When I was living in Johannesburg, I spent about four months dating a woman who worked as a professional editor for film and television commercials. She put together a video of surfing clips for me to help me promote “Groundswell,” and while I was thrilled with what she did, I never had a full appreciation of just how much work video editing is until I tried my own hand at the task. As you might have seen three weeks ago, my own project was ridiculously simple. It consisted of a single image, a few simple fades, a sequence of white text scrolling over a black background, and a single splice of video pilfered from the end of a movie to include the final few logos that are standard issue for every credit reel. Getting these few things done kept me up until 4 AM during one evening and 2 AM on another.

I think editing is, from the audience’s perspective, the most underrated aspect of filmmaking. A film cannot be great without great editing. Lousy editing can ruin what would otherwise be a great film. And while clever editing will never be enough to save 90 minutes’ worth of crummy material, if you’re willing to claim that you’ve never in your lifetime been hoodwinked into seeing an awful movie simply on the strength of a well-edited preview, then I’m willing to call you a liar.

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When it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was going to release an album, there was actually reason to be hopeful. Her sultry, smooth cover of “Summertime,” the first recording of her singing to be released, is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, her new album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head, doesn’t fulfill that hope.

The depths of Johansson’s lower register are rather impressive. Occasionally she goes so low she can’t reach and her voice drops, but for the most part, Johansson is able to keep up with the deeper notes, which is definitely an asset when covering someone with a voice as gruff and husky as Waits. However, this seems to be the biggest thing she’s able to bring to the table, as she’s frequently outshined by her her collaborator, David Sitek, from TV on the Radio.

It’s not that Johansson’s voice is bad — it’s just that she doesn’t know how to use it. Most of Anywhere I Lay My Head finds her singing like Ben Stein: dull and expressionless. The single, “Falling Down,” is a perfect example of the differences between the way that Waits (who some might say doesn’t have a classically good voice) and Johansson use their voices. Waits shouts and screams through the entire song, changes pitch, changes volume, where Johansson’s voice just drones on. If she learned how to put some energy and feeling into her voice, there would be plenty of potential for a future endeavor.

Scarlett Johnansson, “Falling Down” (download)

The album isn’t a complete loss from her end — she puts the most spunk into the album’s title track (though that doesn’t say much), and her voice works well with the more wistful and youthful tunes, like “I Don’t Want To Grow Up” and “I Wish I Was In New Orleans.” It’s hard to be 100% confident with a thorough critique of her voice, though, because it’s so heavily processed and often overridden by the music. In any other case it would be easy to classify this as poor production, but with Sitek pulling the strings, it’s more likely that he felt he had to compensate for Johnansson’s voice. (more…)