There are many books on the technical aspects of film and video editing, e.g., how to use software packages like Final Cut Pro. Much rarer are books on how an editor thinks and makes decisions. Faced with hundreds of hours of raw footage, a film editor must craft the pieces into a coherent whole. Rhythm is a fundamental tool of the film editor; when a filmmaker adjusts the length of shots in relation to one another, he or she affects the entire pace, structure, and mood of the film. Until this book, rhythm was considered a matter of intuition; good editors should just "know" when to make a cut.

“A pioneering effort to capture lighting in a bottle. The most powerful aspect of the craft is also the toughest to explain. Pearlman's introduction of dance and movement theory is impressively leveraged for exploration and her cognitive-developmental approach is solidly grounded. No serious student of editing will come away from this book untouched.” -- Loren S. Miller, Instructor, Emerson College