Pietro Scalia Talks Editing Alien: Covenant

[Protozoid]

Scalia claims to be all about story and character. I'm sure he thinks he did a good job given the constraints. But keeping the prologue because the compositions are nice and he's proud of the editing when the movie desperately needed more Shaw? Sorry, that was a miscalculation. Cutting Shaw scenes before cutting that was clearly based on Scalia's emotional attachments, not good storytelling.

Speaking of editing mistakes, that interview has the most typos I've ever seen in a professional article. They even misspelled Kurosawa twice!

[juxtapose]

So this dude butchered the movie in order to asure perfect pacing. But ironicly the pacing of the movie's  been the very thing that fans complain about the most. Personally i am not very sensitive when it comes to pacing issues. .if people did'nt complain about the last 20 minutes feeling rushed i would not have noticed. .in fact the one time i have seen it so far i braced myself for that fast forward breakneck last 20 minutes and never felt the pace changing much. .would have liked if the alien was a bit more die hard. .but thats just the boy in me wanting to see more of the beast. .

[0321recon]

Sorry, Pietro, but your editing ruined another Ridley movie. He's a damn butcher. He needs to stop trying to fix stories in the editing room. He did the same to Prometheus, thinking that the structure needed fixing when it didn't. Having flawless pacing and a balanced structure is secondary to tracking the story in the way that allows the audience the deepest experience.

Well I'm sorry to tell you, that regardless of who is editing the film, it had to be just under 2 hours per Fox's Contractual Order. It was in contract to be under 2 hours. Besides it sounds to me like he fought to have more themes kept in the story. It's a hard job given the restrictions and restraints of director , studio and all of the above. If you have problems with either film he is not to blame.

First time I hear Fox throwing a contractual order on Ridley since his last film which was also done through Fox was 141 minutes while Covenant 122 minutes. Was it because of its R rating or wanting more butts on theater seats?

Scalia claims to be all about story and character. I'm sure he thinks he did a good job given the constraints. But keeping the prologue because the compositions are nice and he's proud of the editing when the movie desperately needed more Shaw? Sorry, that was a miscalculation. Cutting Shaw scenes before cutting that was clearly based on Scalia's emotional attachments, not good storytelling.

I think Scalia needed another established editor with a fresh set of eyes to watch over the footage and get some constructive feedback before continuing to edit the film. He screwed the pooch on this show, and perhaps could be one of the reasons the film underperformed.

Now,  I'm curious what else was cut that we don't even know.

[SM]

Sorry, Pietro, but your editing ruined another Ridley movie. He's a damn butcher. He needs to stop trying to fix stories in the editing room. He did the same to Prometheus, thinking that the structure needed fixing when it didn't. Having flawless pacing and a balanced structure is secondary to tracking the story in the way that allows the audience the deepest experience.

Well I'm sorry to tell you, that regardless of who is editing the film, it had to be just under 2 hours per Fox's Contractual Order. It was in contract to be under 2 hours. Besides it sounds to me like he fought to have more themes kept in the story. It's a hard job given the restrictions and restraints of director , studio and all of the above. If you have problems with either film he is not to blame.

Why was it more than 2 hours then?

[BishopShouldGo]

But muh narrative!!

[bleau]

Sorry, Pietro, but your editing ruined another Ridley movie. He's a damn butcher. He needs to stop trying to fix stories in the editing room. He did the same to Prometheus, thinking that the structure needed fixing when it didn't. Having flawless pacing and a balanced structure is secondary to tracking the story in the way that allows the audience the deepest experience.

Well I'm sorry to tell you, that regardless of who is editing the film, it had to be just under 2 hours per Fox's Contractual Order. It was in contract to be under 2 hours. Besides it sounds to me like he fought to have more themes kept in the story. It's a hard job given the restrictions and restraints of director , studio and all of the above. If you have problems with either film he is not to blame.

