Narrative & Documentary Editing

China's narrative and documentary editing community runs from Beijing Film Academy editing alumni — the spine of contemporary Chinese filmmaking — through to Jia Zhangke's long-time collaborator Matthieu Laclau, Zhang Yimou-circle editors, Chen Kaige's regular cutters, and director-editors like Frant Gwo (Wandering Earth) and Wuershan (Creation of the Gods Trilogy). Our editorial coordination pairs international productions with narrative editors who have worked inside that tradition.

Here is how this works in practice. Drama specialists with credits across heritage period series such as Empresses in the Palace 甄嬛传, Nirvana in Fire 琅琊榜, The Untamed 陈情令, Joy of Life, and the Tencent-Netflix Three-Body Problem co-production, alongside documentary editors carrying observational and historical work in the territory mapped by Wang Bing's nine-hour West of the Tracks, Yung Chang's Up the Yangtze, Lixin Fan's Last Train Home, and the CNEX documentary fund and CCTV A Bite of China series tradition.

The picture on the ground is more specific. Suite-time at Base FX Beijing, More VFX Beijing, Beijing Film Group Post (北影后期), Shanghai Film Studio Post, and Bona Film Group Post is secured against the director's shooting schedule, and editors are briefed on script structure, character arcs, and thematic intent in detail before any footage is touched.

Narrative editing on scripted features and iQIYI, Tencent Video, or Youku series is built around defined milestones — assembly, director's cut, producer's cut, fine cut, picture lock. With structured review sessions that give directors and producers clear points to shape pacing, performance, and dramatic arc. Documentary work, often pointed at the Shanghai International Film Festival (FIAPF A-list), Beijing International Film Festival, Pingyao IFF founded by Jia Zhangke, or FIRST IFF Xining, is approached with respect for source material, careful selection of testimony, and seamless integration of period footage, photography, and stills drawn from CCTV and provincial broadcaster archives.

A few details matter here. Editors work across Avid Media Composer for long-form drama, Adobe Premiere Pro for documentary, and DaVinci Resolve where the finish is colour-led. NRTA pre-approval of script and dub runs in parallel with the cut, the Hundred Flowers, Golden Rooster, and Hong Kong Film Award submission calendars are tracked where relevant, and editors deliver picture-locked timelines with clean AAF and EDL hand-offs to Base FX or the appointed sound house, with CFCC co-production sign-off paperwork prepared for foreign-production deliveries.