the awards issue 1 - American Cinema Editors

THE MAGAZINE FOR FILM & TELEVISION EDITORS, ASSISTANTS & POST- PRODUCTION PROFESSIONALS

US $8.95 / Canada $8.95QTR 4 / 2020 / VOL 70

T H E A W A R D S I S S U E 1

IN THIS ISSUE

THE TRIAL OFTHE CHICAGO 7HILLBILLY ELEGYDEATH ON THE NILETENETTED LASSOAND MUCH MORE!

TYPE SAFE: 8.00” X 10.50”PROJECT: ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI — ACE—CINEMA EDITOR MAG 4C/FPCLIENT: AMAZON STUDIOS ISSUE 12.07.20 JOB #: 38787:05

TRIM: 8.50”w X 11.00”hMECHANICAL: 100% FIN / 11.03.20BLEED: 8.75”w X 11.25”h

ACE CINEMA EDITOR MAGAZINE Issue: FYC Due: 11/03/20 Street: 12/07/20 FIN

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N I N A L L C A T E G O R I E S I N C L U D I N G

BEST PICTURE • BEST FILM EDITINGTARIQ ANWAR

KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR ELI GOREEALDIS HODGE LESLIE ODOM JR.

FOUR LEGENDS. ONE LEGENDARY NIGHT.

A REGINA KING FILM

“A CRITICAL KNOCKOUT,humanizing and celebratingthe four icons and all theystood for”

“A POWERFUL DRAMATICWORK ABOUT FOUR OFTHE MOST IMPORTANTFIGURES OF THE20TH CENTURY.It takes these men and makes them feel fully alive again, and it makes their passions and beliefs feel relevant to today”

02 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70

CINEMAEDITOR 2020 4QTR

Cover: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (L-R) Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong. Photo by Niko Tavernise. ©2020 Netflix.

C O N T E N T S

04A Message from

the Board

37ACE Debuts

EditFest GlobalThe new virtual event

and online portal launched on Aug. 29

42ACE Internship

Program Goes Virtual

EDITOR'S CUT08What’s New!

News & Announcements

10Aspects of Editing

Stepping StonesBY JASON ROSENFIELD, ACE

20Tech Corner/

Where the World is Going

BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE

44Cuts We Love

Super 8BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

STOCK FOOTAGE

26Trial of the Chicago 7

Alan Baumgarten, ACE, reteams with Aaron Sorkin on the

writer/director’s historical dramaBY SCOTT LEHANE

34Ted Lasso

Melissa Brown McCoy and A.J. Catoline bring a kick

of optimism to viewersBY NANCY JUNDI

28Death on the Nile

Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE, is at the scene of the crime

for Kenneth Branagh’s PoirotBY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

30Hillbilly Elegy

James Wilcox, ACE, examines family responsibility in Ron Howard’s biographical drama

BY SCOTT LEHANE

32Tenet

Jennifer Lame, ACE, straps in for Christopher Nolan’s time-traveling spy thrillerBY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

FEATURES

TYPE SAFE: 8.00” X 10.50”PROJECT: TIME — ACE—CINEMA EDITOR MAG 4C/FP (FYC)CLIENT: AMAZON STUDIOS ISSUE 12.07.20 JOB #: 38755:05


ACE CINEMA EDITOR MAGAZINE Issue: FYC Due: 10/30/20 Street: 12/07/20 FIN1 cmyk

amazonstudiosguilds.com

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATUREF O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N I N A L L C A T E G O R I E S I N C L U D I N G

BEST FILM EDITINGGabriel Rhodes

CRITICS CHOICE4DOCUMENTARY AWARDS

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATUREBEST DIRECTOR GARRETT BRADLEY

NOMINATIONS INCLUDING

DOCUMENTARYA W A R D S

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURESHORTLIST 2020

IDA

“ONE OF 2020’S GREAT DOCUMENTARIES... a two-decades-spanning epic of love, devotion and perseverance”

“A MASTERPIECE... transportingly emotional, urgent work”

AMAZON ORIGINAL MOVIE


A MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD

Welcome to the latest issue of CinemaEditor. ACE is pleased to release the 2021 ACE Eddie Awards schedule, reflecting changes to the overall awards sea-son calendar. As a result, you’ll see that this issue is themed “Awards 1.” The first quarter issue of 2021 will be renamed “Awards 2,” enabling ACE members to read about even more of the season’s movies.

A few notes about next year’s Eddies: The presentation has been scheduled for April 18, though the format is still in discussion. Next, we’re happy to introduce a new category, Best Edited Animation (Non-Theatrical), which will showcase animated series and other content released for TV and streaming platforms.

Please note that Eddie eligibility periods have been revised. Eligible feature films must be released between Jan. 1, 2020 - Feb. 28, 2021. Television category entries

must have aired between Nov. 2, 2019 - Dec. 31, 2020. The complete Eddies calendar follows, below.

ACE also continues to monitor how members are adjusting to work during the pandemic, while staying safe. We’ve recently sent out a new Best Practices – Work from Home survey, and your responses are appreciated.

During this challenging time, keeping our community connected is more important than ever. To that end, we want to gratefully acknowledge the speakers, sponsors and more than 800 participants in this year’s virtual EditFest Global, which you can read about in this issue.

