Post-Production : What movie editing or VFX inspires you? by Amanda Toney

Amanda Toney just watched F1 last night and it is state of the art editing. Vrooming movie too with Brad's production company behind the wheel.!

Amanda Toney OMG My wife and my mom and I recently saw one of the most captivating and incredibly well edited documentary I've seen recently called "Sell Your House" at the AmDoc Film Festival. It was so funny and warm and a little sad. Not at all VFX heavy but amazing editing chops. As an editor in my previous life, I was so impressed by how elegantly the story was cut. Great piece that started out as a "making of" film that inadvertently turned into a doc on the ups and downs of filmmaking and the filmmakers relationships that get built and destroyed through the struggles of getting their film made and out into the world. Mostly shot near my city of Palm Springs, CA. Highly recommend!

I'm going to say the matrix trilogy was my inspiration growing up. the VFX they used for the bullet dodging and helicopter crash into the building that did the ripple effect on the glass before shattering was my favorite scene. when I was young I spent hours trying to figure out how they were able to manage such a scene but now I just want to be a part of the next big VFX.

~Timothy Douglas Miller

Amanda Toney I just saw Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights and it's one of the most visually stunning films I can remember. This is one where every frame was clearly visualized from the start, which is in fact where the first editing begins.

These are all awesome suggestions guys. Michael - I'm intrigued about SELL YOUR HOUSE, and a gentle reminder of THE MATRIXis awesome Timothy - I haven't watched that in years. And, WUTHERING HEIGHTS is definitely on my to watch list, Shadow.

Amanda Toney Yeah if you see it let me know what you thought! Timothy Miller I remember being so intrigued with how they shot "bullet time" back then with the huge circle of cameras you get to see in the behind the scenes footage for the first one. Remember when we would pay extra for the deluxe dvd? I miss the feeling you'd get when buying one. Kind of like buying a CD. Lol.

Michael Teisan - looks like it's still on the festival circuit. I love docs so I will definitely watch for when it comes out!

growing up and getting the deluxe DVD just to watch the behind the scenes footage was an amazing feeling because they in some way taught you how they did the VFX. at that time the CGI was still new and had to put in a lot more effort to capture the same quality that is more abundant today. Michael Teisan

Amanda Toney Haven't seen F1 yet, gonna look forward to it though, I’ve always been inspired by the VFX work on Avatar and The Way of Water, especially how the VFX team builds such innovative tools that fully pull you into the film.

Amanda Toney, I completely agree, F1 really pulls you in. I was blown away by how seamlessly the camera work and VFX worked together. It all feels so immediate and immersive, like you’re right there in the car with them. As an F1 racing fan, I was thrilled to feel like I was really experiencing the race with some of my favorite drivers moving around the fictional characters to simulate the experience of a real Grand Prix.

I also loved the editing and VFX in Project Hail Mary. The way everything comes together to support both the scale of the story and the emotional experience is so well done. It’s a great example of technical elements working in total harmony with storytelling.

It’s always exciting to see when all those pieces, camera, edit, VFX, are clearly in sync from the ground up!

Everything Everywhere all at one!

Look out for a new film LIFEHACK - out in US theatres on Friday 15th May - a screenlife heist movie exec produced by Timur Bekmambetov, produced and co-edited by my brilliant client Sasha Kletsov (credited as Aleksandr Kletsov). It was BIFA nominated in the UK for editing!

Oooh! Thanks for the heads up, Christina Pickworth! I'll definitely put it on my watchlist!

What inspires me most is the general editing and pacing style of a lot of 1980s films. From Ghostbusters to The Terminator, they had the confidence to slow down when a character needed a realization, an emotional beat, or simply a moment to land. They understood that pacing is not just speed, it is contrast.

A lot of movies now, especially studio remakes, feel like they are locked into the same pacing almost all the way through. Everything is moving, but not always building. And I think that is part of why audiences can get bored despite incredible visuals. If every moment is pushed at the same rhythm, nothing stands out. The quieter character beats, tonal shifts, and breaths in the storytelling are often what make the big moments actually hit.

That older style of editing trusted the audience more, and I still find that really inspiring.

I agree with Shadow's post about Wuthering Heights. It was brilliant.

Paul O -oof, my least favorite movie in years! I know I am the only person who admits that publicly lol

Joshua Young GOOD answer. Yes, I 100% agree with you.

There's a few movies which stick out for me. Arrival (the VFX blew me away), Blade Runner 2049 (the sound production was incredible in the cinema), Dunkirk (the sound production again), Avengers: Endgame (cannot stand the franchise and only saw a few of them, but the VFX for this one were undeniable). And some of the edits in Civil War were incredible (the ending gun battle in the White House honestly felt like a CoD live-action sequence).

Those ones stick out most to me.

I agree with Joshua Young, I watch movies like Terminator 1 & 2 to remind myself of what strong film VFX and editing during a time when it seemed impossible to pull off, were possible.

Agreed F1 was great. The French Connection inspired car cash that ends One Battle After Another is a masterclass in editing. I also recently saw The Rider, chloe Zhao's first film ... the editor did a fantastic job letting scenes breathe, reactions hold, the stuff that has made her work really stand out. As for VFX the Bob Lazar UFO Documentary is an interesting look at what I imagine is AI Animation to create b-roll of area 51. It makes a low budget doc that talks a lot about "unseen things" come alive with slick b-roll. That film could not have been made a few years ago. It's wild.

Two things. Just last night I got to go to a screening for a.k.a. Charlie Sheen, on Netflix documentary. They did an amazing job of reenactments and flashbacks and working with the super eight films that they had and was very entertaining going back-and-forth from all of those things to his interview present day. Second, I just got out of the theater from seeing MICHAEL, wow, really great and the performances, I don’t know how much was visual effects, but the editing was so good. I recommend both!

Loved sitting in on an editing session with the Mission Impossible team a couple of years ago and observing how McQ, Eddie and TC etc work through different scenes, takes, shots, rhythm, and the roller-coaster effect, and how music plays such an important part with shaping a scene and maximising the audience experience.

Taking it back to the classics, I think the editing and VFX of the original Star Wars trilogy are pure mastery. The combination of practical and special effects, mixed with the rise of the technology at the time, created a monumental shift in the industry and paved the way for modern storytelling. The editing subconsciously tells the story while letting the characters and themes shine, which, to me, is what good editing is all about.

Look out for our VFX work on "HACKS S5" HBO. Very challenging work. "F1", "Sinners". where high on my list this year for VFX execution.

Amanda Toney it was one of my least favorite movie in years too. You're not the only person who admits this.it was disappointing big time.Great period sets and lavish wardrobe budget but it does not work.

Amanda, I always find it interesting how editing defines the audience’s sense of tension and immersion. Quick cuts can create urgency, but it’s really the control of rhythm and timing that shapes how a scene is felt.

It mirrors how I approach tension in writing — not just what happens, but how long a moment is held before it shifts.

I've only heard good things about the movie. I'll have to watch it.