cover image How to Avoid the Cutting Room Floor: An Editor’s Advice for On-Camera Actors

How to Avoid the Cutting Room Floor: An Editor’s Advice for On-Camera Actors

Jordan Goldman. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade paper (140p) ISBN 978-1-5123-3485-2

In this informative and entertaining book, Goldman, an Emmy-winning television editor, provides an inside look at his trade. As the editor of shows including The Shield and Homeland, Goldman is responsible for taking the footage shot by directors and piecing it together into three successive versions: the director’s, the producers’, and finally the network’s. Having studied countless hours of how actors—both stars and background players—succeed or fail in front of the camera, Goldman offers step-by-step instructions for actors on maximizing their time on screen in the final cut. Using photos and a script written to demonstrate the process, Goldman clearly explains what directors and editors need from actors in terms of timing, reactions, and technical skills. Examples of good and bad acting from films and TV shows are sprinkled throughout the text, though more would have been welcome. The book is written as an instruction guide for actors on how not to frustrate directors and editors, but Goldman also offers general readers a close look at how a television show is made, with insight into the joys and frustrations of working in a creative industry. (BookLife)