Pietro Scalia Talks Editing Alien: Covenant

Started by Corporal Hicks, Jun 28, 2017, 09:42:47 PM

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Pietro Scalia Talks Editing Alien: Covenant (Read 29,603 times)

SM

QuoteWell, all the hate towards Ridley Scott is what I find tiresome.

Not sure where that came from.

BishopShouldGo

Well if you're going to say there was something in a contract pertaining to running time, then back it up with a link. I've never heard of any film contract including anything about running time.

20th Century Fox stipulating a MANDATORY <2hr running time is different from a casual agreement from both Fox and Ridley, or Ridley putting that edict upon himself.

Don't get so red hot and wild when people innocuously ask for proof. RAWRR!!!!!!!!

SiL

Quote from: CainsSon on Jul 01, 2017, 12:00:32 AM
Fair enough but whats tiresome to me is hearing people with no understanding of the constraints of the business model trash talk the work of some very talented people. All the hate towards Scalia here and Ridley Scott is what I find tiresome.

He's just doing his job and film is a business.

I agree there dude.

SM

As do I. Some of the vitriol aimed at Scalia was baffling.

PierreVW

Quote from: SM on Jul 01, 2017, 01:10:06 AM
As do I. Some of the vitriol aimed at Scalia was baffling.

Weird vitriol. Ridley Scott and Pietro Scalia made 11 films together. Scalia is his most frequent collaborator.

Protozoid

I don't hate Ridley Scott or Pietro Scalia, but they do sometimes frustrate me. Scott would be the first person to admit that he sometimes cuts too much footage from his movies, and Scalia frequently mentions wanting movies to be under two hours. When that harms the final product, the blame will inevitably be placed at their feet where it belongs.

newagescamartist

I think the final edit of the film was fine. I liked how they linked it back to Prometheus in the middle of the movie. It worked well imo. I'm anxious to see the deleted/extended scenes.

Highland

Hate is a strong word. I think disappointed is more accurate. I've got no problem with the editor, I don't like the editing towards the back half, but that could be due to any number of reasons.

BishopShouldGo

I mean look at the material he had to work with. This is a movie that could've began with not only David's dream, but an apartment scene on earth with Daniels and Branson, David and Shaw, David bombing the engineers... it's a lot to piece together cohesively. It's got to wrap up the Prometheus stuff in a way that's satisfying to old viewers but doesn't confuse new viewers. It's been five years. It's reverting back to the old title.

It's amazing the movie is cut as competently as it is. But maybe not given that pietro is a two time oscar winner. ;)

Salt The Fries

A 1977 film Sorcerer opened with 4 seemingly unrelated prologues all in different places in the world depicting 4 different protagonists in 4 different languages (well actually the first one didn't have any dialog). It lasted 20 minutes. It alienated the audiences AF. It was very artful and I loved it but if Covenant attempted the same, that'd be really hard to pull off...anyway, I felt the opening and the initial exposition on the ship were way more satisfying than the jump from Scottish caves to Prometheus.

Highland

Neither of the films have a good flow, although if I have to pick one I would pick Covenant. Prometheus has a really garbled up middle section that's quite jarring. Covenants middle transition to final and final act, there's nothing drastically wrong, it just goes by at bullet pace with almost no tension.

SiL

Quote from: Salt The Fries on Jul 01, 2017, 05:46:11 AM
A 1977 film Sorcerer opened with 4 seemingly unrelated prologues all in different places in the world depicting 4 different protagonists in 4 different languages (well actually the first one didn't have any dialog). It lasted 20 minutes. It alienated the audiences AF. It was very artful and I loved it but if Covenant attempted the same, that'd be really hard to pull off...
The Friday the 13th reboot has three openings and it worked just fine, but each was pretty well connected with the others.

OmegaZilla

OmegaZilla

#132

SiL

I really liked it and it did well.

CainsSon

CainsSon

#134
Quote from: Protozoid on Jul 01, 2017, 02:33:03 AM
I don't hate Ridley Scott or Pietro Scalia, but they do sometimes frustrate me. Scott would be the first person to admit that he sometimes cuts too much footage from his movies, and Scalia frequently mentions wanting movies to be under two hours. When that harms the final product, the blame will inevitably be placed at their feet where it belongs.

Look. This is unfair. It doesn't belong at their feet that an R-rated film needs to be 2 hours. Ridley is actually looking out for the fans, trying to make sure the film warrants a sequel. If anything you should place blame at the feet of the monopoly of Multiplexes, which have such a vast overhead, they cant make any money unless a film is rated PG13. Many of you dont remember a time when Multiplexes didnt exist. The really took over in the late 90s.
It also doesnt belong at their feet when Fox wants this or that cut. They are contractually obligated to deliver a marketable product for the studio, and the studio has a lot of say in what is in or changed all along. In fact, Covenant and Prometheus took a great deal of risks in their story for franchise films like this. Like David and Walter kissing for instance, and abortion med pod scenes. We owe those types of things to Scott's playing ball with the studio, in areas like these. They trust him because he knows what has to be done.
Furthermore, if there are issues with the runtime its not with the editing, its with the script. A 2-hour script should turn in at around 120 pages. IE Approx 1 page per minute. But a director and an editor can slow the pace down here or there to make things play better. This is why some acts are playing better than others in Covenant and Prometheus. Its in the JOB DESCRIPTION of an editor to make the best R-Rated film he can with the material that was shot, while not messing with the script too much (without approval from the studio, NOT just Scott) while making that come in at the 2 hour mark. These are the kinds of stipulations placed on R-rated films, and they are made by the constraints of the film industry. Any exception to that rule is just an exception proving the rule.
If anything, what you should be thinking is: Make the screenwriters turn in something around 100 pages so the editor and director can slow it down and flesh it out. As an example of this at work - 'ALIEN' for instance is 112 pages. The film is a bit over 2 hours. That extra 8 or so pages are minutes Ridley being allowed to burn slowly in the runtime. It builds tension. Prometheus was 116 pages I believe, and I would argue that like this film, Ridley likes to slow burn some stuff. Meaning, that what normally amounts to 1 minute is 1 page, but Ridley likes to crawl, build tension... He is making some things written as a single page amount to longer than 1 min of screentime, and thats how we end up with something like the first Act of Covenant being longer and better than the rest of the film, because it takes over an hour in Covenant to get to Act 2, and to move along then they have no time to play with the last 2 acts. You see? Act 1 is 1 hour, and its better, but then they have 1 hour left to blow through the next 2 acts.
So if anything: the script needs to be shorter.
Aaaaand
This actually highlights what I think the major difference b/w Alien and its Prequels is, and why the run time is a problem for them. Because they are telling more complicated stories. Unlike Alien, which is very minimal and it can take its time. Prometheus and Covenant have alot more ground to cover in the same runtime.
This is why the scripts need to be shorter.

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