When the sky turned black
Ken Burns’ cutting-room floor must be a horrible thing to behold. Burns, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, outlined a philosophy for making films that includes ruthless cutting and a conviction that making the best overall film sometimes means slashing even great scenes if, for one reason or another, they slow the story flow. He told a story during an appearance at Harvard Wednesday about the making of a documentary on Mark Twain that included a scene from Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi,” showing his sleepy hometown of Hannibal, Mo., perking to life with the arrival of a riverboat and then falling back into slumber after the boat leaves. The scene was good, but Burns felt that the film dragged a bit later on, fatiguing viewers. Burns traced the fatigue to that scene, observing that the flat element isn’t always where its effect is felt. “It was a great, great scene, but it had to go,”...