One of the most vital stages when creating art is not necessarily what you add but what you take away.
In some art forms, such as engravings and stone statues, crafting a masterpiece is entirely about removal, and this is also the case in writing and especially in video production through editing and post-production.
Most films, television shows, adverts and online videos are improved through editing, which removes anything extraneous to create a tighter, more entertaining experience for the viewer, but there are a remarkable number of cases where post-production not only enhances but saves a struggling work.
Here are some of the biggest examples of when a post-production studio rescued a feature film.
First Blood
The first entry in the Rambo franchise is a very different film from the rest of the series, but First Blood was such a difficult production that lead actor and co-writer Sylvester Stallone wanted to burn the footage.
How bad? The original cut of the film was three and a half hours long, more than double the final theatrical runtime.
Ultimately, thanks to extensive cuts and a reshot ending, the story of John Rambo became far more satisfying, and post-production turned a potential career killer into a star-defining vehicle for Stallone, who starred in four sequels and became a bankable box office star thanks to it.
Kangaroo Jack
A somewhat different definition of “rescued”, whilst the extensively edited and reshot version of what was originally Down And Under received scathing critical reviews, Kangaroo Jack is perhaps the ultimate example of a seemingly doomed film breaking even thanks to post-production.
The original version of Down and Under was a relatively raunchy mob comedy that happened to take place in Australia and involved a kangaroo stealing some of the money.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer demanded that the film incorporate more of the kangaroo, which led to several dream sequences involving a rapping kangaroo being added to the final film, to replace a lot of the content that was not family-friendly.
The result was rather egregious, but it was successful enough to get a sequel.
Star Wars
Whilst George Lucas has been criticised over the years for repeatedly altering the original Star Wars Trilogy with reshoots, new visual effects and extensive editing, Marcia Griffin’s (then Lucas) extensive editing work arguably saved the original film.
She cut together an incomprehensible rough cut by John Jympson, creating the streamlined, hyperkinetic style of the Death Star trench run, cutting out several major scenes and making the story far easier to follow.
Her impact was such that some have credited her for making Star Wars the phenomenon that it was, although she is also quick to credit the writing and direction.
Whilst not her contribution, the opening crawl was also a post-production addition that has since come to define the series.
Jaws
If Star Wars was rescued by the editors and post-production team from being a bloated and difficult-to-follow mess, Jaws was saved from being a complete disaster by the editing team.
The stories of Jaws’ infamously troubled production are legendary, with Richard Dreyfuss describing the crew as lacking a script, lacking a cast and lacking a shark.
The biggest issue by far was the latter. The animatronic shark constantly malfunctioned, and only a third of each filming day was spent actually filming.
Ultimately, the film was edited by Verna Fields to use as little footage of the shark as possible, and the result was a much scarier film, turning what was expected to be a tribute to campy creature features into a terrifying thriller.
Without clever editing and post-production work, Jaws would not only have been a worse film, but it also may not have ever been finished.