Within each film is some sort of unique inner timing that must be discovered and respected. What's important to understand is that this can never be established retrospectively while editing, only during shooting. You might be able to alter a film's pace during editing, but never its fundamental rhythm. Never delegate decisions down the line to post-production that should be handled on set during filming; by that point many problems can never be adequately resolved. Bad acting, to give the most obvious example, can never be fixed. There is often a separate, parallel story playing out in the hearts and minds of everyone watching your film, which means an audience will collectively anticipate certain things and race ahead of the actual narrative building on screen. [...] You have to pay attention to these parallel stories; if you don't understand and develop a sense for them, you'll never grasp the essence of storytelling for cinema. It's the same thing as the inaudible overtones beyond a musical chord. We don't necessarily hear them, but if you aren't able to listen, you'll never fully understand that chord.