With the event, the EditFest Global website has been launched and we look forward to sharing additional year-round content from the ACE community through this new platform. Please stay safe.–The ACE Board of Directors

2021 ACE Eddie Awards SchedulePLEASE NOTE: TV eligibility dates are different from Feature this year

TELEVISION: Must have aired between Nov. 2, 2019 - Dec. 31, 2020FEATURE FILMS: Must be released between Jan. 1, 2020 - Feb. 28, 2021

Awards presented Sunday, April 18, 2021 (Location TBD)

November 2, 2020February 12, 2021February 19, 2021March 8, 2021March 11, 2021March 19, 2021March 19-26, 2021March 26, 2021April 9, 2021To Be Announced

Submissions for Nominations Begin

Submissions for Nominations End

Nominations Ballots Sent

Nominations Ballots Due

Nominations Announced

Final Ballots Sent

Online Blue Ribbon Screenings

Final Ballots Closed

Deadline for Advertising

Nominee Cocktail Party

TYPE SAFE: 8.00” X 10.50”PROJECT: ALL IN — ACE—CINEMA EDITOR MAG 4C/FP (FYC)CLIENT: AMAZON STUDIOS ISSUE 12.07.20 JOB #: 38766-07


ACE CINEMA EDITOR MAGAZINE Issue: FYC Due: 10/30/20 Street: 12/07/20 FIN2 cmyk

A M A Z O N O R I G I N A L M O V I E

“The fi lmmakers bring the past alive with a passion and clarity that is RIVETING”

“A documentary of supreme relevance that has the e� ect, at once CHILLING AND ROUSING, of a political cautionary tale”

“ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FILMS OF THE YEAR”

CRITICS CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARDSB E S T P O L I T I C A L D O C U M E N T A R Y

N O M I N E E

F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N I N A L L CAT E G O R I E S I N C LU D I N G

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

BEST FILM EDITINGNancy Novack

amazonstudiosguilds.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Carolyn Giardina is an award-winning journalist and author who serves as tech editor at The Hollywood Reporter, with responsibilities including its Behind the Screen coverage. She is also co-author of Exploring 3D: The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking (Focal Press, 2012). One of her first assignments at the start of her career was a feature story about editing – and she has enjoyed covering editors ever since.

Nancy Jundi has been a contributing writer to Cinema-Editor since 2006. She is the COO of DigitalFilm Tree, a post-production and entertainment software company in the Los Angeles area.

Scott Lehane is a freelance journalist who has cov-ered the film and TV industry for over 20 years.

Harry B. Miller III, ACE, is a feature, television and documentary editor. His recent credits include Turn: Washington’s Spies and The Predator.

Adrian Pennington is a journalist, editor and marketing copywriter whose articles have appeared in the Financial Times, British Cinematographer, Screen International, The Hollywood Reporter, Premiere, Broadcast, RTS Television and The Guardian. He is co-author of Exploring 3D:

The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking (Focal Press, 2012) and his favorite film of all time is Gilda.

Jason Rosenfield, ACE, is a three-time Emmy® Award-winning film editor, producer, director and writer and member of the faculty of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. His narrative credits range from Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean to improvisational TV comedy Free Ride. His work has included Oscar®-nominated Blues Highway; R. J. Cutler’s Emmy Award-winning series American High; HBO’s Emmy Award-winning doc Memphis PD; Dick Wolf's NBC cinema verite series Crime & Punishment; Mark Jonathan Harris’ Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine; and Jordan Peele’s four-part Amazon series Lorena. He has served as Associate Director of the ACE Board, three terms as Governor of the Television Academy and almost two decades on the Academy’s Picture Editors and Documentary Peer Groups Executive Committees.

John Van Vliet has worked in animation and visual effects for more than 32 years. Although his involvement on bad pictures far outnumbers the good ones, all have provided raw material for his drawings – for which he’s grateful.

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Jenni McCormickPRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Gemmalyn BrunsonPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Marika EllisADVERTISING & DISTRIBUTION

Peter Zakhary

Official Periodical of American Cinema Editors, Inc. Founded November 28, 1950.

BUSINESS AFFAIRS

EDITORIAL STAFF

ADVISORY BOARD

Edgar Burcksen, ACE Harry B. Miller III, ACE Andrew Seklir, ACE

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ACE WEBSITE QUESTIONSKate Higgins [email protected]

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CinemaEditor Magazine is published quarterly by American Cinema Editors. The views expressed in this peri-odical do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Directors or the membership of ACE. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. ©American Cinema Editors, Inc. All rights reserved.

American Cinema Editors websitewww.americancinemaeditors.org

PRESIDENT

Stephen Rivkin, ACE

VICE PRESIDENT

Carol Littleton, ACE

SECRETARY

Lillian Benson, ACE

TREASURER

Stephen Lovejoy, ACE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Anita Brandt Burgoyne, ACEJacqueline Cambas, ACE

Dorian Harris, ACETina Hirsch, ACEMaysie Hoy, ACE

Bonnie Koehler, ACEMary Jo Markey, ACEMichael Ornstein, ACESabrina Plisco, ACE

Kevin Tent, ACE

ASSOCIATE BOARD

Kate Amend, ACEDana Glauberman, ACE

Mark Helfrich, ACEAndrew Seklir, ACE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jenni McCormick

THE ACE CREDO

The objects and purposes of the American Cinema Editors

are to advance the art and science of the film editing profession; to increase the entertainment

value of motion pictures by attaining artistic pre-eminence

and scientific achievement in the creative art of film editing;

to bring into close alliance those film editors who desire to advance

the prestige and dignity of the film editing profession.

