would be cool, thanks

[kevinbillington]

It is the organisation of all the footage and audio from a feature I would like to get my head around.

[drewgodderis]

Very smart man Fred is very knowledgeable. I’m sure he’s an excellent editor with the right attitude.r😊

[mallmone]

Forgot to say thank you to channel... I kant remember it's name... intoxicated aswell.. everyone goes home


P.s.p.s trying to write for THEATRE ... they r fake as advertising but who isn't and they compensate by being FUN FUN FUN

[Lowkeyasf]

I understand his points but the director can’t be controlling in that medium. He DIRECTS the story.

Sounds like he wants to be the director and not the editor.

[albertperson]

As an aspiring film student with many years of life experience now ready to tell my favorite stories, I'm wondering why editors might not even read the story (script) first to get a feel of the story being told. Also, it is curious to me why a writer/director would allow an editor to take this position when there is other people's money on the line. Would Christopher Nolan agree to this? Probably not. It would be like the 'Editor's Cut' rather than the 'Director's Cut' in my humble opinion.

[actinius]

The trouble with movie editing today is they are not cutting out enough junk. Babylon is a bloated mess of a movie - 3 azz numbing hours. But there is 95 minutes of brilliant film making there.