ABSTRACT
Because editors always say that shaping rhythm is intuitive, I began
by inquiring into what editors mean when they say that. I found that
what an editor is doing when creating rhythm is creating something
that “feels right, ” but that that sense of feeling right —that rhythmic
intuition — is an explainable psychosomatic phenomenon and not
a veiled and indefi nable one. Making an edit feel right is the editor’s
contribution to a fi lm, her special skill, her signature, but it is not just
a gift or talent. Knowing when something feels right is an awareness of
the rhythms of the world and the rhythms of the body —an awareness
that can be trained and developed.
