The human brain fascinates me. It’s capacity to hold limitless memories and bits of information as well as keeping our blood flowing and our organs functioning is nothing short of spectacular. As an editor it’s important to take in and absorb a lot of information at once. When we watch dailies we have to pay attention to actors performances, continuity of movements and props, camera moves, lighting, etc. We then have to be able to recall all these observations so we can use the best pieces of the dailies we just watched as well as remembering them for when we work with the director and/or producers who will inevitably ask for something different. This is a lot of information to keep active in the brain. This got me curious as to just how the brain works and how I could make it work more effectively. Cut to me taking an online course on Coursera called Learning How to Learn taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.
This was a 4 week course that had lessons on how our brains learn, how our memory works, and various techniques that we can use to improve and enhance our learning ability. One of the best ways to learn new material is to teach it. Teaching or talking about what we have just learned forces our memory to recall what we learned and put it into our own words thereby reinforcing it into our brains in a new way making more concrete connections with new concepts. So in the spirit of teaching these new ideas, I have summarized the main points of the class and related it to editing and how I can practically apply these lessons I’ve learned.
MODES OF LEARNING
There are 2 modes of learning. Dr. Oakley uses the analogy of a pinball game to explain these 2 modes. The ball in the pinball game represents our thoughts that are released with our mental plunger. The ball or our thought then gets bounced around bumpers in our brain which represent neural clusters.
- FOCUSED MODE- Our thoughts bounce around tightly fit together bumpers, connecting already established ideas. We use this mode when we are concentrating on solving familiar problems. We are focused intently on our problem and our brain uses familiar paths to come up with solutions. The difficulty occurs, when the solution to our problem, exists in a far away location not connected to our current bumpers. The diagram below represents this with the black pathway.
When I’m editing, I’m using the focused mode while watching dailies and focusing on the actor’s performances and my mind starts putting the scene together before I put anything in my timeline. I’m mentally putting the scene together and concentrating on the specific moments and takes that I want to use.
2. DIFFUSE MODE- This mode is used for new concepts and ideas. Our thoughts travel longer distances from bumper to bumper trying to find where these new ideas might fit in. This mode is used for bigger picture perspectives. We can’t yet focus in on detailed solutions but we’re able to make it travel farther distances to try to connect new ideas.
The diffuse mode comes into use for my editing when I have a tough scene that is unfamiliar in some way. Maybe there are complex visual effects that I have to figure out or maybe there’s a lot of confusing footage that isn’t initially apparent how it goes together. Often solutions to these types of scenes come to me while I’m not working, but rather when I’m going for my morning run or while I’m sleeping. It’s not uncommon for me to wake up with a new idea to try in a scene or part of the show that I’m struggling with. Diffuse mode thinking comes into play when we’re not focused on solving the problem.
MEMORY
Though our memory is very complex and we have many systems in our memory, this course concentrated on just 2 systems of memory.
- WORKING MEMORY
Our working memory has the capacity to hold 4 chunks of information at a time. It is located in the prefrontal cortex and it is analogous to an inefficient blackboard.
In my editing process, I’m using my working memory while watching dailies and building that mental picture of the scene I’m working on. I help my working memory by typing notes in my bin next to the takes that I want to use. I note specific lines of dialogue that I want to use or specific reactions or body language that I want to remember to put into the scene. Since my working memory will often remember that I liked a certain performance it won’t always remember where I saw that performance, so that’s where I rely on my notes to recall that information.
2. LONG TERM MEMORY
Our long term memory is like a storage warehouse. This is illustrated beautifully in the Pixar film, Inside Out, when Joy and Sadness get lost and end up in long term memory which is a huge warehouse of a lifetime of memories.
While editing, I am using my long term memory in order to operate my editing system. My fingers are on auto pilot while working the machine to manipulate the footage to where I want it.
LEARNING TECHNIQUES
Interleaving
Interleaving is the process of jumping back and forth between problems and situations that require different techniques or strategies.
I use this all time while editing. Often I will start work on a complicated fight scene or a complex visual effects sequence and then switch to a simpler dialogue scene after a certain amount of time. Big action sequences that are heavily choreographed with lots of footage and visual effects often get worked on in small chunks over several days or more. And I often find that solutions to what seemed like an impossible sequence one day come together quite easily on a different day with a fresh eye. Another great example of interleaving is switching between cutting picture and cutting music and sound effects. There are often times when I can get stuck visually, but if I switch to adding music and sound, I find a new groove and can make progress getting sound design done.
