Editing In The Tree of Life

  The Tree of Life contains some of the most seamless editing of subject matter and continuity that I have seen to date. The films editor, Mark Yoshikawa, frequently convened with director Terrance Malick in order to bring forth the final product. In this case it seems that the film's cinematographer took most of the control from the head editor, which allows for a more ethereal cut rather than a direct cut.  "I think it was a really interesting way to go, because that's what lends the film a flight of thought or a memory––something that you can't put your finger on,” Yoshikawa says of the film's editing style in an interview.“You can't piece it together in a linear form. You can just remember bits of young Jack…stealing a nightgown and then having to face his mother after that. What are these feelings?" But this is not to say the editing is completely devoid of traditional cuts and edits. Particularly, in one scene, every cut seems to be a reaction to the one before, if a bird flies in one direction a human moves in the same fashion. All in all the motion never stops, an effect achieved by coalescence of the mastery of continuity editing and the director and cinematographer's creative vision.