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Paper short abstract

Based on Walter Murch reflections and Lambros Malafouris’MET, the study analyses the editor-editing programme-raw footage material relationship, comparing it to that between potter, potter’s wheel and clay: showing how technology constantly redefines creative interaction between different agencies.

Paper long abstract

The relationship between film editor and raw footage material has undergone a significant transformation with the transition from analogue to digital editing. This study, based on the reflections of film editor Walter Murch (Murch [2001]) and Lambros Malafouris’ MET, proposes an analysis of the triadic relationship editor-editing programme-raw footage material by comparing it to the triadic relationship potter-potter’s wheel-clay analysed by Malafouris in his ethnographic research (Malafouris [2013]: 207-226).

In digital editing the editor’s approach is no longer characterized by a “direct” connection to the footage, physically manipulated by hand; but, instead, by a deeply technology-mediated interaction. This interaction, thanks to the technological mediation it enacts, offers a privileged place for observing how different “agencies” (human and non-human) interact with each other: and, because of the constant technological progress to which the editing process is subjected (Caballero, J., & Sora-Domenjó, C. [2024]), it also offers the possibility of observing the way in which this type of interaction constantly evolves by reshaping the three poles of the relationship.

Tim Ingold suggests that we don’t need a theory of agency but, instead, a “theory of life” capable of including the “vitality of matter” (Ingold [2013]:97); but which kind of matter is the raw footage material? Which kind the editing programme? The parallelism with the potter’s activity, who dynamically interacts with the clay and the potter’s wheel, allows editing to be redefined as a situated process where creativity emerges from the interaction between mind, material and technology and from their mutual constitution.