Film editing lab

Editing a film is the moment when everything comes together. Everything that went well and everything that was a disaster during filming. In editing, we are confronted with the realities of our material and how it might differ from our original script and vision. We have to work with this material and in a way rewrite the film through montage.

With two editors, Benjamin Mirguet and Matthieu Taponier, who both have extensive experience as consulting editors at First Cut Lab, we want to focus on understanding what is useful feedback, how we can filter it and how we can decipher and understand the feedback in order to find solutions for decision making in the editing process.

In the first part of this seminar we want to look at different cuts of a feature film and discuss how the changes affect the viewing experience.

In the second part, the seminar offers a unique opportunity to students who are currently working on a narrative film project to gain practical insights into film editing: Participants can receive direct feedback on their own cuts as part of a simulated "First Cut Lab". They then have the opportunity to consult with an experienced editor in order to analyse the feedback they have received and develop optimal solutions for film editing.

The seminar is open to students who are in the process of editing a narrative film, and participants who want to follow the process and learn by listening and watching.

We are not yet sure how many films we can include, that will be watched, discussed, receive consultation etc. as this depends on the length of the films. But we would try and incorporate as many as we can. It could be anything from 4-6 narrative films.

Benjamin Mirguet is an editor, consultant, director, festival curator. As an editor, he edited amongst others: Battle in Heaven - Carlos Reygadas, The Sky Trembles and the Earth is afraid and the two eyes are not brothers - Ben Rivers etc. He has been involved as a consultant editor for the First Cut Lab since 2015. Working as part of the Team at the Co-Production Office, he is very involved creatively during the entire process of the films they produce, but especially in charge of the creative post production strategies.

Matthieu Taponier was born in 1982 in Paris, France. After studying Modern Literature, he completed an M.F.A. at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Since 2009, he has been working as a screenwriter, script editor and film editor. He was a TorinoFilmLab Script&Pitch story editing trainee in 2012 and a script consultant for the Semaine de la critique « Next Step » lab in 2014. He worked as a script editor and film editor on Laszlo Nemes’ Son of Saul, Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival 2015.

Please apply if you have a rough cut or version of your film that you want to present. Or if you want to participate without a film, apply anyway.

The seminar will be held in English.