In the past I've worked with directors who saw very much their scene in their head and knew exactly how they were going to cut it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I watched a couple of really bad directors work, and I saw how they completely botched it up and missed the visual opportunities of the scene when we had put things in front of them as opportunities. Set pieces, props and so on.
I enjoy editing when I'm directing, but when someone else is directing, that's their film to cut.
There are times when directors just don't know what they're doing.
Fundamentally, I always find that most of the films that I've put out are essentially the director's cut. Part of the process with a director's cut is the leaving behind of certain aspects of the movie that we don't feel necessary because they aren't part of the dynamic of the story.
I usually do about five cuts as a director. I haven't ever directed a film where I haven't made five passes through the movie, and that takes a long time.
I just knew how to do the one thing I did, and whether I did it well or not depended on who the director was.
In the old days, before there was such a thing as film schools, directors learned the camera by watching other directors, and learning from their own dailies, and listening to the cameraman, and seeing what would work. Some of those guys could cut their movies in their head.
Honestly, I think most directors are about, 'Let's do the most fun and effective thing here and figure out how afterwards.'
As a director, you see something in someone; you know it's there, you just got to go get it. You do that with any actor. That's your job.
As an actor, I had noticed very vividly that very few directors know how to direct actors because they haven't done it.