The editing department normally start on the same day as the film crew, this sounds odd to a lot of people I tell this to who seem to think we start once the crew have finished. It is important for an edit team to be working through the shoot for many reasons, both creative and technical.

After each day of shooting the film goes to the lab for developing
over night then onto our telecine house where it is transferred to
tape then onto me for digitising into our edit system. This normally
means that Jill our editor has viewed and is able to start cutting
the footage from the previous day by lunch time. This quick turn
around means that any potential problems with what was shot can be
discovered before they pull the set down or complete shooting a
scene, these could be for a many number of issues from film stock/
development problems to cast performance.
This quick turn around also means that the editor can assemble each
scene as it comes in and shortly after the end of shooting can have
the entire film in a rough state. This rough state is called the
‘Assembly,’ which reflects the scripted version of the film (usually
quite a lot longer and different to what is released in the cinema).
This is a starting point for both the editor and director to work
from over the coming months to produce what is called ‘The Directors
Cut,’ the stage we are now in…..