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

Carolyn GiardinaINTERNATIONAL EDITOR

Adrian PenningtonART DIRECTOR

Luci ZakharyEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Peter Zakhary

ACE - FPISSUE DATE: DECEMBER 14, 2020DUE DATE: OCTOBER 30, 2020

MECHANICAL SIZEBLEED: 11.25"H X 8.75"WTRIM: 11"H X 8.5"WLIVE: 10.5"H X 8"W

AMA2542

FINAL11/2/20 3:40M LJ

“SACHA BARON COHEN’S BEST MOVIE TO DATE...

THIS BRILLIANT, VULGAR PLEA FOR A BETTER WORLD CUTS DEEP AND

HIS SEARING BRAND OF HUMOR HAS NEVER FELT MORE ESSENTIAL”

BEST PICTUREBEST FILM EDITING

JAMES THOMAS • CRAIG ALPERT, ACE • MIKE GIAMBRA

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NI N A L L C A T E G O R I E S I N C L U D I N G

“HERE, SHOT AND DELIVERED AMID AN UNPRECEDENTED

GLOBAL PANDEMIC, IS A STAGGERING ACT OF

COMEDIC REVOLT”

American Cinema Editors would like to welcome new ACE members:

The 2020 Creative Arts Emmy® Winners for Editing

ADVERTISER INDEX


NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

W H A T ' S N E W !

CONGRATULATIONS WELCOME

BY

JOH

N V

AN V

LIET

SH

OR

T C

UT

CO

MIC

ACTIVE

Isaiah Camp, ACESam Citron, ACEJulie Cohen, ACE

Rachel Cushing, ACECameron Dennis, ACEMark Eckersley, ACEAndrew S. Eisen, ACE

Jim Flynn, ACEAndrea Folprecht, ACEMollie Goldstein, ACE

Justin Goll, ACERyo Ikegami, ACE

Benjamin Massoubre, ACEJoseph Matoske, ACE

Masayoshi Matsuda, ACEPaul Millspaugh, ACELaRonda Morris, ACE

Stephanie Neroes, ACESteven Nevius, ACEKyle Schadt, ACE

AFFILIATE

Marcos Horacio AzevedoAnderson Boyd

Andrew M. CohenMengle Han

Liam JohnsonJames M. Martin

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

Succession “This Is Not for Tears”Bill Henry, EditorVenya Bruk, Additional Editor

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Insecure “Lowkey Trying”Nena Erb, ACE, EditorLynarion Hubbard, Additional Editor

OUTSTANDING MULTI-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

One Day at a Time “Boundaries”Cheryl Campsmith, ACE, Editor

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

Watchmen “A God Walks in to Abar” Henk Van Eeghen, ACE, Editor

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR VARIETY PROGRAMMING

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver “Eat Shit, Bob!” (segment)Ryan Barger, Editor

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAM

Apollo 11Todd Douglas Miller, Editor

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR A STRUCTURED REALITY OR COMPETITION PROGRAM

RuPaul’s Drag Race “I’m That Bitch” Jamie Martin, Lead EditorMichael Roha, EditorPaul Cross, EditorMichael Lynn Deis, EditorRyan Mallick, Editor

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR AN UNSTRUCTURED REALITY PROGRAM

Cheer “God Blessed Texas” Arielle Kilker, Supervising EditorDavid Nordstrom, Supervising EditorKate Hackett, EditorDaniel McDonald, EditorMark Morgan, EditorSharon Weaver, EditorTed Woerner, Editor

IFC01030507091113141516182123242536394041BC

Motion Picture Editors GuildOne Night in MiamiTimeAll InBorat Subsequent MoviefilmSmall AxeSylvie’s LoveUncle FrankBlackmagic DesignThe BoysAmazon FYCAmazon FYCPalm SpringsAdobeThe Looping GroupAvid Technology, Inc.Cutting It in HollywoodOnwardEditFest GlobalSoulEditors Recognition Petition

ACE – FULL PAGE ADISSUE: 12/14/2020MATERIALS DUE: 11/3/2020 11 AM PST

BLEED: 8.75” X 11.25”TRIM: 8.5” X 11”SAFETY: 8” X 10.5”

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XXXXXXX | 11.03.20 | AMAZON | AD | RC

MECH05

THE TACTILE INTIMACY AND

GORGEOUS FLUIDITY OF

THE VISUALS IS ENHANCED

BY THE LOOSE RHYTHMS OF THE EDITING

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

AMAZON ORIGINAL SERIE S

BEST EDITED LIMITED SERIES

“

”

10 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Above: Jason Rosenfield, ACE. Photo by Lynn Lobban.

Los Angeles, 1999. American High is my first time editing a true cinema verité – “truth cinema” – documentary, attempting to capture real life without narrators or interviews, just a couple of cameras following suburban Chicago high school seniors on the cusp of adulthood. It’s a bold concept for a Fox TV prime-time series – the most exciting project I’ve worked on in years. If it succeeds, it could establish a new television genre.

