Any been noticing some poor editing of the episodes lately? Specifically look at the conversation between The Mother, Jacob, and Little Brother when they are explaining the light cave for the first time. There's a few points where the Mother is looking one direction and they cut and she is looking another direction.

I've also seen this with past episodes recently with Flocke talking to people. Usually they happen when they are sitting or not moving.

As a film major. This really irritates me.

Amen bro, the infamous jump cut!

I'm no film student, but yeah, I've noticed more this season than ever before lots of rough/quick cuts that feel sloppy. Feels like they are under the gun to finish it as fast as possible these days... sucks. Would of hoped they budgeted more than enough time to make a quality product the final season more than any other season.

At least they aren't using star-wipes!

At times I felt the editing wasn't as good as it used to be. Seems a little hurried, occasionally.

Yeah. Hurried is the word for it. Not enough time to show characters moving their heads and such.

And when Smokey is born. Jacob looks up. And it's like over before you know it. Jacob walks. Goes to the water. Then finds his brother's body. That was one of the most important scenes in the episode and it was over instantly.

Yeah....I assume it's because they're making changes all the way up until they air. There is also a shot of Jacob at the wine drinking ceremony where he's standing just behind the log, and then the closeup is obviously of him sitting on the log, and then the long shot has him go over and sit on the log.

I hesitate to blame the editors. I think that Bob and Bing are rushing in and making them change stuff right up to air.

Yeah....I assume it's because they're making changes all the way up until they air. There is also a shot of Jacob at the wine drinking ceremony where he's standing just behind the log, and then the closeup is obviously of him sitting on the log, and then the long shot has him go over and sit on the log.

I hesitate to blame the editors. I think that Bob and Bing are rushing in and making them change stuff right up to air.

My god! I can't believe I didn't notice that. It was so obvious. How terrible.

However. Poor editing and bad TV/films overall (not Lost) are only encouraging to me. I can do better haha

I've also seen this with past episodes recently with Flocke talking to people. Usually they happen when they are sitting or not moving. .

Do you remember specific scenes? I'd like to check that out.

I'm also a film major. I just want to point out that it's not the editing that is at fault here. It's the job of the Script Supervisor to make sure that between shots/angles the actors are doing the same thing. This occurs on set, during the filming of the movie. The editor gets the film and if the Script Supervisor didn't do his or her job perfectly, then the editor has to make sacrifices: emotional feel over continuity. Some of the best movies sacrifice major continuity errors for what feels better. If the crew didn't get the a closeup of the Jacob before he sat down, and the editor felt it was better to get his reaction, he'll use that closeup of Jacob seated and just pretend that he was standing. Most people won't notice it, especially if they are more caught up in the emotional aspect of the viewing than the technical aspect.
I've done script supervising before, and it's not an easy job.

I also just noticed that the log that they sit on to have their little ceremony is gone the next morning when Jacob chucks Brother in the Magical Light of Happiness hole. I assume after the ceremony they did a little stream clean up as a public service. Pretty good that the log lasts thirty years in that spot.

Seems to me like this is a problem beyond bad editing, and it is evidence of a complete rush job. I mean, EVERYTHING was rushed about this season. You would think since they had it planned for so long they would have taken a little more care in executing it. I can't even express my disapointment in this entire production team.

At least they aren't using star-wipes!

Yeah, who would EVER think Kurosawa knew anything about film making? (That's who inspired Lucus, btw).

I just want to point out that it's not the editing that is at fault here.

As a print journalist for the most part I hesitate at defending anyone who has the title of "editor", but I have to second this statement. If you give a guy two shots to work with -- one of a woman pointing with her left hand and the other of her pointing with her right -- and he can fool ANYONE into not noticing that, he's done a damn fine piece of work.

