#181 - Why Comedy Editors Get Paid More...
a thesis on cutting com-ed-y.
All this week we'll be doing things a little differently on Cut/daily with a truncated "5 days of Comedy Christmas" coming at you in the run up to a two-week hiatus.
This means we can all take some time off over the holidays and normal service will resume on January 3rd 2022.
The impetus for this week of comedy focused thoughts came from reading my new favourite book on film editing, Cut To The Monkey by Roger Nygard.
It's funny, packed full of gold and even if you're not planning on editing comedy as a career trajectory it is still an invaluable read.
It's on my Christmas list, and you should put it on yours. Pronto.
Comedy Editors and The Law of Supply and Demand
While the majority of my editorial hypotheses herin apply to both drama and comedy, with comedy, if your skills aren't razor sharp, it's obvious. Hence, the need for a dissection of comedy editing.
If somebody can edit comedy, they can probably also edit drama.
But not necessarily the reverse.
Typically, comedy series pay editors more than drama series, because good comedy editors are scarcer. It is a particular skill to be able to make the funniest version from a pile of footage.
— Roger Nygard, Cut To The Monkey
According to editor and filmmaker Roger Nygard, comedy editors get paid more because editing comedy is harder.
Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting, also agrees with the sentiment in his own dissection of comedy editing, in this case comparing the US and UK versions of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot trailer.