What Does It Mean To “Overcut”?

While editing my fifth documentary, I remember nervously handing my 90-minute Assembly Cut to a story consultant. She watched it and said, “There’s some great material here, but obviously, you’ve overcut.” I didn’t know what she meant until she started deleting scenes that I had spent weeks perfecting.

My advice today? Stop perfecting scenes until you have the structure pretty much sorted. That means, in early cuts:

• Abstain from fitting B-roll and cutaways. Your efforts will be wasted if the scene or soundbite is cut later.

• No music. It’s hard to judge the inherent dramatic potential of your footage with the emotional power of music in the way.

• Don’t craft transitions until the narrative is flowing. Making micro transitions can be time-consuming–and they’ll get discarded anyway if scenes or soundbites are moved in service of the structure.

Learn more about the phases of editing in my online seminar Editing the Character-Driven Documentary. Thank you to veteran filmmaker Ken Paul Rosenthal for this thoughtful testimonial:

“This class was perfectly structured and paced, with excellently chosen and well-integrated film clips. The handouts were invaluable and the instructor conducted herself w/ gentle authority, patience, and generosity. I would recommend this class to any aspiring filmmaker irrespective of age, skill level or preferred genre.”