The Invisible Cut: How Editors Make Movie Magic

by Bobbie O'Steen

The book reveals how the editor like a magician manipulates his audience by using sleight of hand and seduces them by anticipating their needs and desires. Only then can he create those invisible cuts that grab them and keep them on the edge of their seats. Part One lays out the rules, strategies and techniques as well as the evolution of editing in movie history. Part Two shows the actual work of master editors by using 248 frame grabs individual frames from thirteen famous scenes.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Bobbie OSteen is a New York-based writer who has been immersed in the world of film editing all her life.

She developed her passion for movies watching her father, film editor Richard Meyer (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Gods Little Acre). After earning a degree in anthropology at Stanford University, she worked with such luminaries as Ray Bradbury and Howard Fast, adapting their novels into screenplays. Shortly after, she joined the ranks of editors, receiving an Emmy nomination for the television movie Best Little Girl in the World. She continued to work in editing (Straight Time,Tess) and screenwriting (Clem & Peewee,The Dalton Girls). In 2002 she wrote Cut to the Chase, a critically acclaimed book based on interviews with her collaborator and husband of 23 years, legendary film editor Sam OSteen (The Graduate,Chinatown). In her new book, The Invisible Cut, Bobbie uses frame grabs of actual cuts from classic movie scenes (including Body Heat, Twelve Angry Men, Rear Window and The French Connection to get deep inside the mind of the film editor and explain how the mysterious art is actually done.

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Reviews

[Steev Hise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would probably have been more useful if I didn't already have as much experience as I do editing. However, it was great review and reinforcement of general concepts, and it was really good when it went through specific scene examples from well-known films, like Chinatown, Body Heat, The Big Chill, etc, breaking it down cut by cut and explaining why the cuts were made the way they were. In many cases this was interspersed with interviews by the directors and editors of these films, providing even more insight into why the edits were made the way they were. Definitely worth looking at for any but the already most accomplished editors and filmmakers.

[Piyush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and simple breakdown of editing as a tool of film-making. .