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Actors are fallible as anybody is. Sometimes we don't have the time to do things as best as we can. Film director judgment can be wrong at times, too. For this many directors feel they invented editing, a way to fix anything you mess up in production. Often used as a bandaid for lack of planning or ineptitude, there are in fact many things that editing can't fix.

Acting is luckily one of the things that often editing can fix. Not to say you can just hire anybody and turn them into Oscar-material in post-production, but there are certain things you can do to make any performance better.

Fix Poor Timing

Production is hectic and scenes are most often not done as a whole but in bits and pieces. This makes for the possibility of things said at the wrong time, too early or too late, and it not becoming apparent at the time of shooting. One of the few things editing can do flawlessly is cut out or add pauses. So an actor that has zero comic intuition and always steps on the punchline can be made to seem funny when we add a little room for the line to breathe.

Piece Together Good Dialogue

Sometimes you get lucky and can get all lines done well in one take. Not that it will only take you one take, but that a single take has all the good bits. Some are not so lucky as that but do manage to get all of the lines said right; just not all in the same take. The less-informed director might keep shooing till all the lines are said right all in one take, but this is where editing can often make that unnecessary. You simply edit together the best bits and make one good performance. This will obviously limit your editing possibilities but sometimes limitation is when creativity takes over.

Extend An Action

Sometimes an actor doesn't do enough of an action you need to be done more or for longer. He or she doesn't pace back and forth as many times as you'd hoped or doesn't hold her drink just at her mouth about to take a sip long enough. Editing can save these scenes and can make these actions seem to have taken place without actually having happened. You intersperse the short action with other shots and when you cut back the audience will fill in the gaps for you.

Indicate An Action With Sound Effect

Sometimes you just don't get what you wanted in a scene or realize you needed something after the scene was shot. You needed them to clink drinks before taking their first sip but didn't get that on film. You might be able to just artfully insert the sound of glasses toasting and not have to do a re-shoot. If you shot him leaving the car and walking to his house, but don't have the door shutting but want to emphasize he was angry when he left, you might think you're out of luck for not having shot that. You may be able to get away with a cut away to some kind of b-roll and inserting an appropriate car door slamming sound.

Cut To Reactions Instead

Sometimes an actor is just not delivering what you think you need no matter what you do. You want her to just say the line with a straight face but she keeps raising her eyebrows with this ridiculous grin. You tried to coax her to do it plain but she just couldn't. This is what happens when you work with amateurs. Luckily there is a way around it in editing. When she is saying this line with the silly face, cut to a reaction of the listener or some other shots. It's not ideal, but it might be better than recasting and re-shooting.

Composite Out Things

Sometimes you wish someone hadn't been in a shot. They may be overzealous or too ambitious and insist on putting their face prominently in as many shots as possible and you aren't able to keep up with their antics. You also might decide in retrospect it would have been better for a certain character to not be in a shot. Instead of re-shooting you may be able to digitally remove the character if it was a relatively simple shot and you have some knowledge of compositing or know someone who does. You basically would paint over this person, which could be facilitated by having a similar angle taken with nobody in the frame for just these occasions.

You would work with the best if you could, but at this moment that's not in the cards for you. So do the best you can with what you got. Encourage, cajole and beg if necessary to get the performance you think is best for the film. Don't make it a habit, but when in deep fix it in post.