The Cutting Edge
Editor Rob Field gets it all together for Xena’s kinetic action scenes. By Gary Gerani.
The Official Magazine: Issue 04
Much has been said about Xena’s debt to the style and flavor of Hong Kong action films - even by this magazine, just a few pages back. But exactly how does one adapt such a unique, cinematically extravagant tone for a weekly TV series? Certainly Xena’s producer, Rob Tapert, and the show’s various writers-directors know how to imbue their work with this distinctive, altogether fanciful personality. And nowhere is it more apparent than in the critically-acclaimed action sequence. Choreographed and performed with unflinching precision, they are fast, fierce and kinetic, unlike anything ever attempted before on American television - and that even includes the Hercules series.
After the on-set shooting is finished, the breathless quality of these sequences is brought to life in post production, more specifically in the editing room. The creative cutter must examine literally yards of footage, and, with great patience and even more raw talent, fashion fluid set-pieces out of so many separate parts.
“Sometimes it’s like digging through a hay pile to find a needle, before you start seeing what the pattern in the action may actually be,” offers Rob Field, who, along with colleague Jim Prior, edits every episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. “The average Xena show may have, say, 35 or 40 scenes in it,” Field explains. “Some of these scenes may be very complicated in the way they’re covered, in terms of a lot of different camera angles, and some may be very simply covered. In some cases the director may even shoot what’s called a “oner,” which is an entire scene comprised in one take. But what generally happens in an action sequence is that there’s a lot more footage shot - close angles, medium angles, wide angles - than say for a dialogue scene. Obviously a lot of people running around fighting in one big master shot is going to get boring pretty quickly.
“Action sequences also differ from (conventional) editing in that the cuts tend to be very, very, very fast. A dialogue scene may stay on a character anywhere from five or six seconds to twenty seconds or more, if that seems appropriate to what’s being said. In terms of how I edit, I would say that, generally speaking, you won’t see a cut longer than a second and a half or two seconds in an action sequence… or even less than a second sometimes, if the scene requires more dynamics or impact.”
Filmmaking, of course, is a collaborative process, with both the director and (especially in TV) the producer having the final say. As Xena is filmed in New Zealand and edited on the Universal lot in southern California, Field receives his footage and determines his own pacing and rhythms a reasonable amount of time before the director shows up. This means there are three different versions of every episode: the editor’s cut, the director’s cut, and eventually the producer’s version, fine-tuned way down the line, after all the special effects are properly inserted.
“Generally, my average procedure is to look at as much of the footage as I can,” explains Field. “As you watch this coverage over and over you start seeing a pattern… you realize this part of the fight’s going to be this, this part of the fight’s going to be that, this is where it begins, here’s where it ends, and so forth. After a while you begin to see exactly where you’re going to start. It’s kind of like laying down a floor, in a sense. You put one tile down and say, okay, that works… and then you say, where’s the next tile? And you just keep laying those tiles down until the entire floor is completed. Now obviously, sometimes you go back and say, ‘Wow! I’ve really screwed up that area over there,’ so you replace the section that doesn’t work. This process goes on back and forth with many, many decisions being made editorially before anyone else even comes to the editing room.”
Luckily, Xena is a show with some significant advantages in the on-set production phase. “Both Lucy and Renee are really good when it comes to conveying realistic fight action,” says Field. “Nobody’s actually hit, of course, but it’s the ability of the actor to convey both their intent to strike or their actually being struck, that helps to sell the action. And the stuntwork on this series is just excellent, really first-rate. That kind of talent makes the editor’s life a bit easier, because the final product is something we can all eventually look at and be proud of.”
The footage Field must examine, digest and manipulate is basically broken up into main unit and second unit coverage. “First unit is the work of the main director on the show,” amplifies Field. “He’s the one working with the lead stars - Lucy, Renee, or whichever principals they’re using for that particular episode. First unit will shoot fight coverage with Xena, looking at her face, so we clearly see that she’s in the action. It may be that the person that she’s fighting against will be the actual actor - like Hudson Leick, for instance, who is very athletic - or it might be a stunt double for that actor. So main unit will mostly cover the villain-to-Xena action, from one side of the scene. Second unit will then go in and shoot the reverse of that, which is, we’re now looking over Xena’s shoulder to the person she’s fighting. It’s essentially the same fight sequence in terms of what happens and when it happens, but from the opposite side.” Field then determines which of these shots to use, how to overlap dialogue when necessary, when to cut back to the original master shot if the set-piece requires it, etc.
“Of course,” Field admits with a smile, “the second unit director has to be very, very good, very methodical. He has to carefully match the main unit material stylistically. The cameraman he uses has to be aware of how the original footage was lit and photographed. The stunt double has to match the actual actor as perfectly as possible, so it looks like it’s all part of the same action.
“So I suppose the main goal of editing at this point is to provide a ‘continuity of believability.’ The flow of images mustn’t distract the viewer into saying, ‘Oh, that’s a stunt double… that doesn’t fit.’ You just want everyone to watch and follow and never even question it. That’s when you know you’re doing your job right.”
Based on the critical reaction to these action scenes, not to mention the overall dramatic flow of each episode, Rob Field seems to be doing just that. And, in the process, he’s given producer Rob Tapert what he originally hoped to achieve - a TV version of the Asian-style adventure movies so close to his heart.
SIDEBAR: Bringing the Power and Passion to Xena’s Opening Titles
While in the final stages of editing his second episode for Xena, “Cradle of Hope,” Rob Field was asked to develop the main titles for the series. “Another company had done an opening, but Rob Tapert wasn’t satisfied with it,” recalls Field. “They were trying for what I would call a ‘high-tech gloss approach,’ very design-ey, while I went in a direction stressing the grittier, heroic aspects of Xena.” This unexpected assignment meant not only spending a couple of days gathering appropriate footage to pull from, but writing the matching narration as well. “Joe LoDuca’s theme music pretty much dictated the style and pacing,” Field explains, “and I did retain certain elements that worked from the first opening - the signature shot of Xena on horseback, with the fire behind her, Xena on Argo racing along the beach… I also kept their final line, ‘Her courage will change the world,’ which was very effective.” Producer Liz Friedman asked the editor to build Xena up as an all-powerful conquering hero, but not reveal her until the middle main title. Amplifies Field: “If you look at the structure of that opening, there’s a lot of pieces of information that have nothing to do with Xena, that are intercut with her pulling on her boots, tightening her belt, putting on her breastplate - and those pieces are intercut with random action pieces that are kind of setting the stage as we’re describing who this character is. That leads up to the middle main title reveal of Xena on the horse; from the rest of the piece out, we pretty much highlight her character.”
Everyone at Renaissance was more than satisfied with Field’s first cut. Universal, however, wanted some of the back copy removed and the overall pace quickened. Tapert asked Field to pick up the movement towards the end - accomplished by some new shots lasting only a few frames each - but insisted on keeping the narration intact. The result is a main title that perfectly captures the essence of its subject, a kind of weekly mini-trailer for Xena.