The Editing Process Behind Dialogue-Driven Drama The Revisionist

Editor Jon Fine joins GG Hawkins to discuss shaping The Revisionist, a dialogue-driven drama directed by Alex Vlack and starring Alison Brie, André Holland, and Dustin Hoffman. Fine explains how the cast’s performances transformed the tone of the script, how music and abrupt sonic interruptions helped place viewers inside a writer’s creative process, and how restructuring the film made its shifting layers of fiction and reality clearer. He also shares his Premiere Pro workflow, his approach to testing editorial ideas, and why emerging filmmakers should learn by making their own projects.

In this episode, No Film School's GG Hawkins and guest Jon Fine discuss...

How Fine’s longtime creative partnership with director Alex Vlack led to The Revisionist

Discovering unexpected humor and tragedy in the actors’ interpretations of the script

Finding a consistent tone across four distinct central performances

The creative advantages of having an editor and director work together in the same room

Using Philip Klein’s score to evoke the interior world of Alison Brie’s writer character

Interrupting music with hard cuts to create surprise, humor, and playfulness

Organizing scenes, takes, transcripts, and searchable dialogue in Adobe Premiere Pro

Building a fast first assembly that closely followed the original screenplay

Restructuring the film to make the writer’s influence over the unfolding story more apparent

Using producer, audience, and actor feedback throughout the iterative editing process