Editing cinema vérité leaves nowhere to hide. No fancy montages, no explanatory title cards, nothing to save my butt when I can't fill a hole in the story. Everything has to happen in scene. But what an opportunity! For all their bravado and angst, every senior is on a hero’s journey, preparing to confront the fiercest of dragons – freedom. It’s not going to be compelling to safely observe our young champions. I want the audience to feel the collision. Without them noticing what I'm doing.

That’s a very seductive proposal. Along with co-editor David Tedeschi, I’ve scoured footage

coming in from the field for eight weeks, looking for potential characters and story beats, and stringing them into visual timelines – casting portraits for a handful of producers and writers to assess. Some major events can anchor individual episodes – a football game, a year-end musical, graduation. But I seek more than iconic moments. We need evolving story arcs that can play over multiple episodes.

At first, my explorations are based on hunches – hints of something deeper, like spotting one half of a popular couple holding someone else’s hand. I stay alert for anomalies in personalities. One arrives at a party and I think Wow, that’s

the first time I’ve seen her angry … I search backwards, to the day before and the day before that. What pissed her off? Then forwards. Where might this go?

A camera crew captures young Marjorie breaking up with a boyfriend. She throws something in his face – a note – and marches away. Why? Do I look back a month for clues that led up to this? Or does the breakup start her story arc – a catalyst that puts things in motion? Which is the stronger approach? Too early to tell. What about that teary close-up? Good, remember it, but it may be too on the money. I’m basically writing the script and sketching out rough scenes at the same time, because if I can’t make it work seamlessly on screen – if I have to over-manipulate and force shots to fit the scenario in my head – the editing becomes a distraction, and all my story insights are useless. Believability hangs in the balance.

It’s easy to get antsy watching endless dailies. There’s the temptation to high-speed through, looking for the big bits – a fight, a kiss, a dance show. But big bits are a result of little bits that precede them. And each big bit creates little bits that lead up to the next big one. And so on. Whenever I’ve been tempted to skip past the minutiae, the story falls apart.

Slow down. Be present. Subtext is nuanced by nature. Watch. Listen. And empathize. What does envy look like? Lust? Betrayal? Zero in on the screen like an iris at the end of a silent movie, to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. I’m good at that. Just ask my wife and kids.

What is truth? Is it objective? Or subjective? Cinema vérité filmmaking is grounded in the belief that one can capture

The following is an excerpt from the memoir of Jason Rosenfield, ACE, Everything Has Meaning: Confessions of a Film Editor, Chapter 9, “Stepping Stones.” Rosenfield is a three-time Emmy® Award-winning film editor, producer, director and writer and member of the faculty of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. His credits range from Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean to Jordan Peele’s four-part series Lorena. This excerpt is reprinted with the permission of Rosenfield; a memoir publication date was not confirmed at press time.

BY JASON ROSENFIELD, ACE

SteppingStones



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real life in the making. But the second I make a cut, aren’t I changing reality? If I cut a 60-minute football game down to a three-minute sequence, I create an illusion: cinematic time passing as real time. If I insert a sunset to add poignancy, I’m manipulating mood. Say a guy yells at his girlfriend, and the camera never swings around to grab her reaction. What do I do? In a more traditional documentary, I could use an interview, letting her tell us what she felt at the time. I’m skilled at using pauses – like someone waiting for the next question – to indicate an inner life beating beneath the words. But I’ve got to solve problems in the scene. What if the shot I need doesn’t exist?

What I finally land on is this: capture the truth of someone’s experience. If it’s a broken heart, tell that story. If I need to combine two lines of dialogue into one for something to make sense, so be it. If I need to steal a shot from a different scene to add emotional power, fine. As long as I don’t turn a yes into a no. As long as I don’t embellish or lie. As long as I don’t change the experience.

Robbie the soccer captain is the first character to take shape for me, a trigger point setting other stories in motion, like a cue ball on a pool table. Not much of a first impression. Easy going. Stoner. No known enemies, flame-haired girlfriend. Decent grades, nice family, no discernable problems. Until there are.

The first clue comes in one of his video diaries. To help gain permission to shoot, the production gave inexpensive cameras to a number of interested students to use at school. Nobody takes their footage seriously until we realize they’ve been taking the cameras home, to the privacy of their rooms. The results are raw, real and surprising. While our crews follow their lives, these diaries have been capturing their secrets.

Robbie’s at home, it’s night, and as usual he’s toked up. While bitching about his parents’ and his girlfriend’s anxieties, this pops out: Oh, and I got red-carded at a game today. What? I rewind the footage and listen again. Red carded? Mellow, team captain Robbie? I'm no soccer player, but I know it means he’d been kicked out of the game. I mention it to showrunner R. J. Cutler, but don’t get much of a response.

A week goes by: more diaries, and a bigger clue – Robbie’s got a black eye. He got into a fight when somebody made a crack about a friend named Brad. Tedeschi hasn’t encoun-tered a Brad. My assistant searches the field logs, finds a Brad, we start following him and stumble onto his mother recounting that when Brad was 5, she and her husband were already wondering if he was gay.

Ah. We’re soon stitching together odd bits and pieces of dialogue

from the boys, their parents and friends – enough to establish that I’ve found a love story: Robbie and Brad grew up together, they’re best friends, and Brad came out to him first, in their junior year. But these are past events – none are on camera. Important information, yes, but with little emotional resonance. I need to find a visual language to tell their story.

