"Why has this chaotic, rat-tat-tat style of assembly, the kind usually associated with Michael Bay-brand megatonnage, been cropping up in [so many current movies]?" www.boston.com

Thanks for posting this. It's an interesting insight into one of the most, if not the most important stages of filmmaking, one that can influence a film's impact on all levels, turn great footage into a bad video and bad footage into something acceptable (even great in some cases!).

The writer explains that 'over-cutting' is down to the whole 'too many cooks spoil the broth' approach to commercial film-making, where non-filmmakers are involved in the filmmaking process. This can certainly be extended to music videos.

It is common practice to force an edit beyond it's natural pace to satisfy the '30 seconds' that the average viewer apparantly watches a video for (despite the relatively short period of time a video is on television, compared to the timeless shelf-life for its fan base). There are also a myriad of reasons that certain shots are used instead of ones which are more effective - the desired artist image/identity for instance can heavily influence shot selection, whether you use a close up or wide shot, despite the appropriate film language required at the time (how many times do you see the artist sing the first line of the track, despite what is happening in the video?).

It is the director's/editor's task not only to overcome the typical filmmaking problems such as continuity, footage limitations and song pacing, but also to satisfy the agendas that the non-filmmakers (artist manager, record company commissioner, artist themselves etc) bring to the project. These agendas cannot be ignored and must be welcomed into the mix. In fact, comments from anyone anywhere, whether from the artist themselves, or someone dragged off the street, are equally as valuable and can contribute to a successful edit.

Problems arise when so many comments gathered from so many sources are applied without compromise (surely even the artists themselves are not more important than the film being made). While this won't necessarily ruin a video (committed filmmakers will very rarely, if ever, allow this to happen) it will reduce a potentially wonderful, impactful and memorable video into an ok one that merely passes you by.