Make the Story Work

Flashback TV MD taylor Downing warns not to leave booking your editor too late. It’s people like that who will make your programme work, he argues

One of the jobs of the producer and executive producer is to match the programme director with a suitable offline editor. “for long-form programmes, these two people are going to have to sit next to each other in a room for 10 hours a day for several weeks,” says Downing. “In any circumstance, that’s a lot of closeness between two people – directors might sped more time with editors than they would with their partners. So it’s essential that they not only get on with each other but also have a creative affinity and understand each other.”
This doesn’t mean that the two parties must be equal in terms of experience, however. “We’ve found fantastic combinations of a really experienced director working with a really young editor. The young editor brings all sorts of ideas of how to layer and texture images and all sorts of fresh ways of putting images together; the experienced director brings a wealth of experience of storytelling.”

Start thinking early

Booking the right offline editor is key to the success of a production, so make sure to book your editor well in advance (as much as three or four months), says Downing. “Start thinking about editing right at the beginning of a production. You should be booking an editor almost before you book a cameraman.”
Downing keeps an eye on TV output for new editors while also putting faith in directors’ recommendations. “We have a repertoire of good editors that we enjoy working with on different types of programmes – but it’s not as formal as a list. If directors are new to us, they will probably have their own editors they like working with – it comes back to getting the chemistry right between the director and editor. This is particularly important for one-off productions where you’re asking someone to come in and invent a way of structuring the story.” But for series work, where the editing format will have been established, Downing says the producer or executive producer is likely to cal the shots on which editor to use.

Budgets, in-house editing and tendering

Flashback is one of a growing number of production companies that have their own offline editing departments. “A condition for us is that an offline editor comes to our premises,” he says. “That’s really important and part of the culture of our company; that programmes are being made all around the building, so anyone can pop in or out and say to me (or anyone else) when they’re passing ‘come and see if this works.’”
“We also do some onlining here,” Downing adds, “but in the main we go to facilities house for that.” Online editors possess a very different set of skills from their offline contemporaries, he explains. “An offline editor has to be at heart a good storyteller, somebody who has strong visual sense, but ultimately who understands how a structure can tell a story. When it comes to online editing, what we look for is a real sense of colouring and grading, someone who can give a classy visual look and even out the different qualities and lighting of the footage.
“A lot of the history programmes that we produce use a lot of archive, and making archive look really crisp and pure is a skill we look for in online editors,” he adds.

The cost of a good edit

Price is an important factor when choosing a facility, but it shouldn’t dictate where you go for your online edit, says Downing. “We go to a facilities company for a variety of reasons – they have to offer us a good price and that usually goes with the volume of work. A company like flashback is putting a lot of work into the facilities market. But we mainly go to a facility because we know the talent is good and right for the project.”
Flashback has a couple of facilities that it gives the bulk of its work to, “but we review that on a fairly regular basis. So, if a new company opens with talented editors, we might try working with them. But otherwise we stick with companies we know – you build up a relationship with the staff, right from the front-of-house staff to the management.”

Get your online editors on board

It can be worth getting an online editor involved early on in a programme if you are after a particular look, he says. “Traditionally, the first time you see an online editor is when you walk into a suite with your box of tapes. But we’ve done several two-hour documentary specials where we’ve been looking for a particular visual feel, and getting the online editor involved before walking in the door at 9am was really important. We has several useful meetings where the online editor come up to look at extracts of the programme and make suggestions about how the visual feel will evolve. That then feeds back to the offline editor, who then knows if more time should be spent on a particular sequence.”

The good, bad and ugly

Downing can’t stress enough how important the edit is in producing a programme – and warns anyone off trying to scrimp on this part of the production process. “There is a set of rates for editors and very few work below that. The only way to cut corners is to cut time, and it’s very foolish for producers to try and cut down the time of an edit – it’s such an important part of the production process. If you put me up against a brick wall and said you’ve got to lose some shooting time or some editing time on this project, I’d prefer to lose the shooting time.”

This interview appears in the Televisual Magazine Supplement In Post, published Summer 2005.