Chapter 15

Dialog Editors

Hollywood's Unsung Heroes

“Good dialog editing is like a form of magic—you carefully weavethe tracks like a sleight-of-hand to create an illusion transparency. Ifyou do your job right, nobody noticeswhat you've done.”

Dwayne Avery, MPSEDialog editor

How many times have you sat in the theater enjoying the movie and sighed with admiration for the dialog editor's skill and handiwork? “Wow, that was great cross-filled presence. It's so transparent, you can't even tell the difference between those two angles.”

Of course you don't. If you did notice, it was not because the dialog editor did a good job; it would be because the dialog editor did a poor one. Dialog editing is an invisible art form. If the work is good, the audience ...

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