Logline

In “Home Alone,” the first half of O.T.E., Little Mikey fends for himself in an eerily empty house until a mysterious older child named Will appears in his backyard.

Director's Note

In editing “Home Alone,” you may discover that the difficulty level increases organically. The beginning features only one character, Mikey, which makes the editor’s job relatively easy. Still, some intermediate skills should be applied here, such as using jump cuts and ordering the sequence in a way that makes Mikey’s actions as affecting and dramatic as possible. Next is a scene between two characters, making the editor’s job a little harder. Mikey is talking to his mom, who has passed away — but even though the dialog is one-sided, editors must incorporate her silence into the conversation. The final scene, a back-and-forth dialog between Mikey and Will, is the most difficult to cut.