There’s a trick I learned about physicalizing the unspoken while cutting Bob Altman’s ensemble drama Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean – visual clues to

a character’s inner life – but its roots are in my dance training. Even when unmoving, a dancer is never dead weight. He’s alert, aware and awaiting. It’s the same for everyone – even silent and still, we instinctively react to the world. We smile, we slump, we shrug, we frown. Our fingers twitch, our nostrils flare, our shoulders rise, our eyes drop. Find those shots, put them in the right places, and you’ve got subtext.

Why can’t it work in documentary as well? I know where to look, and I know how to spot them. Watch the dailies again – but without sound.

I start with Robbie. Turn off the lights. Mute the audio, hit play. Let the silence strip everything of context. Slip my mind into neutral and focus on what I can reimagine as unconscious reactions to an action word, or thought – There. Just before he turns off his camera – the slight head shake, the small smile … I know he’s been talking about his da – Forget that. Try it against Brad laughing over his fear of telling his best friend … and I love Robbie flipping off the camera. Clever but organic… What else, what else…

I experiment with timing and juxtaposition. I play with transitions. I audition music cues, building emotional continuity. Hours later, I’ve stitched together a rough portrait of the black eye affair, the emotional truth of their experiences sometimes overt but often implied over a rough story arc.

Implication is something I know from my dancing days. My body has never been flexible – I couldn’t elevate a straight leg above my waist without throwing my center – read balance – off. A dancer with the Martha Graham Company saw me struggling with this in class, said he had the same problem and offered a solution – a deception – that can fool an audience. Never quite reach the upper limit of your leg’s full elevation. Keep moving it in that direction, slowly, stretch the moment out, closer – until it’s time to move somewhere else.

Never getting to the end created the illusion of greater height. I could imply something that was never there. When I first arrived in the editing room, I already knew this instinctively.

It’s a poorly sung piece of music that finally leads me to the tone and style of the show. I discover a shot of Brad sitting at his school locker at one end of a long, empty hallway. He looks drained after a long day – or so I imagine. Maybe brooding. Or bewildered. And I recall a song Robbie sings in one of his video diaries, his scratchy late-night stoner voice murdering a Bob Dylan lyric after yet another argument with his dad: There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief…

I find Robbie’s shot, mark the opening lines, then cut Brad’s shot just behind it. Robbie’s singing continues over Brad closing his locker and starting his lonesome walk down the deserted hall. Another half-verse in, I cross-fade Robbie’s voice with Dylan’s own recording, let it take Brad out the door. I rewind, sit back to watch … and something happens.

I don’t have a clue yet where this scene might fit into the season. But I don’t really care right now because I’m being lifted from my chair by an alchemy of shots, lyrics, timing and emotional investment that’s whispering follow me. Get on the train, go for the ride, let the story unfold itself. American High is coming to life.



MECH02 AMAZON FALL/WINTER 2020 - UNCLE FRANK - ACE FULL-PAGE


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UPGRADE...

to upgrade my least-used Mac computer to see the results. I have a Mac mini in my TV setup, used to play movies off an external drive, and as a way to access HBO Max. HBO became unavailable on Roku and TiVo, my preferred devices. The Mac mini can also play Amazon Prime in a browser, or Netflix on the application Clicker. Whatever it broke wouldn’t stop me from getting work done.

I held my breath. Well, not really. I’d be dead if true. It took 30-40 minutes of downloading and rebooting before the new background for Catalina showed.

20 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Screenshots courtesy of Harry B. Miller III, ACE.

M icrosoft creates operating systems that are designed to work on a huge variety of computers, new and old. Most of the hardware it runs on is not made by Microsoft, but

by the likes of Dell, HP or Toshiba.Apple has one customer for its operating system: Apple.

With updates to the hardware, implementing new technologies, Apple designs software to take advantage of those changes. They work in tandem. But it can leave customers who’d want the new features with older Apple hardware out of luck. And software developers for Apple have to update their programs to run on the new Apple operating system. Some don’t, or financially can’t, so their programs can no longer run on the new computers.

Catalina is its name, macOS 10.15. It’s the latest OS. The biggest, most important thing to know about Catalina is it will not run a LOT of software you may be used to using. Upgrad-ing might break many of your essential workflow programs. The same may be true for macOS 11.0 called Big Sur, which is in beta testing as of this writing.

The reason is the transition from 32-bit to all 64-bit applications – 32-bit is the floppy disk drive of software. Steve Jobs dropped the floppy drive to much public gnashing of teeth to move the world of computing forward. Catalina won’t run anything that is, or has components that are, 32-bit. Programs like Avid Media Composer. It would be an unhappy surprise to find you’ve bought a brand new MacBook Pro, but your editing software doesn’t work on it.

The software developers at Avid have been working diligently to update Media Composer to work on the new macOS. Catalina was released in October of 2019. They delivered Catalina-compatible Media Composer in April of 2020 (hence AMC version 2020.4). But some components didn’t make the update because they had 32-bit components. Avid has not updated those, and replaced them with the new Titler+.

The parts left behind included the Title Tool and Marquee. Both were replaced by Titler+, the new AMC title tool. Media Composer also wouldn’t support QuickTime, meaning there’d no longer be outputs of Same-as-Source and QuickTime Reference (ask your assistant what that means).

I have long declined to upgrade any of my Macs to Catalina. Basically, I was afraid of what it would break. But I decided

The next screen was a one click upgrade.

and then

Upgrading from Mojave, macOS 10.14, to Catalina was simple. The Setting icon in the dock regularly would prompt to make the upgrade.