Why was it more than 2 hours then?

Idk what your talking about, Prometheus or Covenant, but both were 2 hours runtime.

[BishopShouldGo]

Jesus H.

Prometheus and Covenant were 124 and 123 respectively.

UNDER 2 HOURS PER FOX'S CONTRACTUAL ORDER! You legit made that up.

[SM]

I wouldn't go that far, but yeah, they're both over two hours in runtime.

[bleau]

Jesus H.

Prometheus and Covenant were 124 and 123 respectively.

UNDER 2 HOURS PER FOX'S CONTRACTUAL ORDER! You legit made that up.

Sure I did.
under 2 hours without credits. Are we going to debate about 3 and 4 minutes per film. Cheers then.

[PierreVW]

Scalia claims to be all about story and character. I'm sure he thinks he did a good job given the constraints. But keeping the prologue because the compositions are nice and he's proud of the editing when the movie desperately needed more Shaw? Sorry, that was a miscalculation. Cutting Shaw scenes before cutting that was clearly based on Scalia's emotional attachments, not good storytelling.

Speaking of editing mistakes, that interview has the most typos I've ever seen in a professional article. They even misspelled Kurosawa twice!

I think Ridley Scott had a very pessimistic take on theater audiences. He once said "he releases his favorite versions of his films in Blu-Rays". He thinks that theater audiences are stupid(probably he is right) so, the theater cuts of his films are DIRECT and CONCISE.

Pietro Scalia is a very modern guy. Scalia works fast and great too. And Always On Budget. That's the reasons why Ridley Scott always works with him. They worked 11 TIMES IN THE LAST 20 YEARS!.

[BishopShouldGo]

Jesus H.

Prometheus and Covenant were 124 and 123 respectively.

UNDER 2 HOURS PER FOX'S CONTRACTUAL ORDER! You legit made that up.

Sure I did.
under 2 hours without credits. Are we going to debate about 3 and 4 minutes per film. Cheers then.

Fox doesn't have a running time contractual order. There's no such thing as a contractual order. Cheers.

[bleau]

Jesus H.

Prometheus and Covenant were 124 and 123 respectively.

UNDER 2 HOURS PER FOX'S CONTRACTUAL ORDER! You legit made that up.

Sure I did.
under 2 hours without credits. Are we going to debate about 3 and 4 minutes per film. Cheers then.

Fox doesn't have a running time contractual order. There's no such thing as a contractual order. Cheers.

OK then, cool story bro. Good luck with that.

[Predaker]

Pietro is right, and this is something that also crossed my mind when there was talk before release of the bombing scene not making the final cut. Having extra "flashbacks" tacked onto the beginning wouldn't have been good for the structure of the film.

The editing was't a problem with the third act. The issue(s) there had more to do with the writing, or how the story unfolded from the time an Alien was detected aboard the ship until its demise. Basically they wake up, find dead people, and go straight to corralling it out of the airlock with a few close calls thrown in just to keep it from being completely ho-hum.

[SM]

Jesus H.

Prometheus and Covenant were 124 and 123 respectively.

UNDER 2 HOURS PER FOX'S CONTRACTUAL ORDER! You legit made that up.

Sure I did.
under 2 hours without credits. Are we going to debate about 3 and 4 minutes per film. Cheers then.

Fox doesn't have a running time contractual order. There's no such thing as a contractual order. Cheers.

OK then, cool story bro. Good luck with that.

Where did you hear of this 2 hour thing and why wasn't it adhered to?

[bleau]

I believe it was on the blu ray, And I can't quote exactly, but I remember the editor mention about having to have it under 2 hours length. They went threw a couple of times and trimmed stuff and cut stuff  and then they took out a lot more to get it in the run time. They really stressed that 2 hour run time. Am I going to find such contract or clause to scan and show you guys, not by a long shot.

This is actually common practice in editing, and most big budget movies do have a runtime the studio puts forth.