Saturday Memory
July 5, 2025

I once worked with someone who was a well-known film editor. He asked me to come to his studio. He wanted me to understand how he worked to make strips of film into what was finally seen as a “film.” He said it was important to work initially with just the film strips without sound, and that the soundtrack would be added later to be in synch with the actual product. At every point of the way, he asked for my reaction. In turn, I asked him to elucidate what he was “after.” What he said depended on the story, but for the action movie he was editing, it was increasing the rapidity of rising and falling tension. “But none of that was in the strips themselves. So how is that possible?” “Ah,” he answered, “that is the art.” The edited film became a masterpiece; it won several Academy Awards. He was overwhelmed with anxiety at the prospect of giving his speech if he won, so we practiced his speech together. What seemed to calm him the most was when we both did his speech out loud together in sync. At the ceremony, his speech went off without a hitch and was quite impactful. From time to time, over the years since, I have done this, speaking out loud in synch with dreams. Awkward at first, but repeated speaking brings the dream text together in a way that is surprising and meaningful.

Russ