Don’tUpgrade! It Will Break Everything!

Well. Maybe not…BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM(COMEDY)

Mat t hew Friedman, ACE

Andrew Dickler

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N

“THE MOST ORIGINAL COMEDY

OF 2020.”

DEADLINE


longer work. And that was it. So, what programs did it break? Surprisingly few. When Apple says we’re going 64-bit, most all Mac developers start updating their applications.

The only two of my commonly-used applications that would no longer work are MPEG Streamclip and QuickTime 7. There are a lot of other applications that can replace MPEG Streamclip as a compression tool, such as Adobe’s Media Encoder, Apple’s Compressor and Handbrake. QuickTime X replaces 7. Certainly not the end of the world.

I know Media Composer works on Catalina because I’ve read enough stories of people using it. It isn’t a completely smooth transition. A lot of people are having a hard time adjusting to the Titler+ tool. And exporting is more complicated. But it does work.

Ultimately, upgrading wasn’t the nightmare I expected. And next up is Big Sur.

Michael Nouryeh is working from home as a second assistant on the feature film The Tomorrow War. His system was setup by FotoKem and includes a Mac trash can and two monitors. The Nexis media storage is in Hollywood. From his Mac at home, Michael logs into a remote Windows PC workstation, as do all the crew except for the editor, Roger Barton, ACE.

Wait, what? Windows? HP’s Remote Graphics Software (RGS) is used for the remote connection. It has no Mac version. Michael opens a Windows workspace where he runs Avid Media Composer which is at a remote site. All of which sounds like a clunky arrangement, mixing computer operating systems over the internet. “Playback can lag, based on your internet speed,” says Michael.

His primary task is to keep Barton, who has media stored locally in his edit room, in sync with everyone else. He is using FotoKem’s globalDATA system for asset distribution and transfer. Each morning he looks at the Nexis and checks every partition for new renders, music, sound, projects and VFX. There are no dailies as production long ago wrapped. They are currently awaiting on the actor Chris Pratt to become available for additional shooting.

The biggest problem with working remotely is isolation. “I miss the osmosis of information one absorbs when editorial is working together in offices. When working remotely, my experience so far is that 99 percent of the information is doled out via text/email/Slack on a need-to-know basis,” says Michael.

Tim Kinzy is waiting for the restart of the CW series Charmed. To finish the previous season, they used local drives with copies of the media. But for the upcoming season they are planning something similar to The Tomorrow War. They are working with Moviola which is recommending Teradici, which uses a proprietary system called PCoIP technology to do the same thing as HP’s RGS software. The editor logs into a remote Windows PC, which opens a window on their local Mac. “You can’t do full-screen playback very well” with this system, according to Tim. And “at least for dailies, local storage is ideally the way to go.”

B ecause of the lead time to publish this magazine, it’s difficult to know what will have changed by the time you are reading this article. With any luck (and we are way

due), we’ll all be getting back at work and almost normal. Until then, we have to adjust to the current situation. I interviewed four people for their perspective on how we’re adjusting.

Steve Welke is a post producer working on The Stand for CBS All Access. The entire miniseries had been shot by early February except for final scenes, which were planned for a week of shooting in Las Vegas. As the reality of the pandemic set in, it was decided that each editor would work from home. A copy of the full shared storage was made for each editor, assistant and VFX editor. Eight copies of the entire mini-series, plus a backup. Three editors got two 20TB RAID drives. The assistants and VFX team each got 48TB RAID drives. Each system in addition has a 4TB drive for local renders.

The Las Vegas shoot was completed in August. Each day’s media was no more than 5GB so the lab pushed media directly through Aspera Cargo to each system.

TeamViewer is one method of communication between the remote workstations. It allows one computer to muck around in a remote system. A system called Resilio Connect/Sync has been used to keep each workstation’s RAID media in sync. It can be set up and customized to sync media over peer-to-peer technology, which is similar to the file transfer service Aspera.

For remote collaboration they use Evercast on some systems. Pacific Post has made other remote connections.

Steve’s evaluation: “Can it be done? Yes. Is it better? No. What took a day takes three to four.”

A new folder, ‘Relocated Items,’ appeared on the desktop. These are components that because of being 32-bit will no

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Creativity for all.

The Pacific Post collaboration system was demoed. “Playback was very smooth, even when multiple users were logged in,” according to Tim.

Andrew Seklir, ACE, is the founder of A Frame Post, an editing system rental company. His company offers two options for shows that can be modified to fit individual needs. The first is PC-over-IP. It is essentially the same as the two previous remote setups, where the user logs into a PC workstation and operates Media Composer remotely. A Frame’s recommended remote system uses TGX Remote Desktop, from Mechdyne. Editors and AE’s use two-factor authentication and a secure VPN connection to log into their remote Avid workstations.

But the more interesting solution involves having each editor keep a copy of the media locally, which takes out the vagaries of internet connections. Each home workstation has a 20TB-32TB RAID/NAS (network attached storage) from Synology. All workstation RAIDs have the exact same media. To accomplish this, each Avid workstation has an Aspera connection which pulls down dailies from the cloud. Render files, user-generated media, project files and bins are scheduled to sync overnight (or at the push of a button) between the NAS stations using GoodSync. And software called Mimiq is used to facilitate file naming and bin locking. The Synology workstations live behind a firewall, but assistant editors are able to remote into their editor’s NAS and manage media and files on the other Synology workstations.

