Editor William Goldenberg found himself particularly challenged while trying to cut a scene in Ben Affleck’s suspenseful drama Argo (2012), which tells the tale of a group of American diplomats attempting to escape Iran in 1979 at the height of the Iranian hostage crisis. This crucial two-minute scene featured no dialogue and no action, just the main character, Tony Mendez (played by Affleck), in a hotel room late at night, drinking, smoking, and silently pondering whether or not to disobey his superiors and initiate a risky operation to save the diplomats the next morning. The script required tension to build as Mendez silently pondered his options, but with no words and little action to use as tension-building tools, Goldenberg had to adopt a subtler approach.

To solve the challenge, Goldenberg realized he had to focus on the character’s physicality as he considers his dilemma. “I had to rely on Ben’s acting—his facial expressions and body language,” Goldenberg recalls.

He shot the scene about 10 times, with all sorts of different coverage, and put himself into a particularly emotional place each time. The whole idea was to access the character’s emotions, to watch him agonize over his decision-making process. As the editor, I went searching for the right takes that showed the progression of his thoughts as he makes up his mind. Each take I choose has a specific job to do. So that means I have to watch each piece of film, each take, and put myself into the audience’s shoes and try to feel the way they would feel about it. I combed through footage until I found just the right moments, with the key moment being the one where he decides to disobey orders, and take the houseguests out of Iran. When you find key moments like that in the footage, you can use them to lift the tension in such a way that the audience is left feeling that what came before that moment was even more intense, and so, the overall scene’s impact of building tension is that much greater.¹

Goldenberg went on to win an Academy Award for his work on the film.

Story editing is all about searching for, and correctly using, those right “moments.” As a high-profile editor of major feature films, Goldenberg had access to far greater resources than you will, including a talented technical team to set up his workflow, import and back up files, and organize data for him—a process strategically designed to allow Goldenberg to maximize his ability to stay focused on creative issues. But in another sense, his challenges were no different than yours will be when you sit in the editor’s chair. Like Goldenberg’s team, you will first have to address those technical issues discussed in Chapter 11. Then, like Goldenberg, you will have to focus on applying every ounce of creativity you can muster to tell the story in a way that audiences can connect with. This will require a mind-set adjustment, since you likely directed the footage you are now editing. What were precious shots to you as the director must now be scrutinized and deleted by you as the editor. You will need to remove your director’s hat, put on your editor’s hat, and examine the footage through an editor’s eyes.

Giving yourself over to the project’s creative needs in this way will be your primary editing challenge. Concentrate on using your tools and resources to become a storyteller first and foremost. Generally, as an editor, you will be painstakingly sequencing the best shots and related elements you can find into the order that best allows you to convey the progression of events in your story. But there is more to it if you want to be a great storyteller; you need to make sure logic and emotion are correctly balanced within the progression of events. And before you can get that far, you first have to learn the basic principles of picture editing, how to achieve continuity and transitions, how to pace a story, and how to find the right rhythm. To do that, you need to learn about different styles and techniques—continuity editing, the montage, overlapping editing, parallel editing, all the different types of cuts and transitions, and so on. This chapter will focus on helping you build a foundation for developing these skills as you start to pursue the mind-set of an editor.