QUOTES

Greg Loftin
"Editing is a beautiful, alchemical craft. But it has a dark side: editing is a lie detector. It detects acting lies, directing lies, dialogue lies, and cinematography lies. But the biggest lie it detects is the flaw in the story."

Greg Loftin
“Where does the story begin?” Screenwriters may find this surprising — they’ve labored long and hard on their opening scenes, why would it change? But in the edit suite, kinetic and narrative imperatives bear down on the cut nowhere more keenly than the opening scenes. We can never know what percentage of opening scenes get “rewritten” in the edit suite, but it could be as much as 50%.

Greg Loftin
"Exposition is anathema to cinema. As a viewer, we know immediately when we’re in the presence of this narrative stodge: action grinds to a halt, and dialogue becomes laden with backstory and plot detail."

Quentin Tarantino
“The first draft of the script is the first cut of the movie and the final cut of the movie is the last draft of the script.”