I once had to cobble together a TV interview with Jonathan Richman [There's Something About Mary], who refused to speak on camera and would only communicate through visual actions, and I did a nice job if-I-do-say-so-myself of cutting three (!) different hand movements together into what most people see as a single fluid gesture. If ya wanna see it, here it is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHR6LUuUs_k).

-- mnw

PS: Oh, and if you still haven't seen this LOST-related clip from a lame TV movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFL_RPtLOPQ), do so also -- it's pretty freaky!

Yeah, it's hard to believe a show of such production value wouldn't be able to shoot in sequence, shoot to edit in sequence, or find some kind of cut-away to get out of a jump cut. The editor can only do so much if they don't have sequential footage based on the shots and the takes desired for the scene.

I am confident that the crew has shot all the sequential footage to make a scene work, probably in several ways. I think it comes down to the information contained in those shots and sequences. The producers are most likely making late changes in the info they pass along, the way that info is passed, and the direction that they are leading the story. The directors work so that they get everything on the page....And probably shoot a longer day trying to get multiple angles. Then Frick and Frack get in there and start editing the dialogue, and winnowing the story, which causes no end of headaches to the editors. I say the weird jumpcuts and things that don't track are where Bob and Doug have cut pieces of dialogue out (most likely in an attempt not to get nailed down so that they can say they planned everything) and then the editors have tried to seal over the hole as best they can.

So I give them a ton of leeway on this. I am a big crew supporter. And, it can be said, most viewers don't notice or care if they do....and the old, onset, joke is "Eh. It'll look great on my 15 inch screen at home." As long as there're no booms in the shot, (like there was in American Gangster. 14 times) I'm happy.

I consider myself more of a screenwriter, so even though I have edited and can follow these convos pretty well I will admit that I didn't notice any of the editing inconsistencies before... save for the scenes in which day becomes night in the very next scene yet I think what we are seeing is intentionally sloppy work... I can't say for sure and maybe I just want to believe it but I think they TPTB all sat around a table to beat the season out and decided that there was no way they were going to make the entire fandom happy, so they intentionally sabotaged the show sprinkling little bits of information along the way. This will not be addressed in any significant way until possibly after the finale which will answer a lot of the questions we still have regarding the plot and characters. It's not necessarily the storytelling mechanism I'd choose for my own works but I think their goal is to protect the mysteries up until the end. Looking at what I wrote it seems foolishly optimistic to expect this... but I really think this must be it... it's somewhat like George Lucas making the prequel trilogy of Star Wars only to tell the story of Episode III but he needed something to go before it and came up with Midiclorians and Clones... (Boba Fett's story was better off not being known)

But that's much larger story stuff... I think the sloppy editing is attributed to their design.

I think what we are seeing is intentionally sloppy work... I think the sloppy editing is attributed to their design.

There was a big one that I noticed but forgot about 'til I saw a mention of it on the Lostpedia: After Claudia gives birth and she's asking to see her babies, you can see that she's still got a freakin' bowling ball in her petticoat. Now, you can't tell me that was anything but a total cluster[love] -- if they were intentionally going for "sloppy" they got there in spades; that sort of thing makes Ed Wood look like Orson Welles*. It's like Frank Henenloter, the director of Frankenhooker and Basket Case I-III. When he plays the stupid-on-purpose card, it's so damned overtly obvious that it's not amusing at all, just frustrating and irritating.

Gawd, I hope that isn't what they're doing. You need to be wrong!!!

- mnw

*(Actually, Ed Wood kinda did look like Orson Welles, but you get what I meant...)

Since we're on the topic of editing, there was one earlier in the season that still irks me. It was when Jack and someone were carrying dying Sayid into the temple through the underground tunnel. They had just crossed the narrow ledge and Jack is holding on to his side of the stretcher (you can't see Sayid at this point), and then he just reaches and takes a torch that's handed to him.
I went, whaaaaaaaat? Did he just drop poor old Sayid into the cavern? lol

lundi, resolved, one of the most egregious crappy continuity moments of the entire series. I'm with you there...