TRIM THE FAT: HOW TO MAKE YOUR FILM SCENES TIGHTER AND STRONGER

A big mistake filmmakers make is including bloated scenes—full of dialogue or moments that don’t actually move the story forward.

In this post, I’ll show you how to sharpen your scenes and cut them down without losing any story power—using a real example from the first film I made 10 years ago.

If you want to learn how to make your films:

• More engaging

• Better paced

• More emotionally effective

… then this is for you.

• the original scene

Before we trim anything, watch the original version of the scene below. Just for context: the two main characters are Aaron and Ira.

*Note - I skipped a section in the middle because Aaron goes into a monologue that is inconsequential

Now we’re going to go through the scene CRITICALLY and OBJECTIVELY to determine if everything in the scene actually SERVES the story.

This is a process that I call TRIMMING THE FAT. Here are the steps:

• step 1. identify what actually needs to happen in the scene

I put this into two buckets.

• BUCKET 1: What needs to happen to move the PLOT forward.

• BUCKET 2: What needs to be shown about the CHARACTERS.

For my scene:

• Plot: Aaron tries to help Ira prep for an interview. It fails. So he puts Ira in touch with Quint (the future antagonist).

• Character:

  • Ira should come across as uncomfortable and resistant.

  • Aaron should be bold, goofy, and a little vulgar (crucial for his later arc).

step 2. CUT EVERYTHING THAT DOES NOT SERVE 1 OF THE BUCKETS

So we're going to go through this scene LINE BY LINE to decide what stays and what goes.

• AARON: I don't like it. You sound like a fucking robot, man. Relax a bit.

  • This line establishes that Aaron is coaching Ira and that Ira is not coming across well.

  • So this does actually serve the plot.

  • ✅ Stays

• IRA: Well, this is for a tech company. So sounding like a robot may be pretty good.

  • That line is just a quip. It's not important. The fact that it's a tech company is not relevant to the story. It does not satisfy one of the two buckets.

  • ❌ Cut

• AARON: Dude, you got to be more natural. You gotta show him who you are. Show him what's inside here (points to heart).

• IRA: He doesn’t care about what's inside here. He cares about what’s inside here (points to head).

• AARON: Everybody cares about what's in here. Besides, you’re not even showing him what's in here. You're showing him what's in here (points to Ira’s resume). Show him the uniqueness in your personality, man. The little things. What makes you, you. Come on, man, make him remember you.

  • Here, they're saying a lot of the same thing. The new piece of information that's revealed is that Aaron thinks that Ira is not natural, because he's not showing the interviewer his personality. And that's this line here “show him the uniqueness in your personality, man. The little things. What makes you, you. Come on, man, make him remember you.”

    • That line is the clearest and most succinct version of this sentiment. So I'm going to keep that. ✅ Stays

    • But I'm going to get rid of everything else that comes before it. ❌ Cut

• IRA: How many interviews have you done?

• AARON: That's besides the point. Hey, man, I'm here helping you, alright? I don’t need you jerking me around.

  • Does that serve the story? It does not. We do not care about Aaron's credentials for the scene to move forward so we can just cut it.

  • ❌ Cut

• AARON: And my biggest problem right now, is that you sound like a fucking answering machine, and it ain't that sexy.

  • This is repeating the same sentiment as before - that Ira doesn't sound natural. We don't want to repeat a sentiment.

  • ❌ Cut

• IRA: So what do you think I should do?

• AARON: Fuck it, let's improvise a bit. I'm not gonna ask you these boring google interview questions - I'm gonna put you on the spot. You’re gonna have to think on your feet. And, most importantly, you're going to have to give me a huge fucking erection. All right? I want you to be someone that I wanna fucking hire.

  • This is important to the story because it’s Aaron's tactic to try to help Ira - and this is the tactic that NEEDS to fail, so that Aaron can then introduce Quint into Ira’s life. So Aaron needs to try this in order for Quint to appear in the film. So this is very important.

  • And he's also being vulgar here, and that is something that we do want established in the scene.

  • ✅ Stays

• IRA: I can't you only want to hire a prostitute.

