Five Golden Rules of the Cutting Room

Working in the cutting room can be a high-pressure environment, with long hours and no room for error. To this end, there are five basic rules of working that must always be adhered to:

• Always show up on time.

  Plan your journey to work to arrive early so that delays can be accommodated (to an extent) without arriving late.

• Write it down.

  When receiving information from the editor, or the other members of the production or post-production team, always write it down so it will not be forgotten or overlooked.

• If you don’t know, ask. Never guess.

  I’d rather be asked many times a day how to do something rather than have a task attempted by guesswork. Of course, it shouldn’t need to be the SAME question each time if rule no.2 is followed.

• Slow and correct always beats fast and wrong.

  Don’t compromise work by rushing it and making mistakes – and be realistic with your time management accordingly.

• Everybody makes mistakes but the cutting room looks perfect.

  This is because NOTHING should EVER leave the cutting room without being properly checked. Perhaps the most important of the five rules.

These rules should be the foundation of your professional practice in the cutting room, without exception. It should always be remembered that this is a highly competitive industry and if you don’t set your standards high enough, there are a vast number of people who are willing to do so.