Digital Editing: Beyond the Edit - Text 5
But Dancyger’s enthusiasm is slightly tempered, wary as he is of the limits of any individual to manage all the various media with the requisite skill, as the creation of a single cinematic environment does not mean that filmmaking will, or should, cease to be a collective, collaborative undertaking: “The degree of consolidation that is possible is probably not wise for one person to undertake, but the critical point is that the digital revolution makes it possible”.[6]
Filmmaking will likely, perhaps necessarily, remain a collective endeavor, but the nature of the endeavor may have to be reconceived. Given the common environment within which film production is now undertaken, it is easier for the various individuals involved to convene at virtually any stage in the process, to contribute at junctures where in the past they may not have been included. The traditional divisions of labor may be replaced by new models of collaborative filmmaking.
Expectations have also increased that results should be expected sooner, that the entire pace of production should be sped up, with the assumption that it can all be done much more inexpensively. Many editors already bemoan the loss of what had been a somewhat insulated environment – the editing room – where it was understood that things could happen only at a certain (relatively slow) pace.
Still, it is more common to hear about the benefits of easier and more immediate collaboration during the editing process, now that draft cuts can be easily circulated and commented on, while others are working on other aspects of the production. What remains, Dancyger notes, is the need to make creative decisions about what to do with the various media digital technology bring together in a common environment, because “a computer-driven editing machine […] no matter how sophisticated, cannot make the creative decision of where to cut and why”.[7]
A common assumption about the new creative possibilities digital technologies might engender is that “the new technology will yield new forms of story-telling, new levels of interactivity, and a more democratic relationship between storyteller... and audience”.[8] But Dancyger sees no evidence yet of any significant change along these lines, certainly not in the mainstream cinema. Interactive technologies have had a far greater effect on other forms, like video games and the digital distribution of already existing works.
And far greater than the revolutionary force of new technology is the conservative force of familiar formal convention, as while digital editing may now be non-linear, storytelling remains mainly linear. Thus, “the likelihood is that digital technology will be used in support of linear tales rather than to subvert or emend narrative conventions.”[9]
