Creation and Process.
When creating anything of merit, there is a phase of wild creativity where all ideas are golden, thrashed about and recorded somewhere. After that time, comes the Editor’s time. This age-old process is proven to be the model. Rushing into the Editor role before having properly gathered all the fresh crops of creativity is guaranteed to give stale, clichéd and very un-inspired ideas- no matter the art or medium. It’s like a sculptor trying to perfect the rock’s details before she even knows what she’s creating.
With graphic design, you often end up with far more visual information than is necessary or desired to communicate the idea. Putting on the Editor’s hat allows you to whittle it back to the most efficient manner of telling the story. Music for film is the same way. How best to communicate the emotions of the storyline with the least amount of effort?
Seth says that over the last 27 years, every film that won for Best Picture also won for Best Editing.