Start Hard, Jump to Easy
Another strategy or technique that is related to Interleaving is called Start Hard, Jump to Easy. I use the first part of this technique all the time. When I’m in dailies, I always start the morning with the biggest, most challenging scene. What I do wrong though, is I just slog through until I get through it. What this technique suggests is that once you get stuck, you jump to something easy. This allows your brain to start to switch from focused mode to diffuse mode giving you greater ability to save the more difficult problem that you get stuck on. I’m going to try this next time I have a difficult scene that I get stuck on. Maybe I’ll find it to be a more productive and efficient way to work.
Recall
This involves trying to remember what you are learning without looking back at the page. This is more effective than passively re-reading or re- watching what we are trying to remember.
I need to use this technique more often in my editing. I used to use it a lot more and it’s actually very helpful when trying to keep scenes and episodes straight. Because production does not shoot scenes in script order, we cut scenes together as they come in, which can mean a scene from the middle of the show, followed by a scene from the end followed by one from the beginning. A very important part of an editor’s job is to make sure the stories and events are tracking with the characters behaviors. As an editor, I don’t want to allow a character to telegraph something that may be taking place later in the story unless it’s intentional. We also have to keep track of things like deleted scenes or dialogue and make sure that the story still tracks throughout the episode. This can be particularly challenging because our brains like to fill in the information because it was originally there, but for a viewer who never saw that scene or heard that omitted dialogue, it can be confusing if we don’t fill the blanks in for them. Recall can be useful to me by running the show in my head when I’m away from my editing system and see if I can remember the correct order of how it plays out.
Deliberate Practice
This is setting aside time to focus and practice concepts you find particularly difficult. A great way to do this is to use the Pomodoro Method. This is setting a timer for a 25 minute or so period of time and shutting off all distractions and focusing on the problem at hand. This means no e-mail, Internet, phone calls, texts, etc. Use the 25 minutes to focus on process rather than product. For example, as an editor, I would use this timer to focus on the process of cutting a scene rather than completing the scene. This takes the focus away from the end result and allows a scene to develop naturally. Often times, I will think I know where I want a scene to go, but as I let the footage unfold, it leads me in a different direction than I originally intended it to go. By focusing on process, I can let this happen organically without fighting against it.
OTHER TIPS AND USEFUL IDEAS
Share your thoughts: This is helpful for a number of reasons.
1. It prevents or dispels the phenomenon of Einstellung, which literally translates to “mindset”. This can happen when we study or learn something so well and our thoughts about a topic are so tightly wound together that it prevents us from seeing a new idea or way of thinking about it. When we discuss or share our thoughts with others, it can help us see areas where we might be stuck and open us up to new ideas.
2. Teaching others what we are learning helps us to learn it better ourselves.
3. Helps prevent the illusion of competence. This is similar to Einstellung in which we believe we know something well when we are looking at it, but when we actually test ourselves, we can’t come up with the solutions that we thought we could.
In editing, it’s always helpful to show scenes to others and get opinions. It’s very easy to get caught up in the minutia of a scene and lose the big picture of the overall story. As an editor, I have to focus on performance and story but also on continuity and things like matching actions and eyelines. The former seem much less important but if they are distracting, they pull a viewer out of the scene and then the performance or story is lost anyway. So getting preliminary opinions on scenes when putting them together can be very helpful. This is something I definitely need to work on. It can be very intimidating to show early cuts to others so for me, it’s important to be selective in what I show and who I show it to.
Change your thinking. Change your life. This is my favorite lesson we learned. Santiago Ramon y Cajal proved that we have the ability to change our brain neurons through our thought patterns. So instead of thinking that learning something new is stressful and causes anxiety, we can think that it is an opportunity to expand our knowledge and something to be excited about.
At the start of every new project I work on, I always have some anxiety about whether I can actually succeed at the job or not. I find it helpful to remind myself that the skills I’ve learned through my years of experience have all led me to where I am today and that I would not be in that position if I couldn’t be successful. I try to look at each project as a new challenge in which I can further expand my editing and storytelling skills. Looking at the situation from this positive perspective, puts my mind in a place of excitement and opportunity and keeps the job new and exciting. It fuels my passion and that is what drives me to continue loving my job and finding fulfillment in the work that I do.
This class has been a valuable experience for me and given me many practical ways to enhance my brain’s learning abilities and encourage more creativity and productivity in my day. After putting many of these lessons into practice, I feel much more efficient and I have much fewer periods of distraction and frustration. I recommend trying a few of the suggestions in your own job or activities and see if they help you too.