  • I hate that line. It does not serve the story. It's just a quip - and it's not funny enough to justify keeping a quip. If a quip is HILARIOUS - sometimes you can keep it in for humor sake. But this isn't a comedy, it's not the tone of the film.

  • ❌ Cut

• AARON: All right, let me just get into character… Now Ira, tell me, when was a time that you used your discretion and tact to get yourself out of a sticky situation. And I'm not talking about masturbation. No.

  • Another silly line (sorry for my immature dialogue, folks!) - but this is the improvisational tactic that he is using, and it's the tactic that's not going to work on Ira. So it does serve the story.

  • And not only does it serve the story - but again - it shows his vulgar, silly, goofy personality that is important to his character.

  • ✅ Stays

• IRA: That's just disgusting.

  • That's important to the story because it's showing that Ira is not being receptive to Aaron's tactic. And again, Aaron's tactic needs to fail for the plot to move forward.

  • ✅ Stays

• AARON: Good. So?

• IRA: I don't know.

  • You can kind of go either way with this. It's kind of a repetition of the previous beat of “that's just disgusting” - it’s just reinforcing that Aaron’s tactic is not working on Ira. So it could potentially go. But my instinct tells me that I want to keep it because I really like how awkward the exchange feels in the scene - cementing the fact that Aaron is going to need to find another way to help Ira - hence progresssing the story.

  • ✅ Stays

• AARON: All right, here, let me teach you a trick that my grandma taught me.

  • This is Aaron trying another tactic, that goes nowhere in the scene. We don't need this.

  • The important thing is that he's tried once - it's failed - so now we can just move onto him bringing Quint into the fold.

  • We don't need to see Aaron try another unsuccessful attempt, because then the scene is not moving forward. It slows the pace down, and it doesn't add anything to the plot or reveal anything new about the characters.

  • ❌ Cut

• AARON: You want me to put you touch with Quint? You guys can probably help each other out.

  • That is the PIVOT POINT of the scene, because now Aaron is going to introduce Quint into Ira’s life.

  • So it is crucial for the plot.

  • ✅ Stays

• IRA: No, no, I rather work on my own.

  • This fulfills the resistance that we need Ira to have about Quint as well, to set him up as the antagonist.

  • ✅ Stays

• ARRON: Nah. I'll put you in touch.

  • Aaron pushes here. He's pushing through Ira's resistance. This is the type of person that Aaron is. If Aaron were like: “oh, you rather work on your own? No problem” - and he doesn’t bring Quint into Ira's life, then we have NO MOVIE.

  • His pushiness is an important personality trait that moves the story forward.

  • ✅ Stays

• IRA: Aaron. Seriously.

  • This is just IRA reinforcing that Ira really does not want Quint in his life. It's kind of a subtextual thing. He doesn't explicitly say it - but that, to me, is the subtext of the line. It adds tension, it adds conflict around the idea of Quint.

  • And because Quint is the antagonist, I think that is good conflict to have in this scene.

  • ✅ Stays

• AARON: All right. I'm just saying, a little human to human interaction might be beneficial. Trust me.

  • So what is that end beat doing? When Aaron says: "a little human human interaction might be beneficial. Trust me.” Ira lets it happen, revealing that Aaron is going to bring Quint into Ira’s life, against Ira’s better judgment.

  • It sets the next scene up well, and moves the plot forward.

  • ✅ Stays

And that’s the end of the scene. So now, we can move on to step three of triming the fat:

• step 3: putting everything back together

Once you’ve trimmed everything, it’s time to piece it back together.

In my case, I didn’t have access to the original footage (RIP decade-old hard drive), so I had to work with baked-in crappy audio and limited shots.

But I gave it my best shot—working within those limitations.

And now - drum roll please - below is the final result!

• final thoughts

That’s the power of editing with intention.

This scene went from 4:30s to 1:15s—and tells the story more clearly.

By asking yourself:

“What is essential?”
and cutting everything else…

…you’re not just shortening your film—you’re making it stronger.

Want more editing breakdowns like this?

Subscribe to my YouTube channel or sign up below to get these directly in your inbox. 🎬