Thursday 10 December 2015

Attributed to Tom Rolf... "I love you"

Tom Rolf, (editor on Taxi Driver (1976), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Heat (1995) and Equilibrium (2002) amongst others) offered this comment. I can't find a definitive source for the quote but it rings true. 
“Is it better to say, ‘I love you,’ bang, then cut to the reaction? Or is it better to say, ‘I love you,’ hang on it for a beat to show the emotion of the person delivering the line, then go for the reaction? 
It’s a matter of choice. 
Either way, there’s a different result for the audience looking at it. 
Are their sympathies with the guy who said the line, or the girl who said the line? Or is the audience saying, ‘Don’t believe him, he’s going to screw you over’… 
If you find the frame to cut on at that right moment, the audience will be totally satisfied.”
Quote attributed to Tom Rolf, Editor

Not a Tom Rolf edited scene. Very much a sequence of action and reaction shots maintaining eye-line and tempo, both rhythmic and tonal. Mick Audsley takes the editing credit on this one.

 High Fidelity,  (2000)

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