Film Editor's Cut

Notable passage from On Film Editing, by Edward Dmytryk:

Should the cutter make the cuts exactly as the director spelled out, or should he cut the film his way to arrive at the results which he thinks the director wanted, basing his judgment on his interpretation of the director’s expressed instructions?

The wise cutter will, of course, follow the second procedure, making the cuts in question his way to arrive at the desired result. And, if he is a very good cutter, that result will be, in the director’s words, “exactly what I was looking for.”

Here’s a quote I especially like:

In any creative effort, one must do one’s own thing, even if that thing is being done in response to another’s order. To do otherwise is to seriously risk a result which will please neither the requestor nor the executor.