The advantage to local storage is apparent. It is fast. Going through your internet connection to a remote workstation, to log into a Windows machine is full of pain points and potential errors.

And how many times will the editor have to explain to producers and directors why everything is so slow?

A Frame also has solutions for streaming Avid playback to producers and directors for collaboration, i.e. alternatives to Evercast, or Frame.io.

So far it seems the trend is to set up editing systems to accom-modate the studios’ fear of the internet. I suspect producers and directors will likely find the results hardly bearable. When your neighbors are all watching Tiger King and your internet speed slows to a crawl, so will your progress. And it is the editor who will get yelled at. Rather than listen to the people who know, the studios are listening to the most conservative security advocates, who won’t care if it doesn’t work as long as the dailies on your average boring sitcom are secure at the studio. Sheesh.

I am currently setting up a remote show for Hallmark. The shoot is in North Carolina and Nashville, the post house is in Connecticut, and editorial is in Los Angeles. As I’ve done on previous remote shows, the producers will send a shuttle drive each day from set. My assistant and I will sync in person (from a respectable six feet away, masked). We’ll use Frame.io to share cuts with the director and producer. There may be some director visits to my house for her cut … um, after I get tested and pass. But there is only one editor, so it is quite simple.

We’re getting this figured out. There will be growing pains. Maybe the studios will get the message about improving the workflow. Like everything these days, I’m not optimistic.

So be patient, and stay safe everyone.

Thanks to all of the

talented editors and assistants

that use Media Composer®

to tell their stories.

©2020 Avid Technology, Inc. Avid, the Avid logo, Media Composer, and POWERING GREATER CREATORS are registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc.

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Thanks to all of the

talented editors and assistants

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26 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Top (L-R): Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alan Metoskie, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Sacha Baron Cohen and Noah Robbins. Photo by Niko Tavernise. ©2020 Netflix.

A aron Sorkin’s new historical drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 looks at one of the most tumultuous trials in U.S. history after a group of activists were charged

with crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The defendants, played by an all-star ensemble cast, represented a range of different political movements, from pacifist conscien-tious objectors like David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) and student activists like Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), to cultural revolutionary Yippies like Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), as well as Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who had left Chicago by the time of the riots and was denied legal counsel at the trial. But they all came to Chicago with a common purpose – to protest the Vietnam War.

It was a tumultuous time in U.S. politics, as a generation of activists rose up to protest an unpopular war that seemed unwinnable, or at least, not worth the cost in casualties.

When Sorkin first wrote the script over 14 years ago, he couldn’t have foreseen how it would resonate with the current events of 2020. Paramount originally planned to release the film theatrically, but due to the pandemic, the distribution rights were sold to Netflix with an Oct. 16 release date, landing right before one of the most contentious U.S. elections in history. (This issue of CinemaEditor went to press prior to Election Day).

After shopping the script around for several years, Sorkin decided to direct the film himself. Fresh off his 2017 film Molly’s Game, he shared the script with Molly’s Game editor Alan Baumgarten, ACE, in 2018, who was keen to work with Sorkin again.

Baumgarten was nominated for an Oscar® in 2014 for his work on American Hustle and has been nominated for five ACE Eddie Awards, winning two for American Hustle and the 2008 TV film Recount, which also earned him a Primetime Emmy®.

Shooting started last October with eight days in Chicago to film the riot scenes and get other authentic location shots. Over the course of two months from October to December most of the rest of the film was shot in a courtroom set built in New Jersey.

“During production, I was here in Los Angeles, editing the dailies with my crew,” explains Baumgarten. “We used the same editing rooms we used on Molly’s Game [Pivotal Post’s Sunset Ave. facility]. They’re very close to Aaron’s house and it made it easy for him to come and go whenever he liked.”

During December, the editor had some time to explore the material while working on a first cut, before really getting down to business in the beginning of January. But of course, they didn’t see COVID coming.

“We finished Aaron’s director’s cut and we were prepared to screen it for the executives in a theater on the lot, as one normally would, but that was literally the week they introduced the stay-at-home protocol in Los Angeles and the State of California,” says Baumgarten. “So we all quickly disassembled the editing systems and brought our Avids home to our individual workplaces.”

From that point on, the film was posted securely online and Zoom calls replaced in-person meetings as the team quickly adapted to the new normal. The post team was geographically quite spread out, with the visual effects company in New York, the music editor in Hawaii and the composer in London.

Baumgarten reports that while COVID was probably the biggest challenge he faced on this film, “we figured out a way to do it. We all just communicated remotely and sent the material back and forth as needed and continued to refine the cut and fine-tune it to a place where we eventually locked the picture and went into the final finishing parts of post-production – the sound, music and the DI.”

“There were delays due to the pandemic that we just had to work with,” he adds. “[For example] there was no orchestra that could perform the score until things opened up a little bit more in London. So we were set back about a month for that. But we managed to work and communicate in a very fluid way, and I think that’s partly because of the stage we were at in the process. We were in really good shape and ready to fine-tune the film when we had to separate and start working remotely. Had it been earlier in the post process, it might have been more of a challenge.”

