10 Genius Editing Decisions That Made Movie Scenes Great

9. The Action Scenes Were Edited In "Real Time" On Set For Continuity - Baby Driver

American Psycho
TriStar Pictures

It's little surprise that Edgar Wright's exceptional action flick Baby Driver was nominated for the Best Film Editing Oscar, given the shockingly precise editing required of Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos to sync up the movie's visuals with its pop music soundtrack.

But in order to ensure he didn't run into issues during post-production, Wright actually had Machliss on set for the duration of the shoot, effectively editing the film in "real time."

To make sure that every single filmed shot met the precise timing requirements of the soundtrack, Machliss was on set in a mobile editing cart, splicing shots together as they were completed and giving Wright the thumbs-up before they moved on.

Though surely more time consuming during shooting, it eliminated the possibility of frustrating coverage oversights which would otherwise only be discovered after principal photography wrapped.

Curiously though, Wright did still undertake a few days' worth of reshoots, largely spent re-filming part of a scene because he'd grown tired of his original musical choice for the sequence, and a different song required newly-timed shots to be filmed.

Diplomatically, though, Wright wouldn't name and shame the song in question.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.