Baumgarten says that while they reviewed certain films like Haskell Wexler’s critically-acclaimed Medium Cool, which is set during the riots, as well as films like Argo, Detroit and Straight Outta Compton. “As an editor, I really take my lead from the script and the material that’s there. And Aaron is very specific with his dialogue and also the structure of his film. There’s freedom to experiment and explore, but Aaron gave us a great launching-off point from which to build the film.”

Still, much of the film’s dynamic tension really came out in the editing room. In particular, the film frequently jumps between the riots, the courtroom and scenes of Hoffman describing the events to a crowd of college students.

BY SCOTT LEHANE

Alan Baumgarten, ACE, reteams with Aaron Sorkin on the writer/director’s historical drama

The Trial of the Chicago 7

The editor explains that Sorkin was very involved in the editorial process. “He primarily focuses on the pacing and rhythm of the dialogue and the tone of how the lines are being delivered. He likes to get the dialogue right first, and then we’ll work on swapping out shots, whether it’s a close-up or a medium shot or a different reaction. But as far as the visual, he encourages me to assemble a structure that I think is right.”

Baumgarten explains that he’s worked with his assistant editor Christine Kim a few times before. At the end of post-production, she was bumped up to the title of additional editor. “She’s a very talented editor in her own right. She was very involved creatively and ran a great cutting room as well. I looked to her with every sequence I put together to be my first viewer.

“She has a great sense of clarity and precision and I trust her taste and her judgment, and I was able to give her sections to work on and say, ‘Here, have a go at this.’”

They were joined by assistant editor Brandon Marchionda, whom Baumgarten says mapped out some of the visual effects shots, doing comp work and temp VFX elements that would serve as a guide. Machionda coordinated with the VFX vendor, New York’s Brainstorm Digital.

Kaitlyn Ali rounded out the team, serving as editorial pro-duction assistant. “She had great energy and great ideas and was also very involved in the discussions,” says Baumgarten. “We were all very passionate about this project, about the subject, the opportunity to tell this story and to work with Aaron. It was really a pleasure and a lot of fun for all of us.”

During this interview with Baumgarten, conducted in early October, he said he hoped that the film would inspire people to vote. “It’s part of this film – how important voting is and the need to be involved in the process of our democracy – that it does take work and how important it is to fight for our rights of free expression and dissent.

“While we were working on it, we had no idea of the events that would be happening the past few months,” he concludes. “But now more than ever, it feels urgent that those things are not only respected, but upheld and it requires people understanding that and responding.”

Aaron Sorkin and Alan Baumgarten, ACE. Photo by Nancy Kirhoffer. Top (L-R): Christine Kim, Brandon Marchionda, Kaitlyn Ali and Alan Baumgarten, ACE. Photo by Kaitlyn Ali.

27CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70

“Some of that jumping back and forth was created editorially because it just felt right,” Baumgarten recalls. “Aaron had laid that out for the most part, as he likes to jump back and forth in time. So he will indicate it in places, but that specific area became a little bit more intricate to build more tension leading up to the riot. So we jumped into the riot, but then we paused for a brief moment as Abbie describes the use of tear gas, and then we continue on.”

He explains that he cut based on the energy and rhythm that came out of the riot sequences, “but for other areas where Abbie’s talking about the convention and narratively giving us a run-through of the story, we followed the script and then adjusted as it felt right to illustrate some of the things that were being said.”

Humor also helped break the tension at times. “There’s a clever type of humor in the film that provides ironic commentary on something that may have happened or is about to happen. And that certainly helps when you have a buildup to a tense moment, and then you can deliver a bit of a commentary on that.”

For Baumgarten the trick is knowing when to hold the tension, and when to break it up. “It’s fun to play with that as we refine the edit.”

In one of the film’s most intense scenes, Bobby Seale is dragged from the courtroom, roughed up by guards and then brought back, bound and gagged. It was a key moment to hold the tension, as we see the expressions on his co-defendants’ faces, before even the prosecutor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) felt compelled to object to his treatment and move for an immediate mistrial.

Baumgarten reports that they did a lot of work to build the tension between Hayden and Hoffman – co-defendants with very different ideas of how to proceed. Hayden is basically a straight-laced kid who is legitimately afraid of going to prison. Hoffman, on the other hand, sees the trial as political theatre and seems determined to turn it into a circus. “From the very beginning of the prologue, we juxtapose Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman back to back, and right away, you get that they are coming at it from different points of view.”

At one pivotal moment, the defendants pass around a note, deciding not to stand up when the judge calls them to rise. But Hayden ignores the note and stands for the judge. The moment lingers long enough to see the reactions of the other defendants and underscores the tension between Hayden and his co-defendants.

28 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Top: Kenneth Branagh. Photo by Rob Youngson. ©2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

D irector Kenneth Branagh assembles an all-star cast of potential murderers for Death on the Nile, a new feature adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel. The follow-

up to 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, has famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot tasked with solving the death of an American heiress on board a honeymoon cruise in Egypt. Like Orient Express, it is written for the screen by Michael Green, photographed by Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, with production design by Jim Clay.

The editor on this occasion is Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE, (The Crown, Three Girls, Stan and Ollie) who cut episodes of detective drama Wallander starring Branagh and edited the Branagh-directed William Shakespeare tragicomedy All Is True.

The whodunnit genre (like the 1978 feature version of Nile starring Peter Ustinov) has been recently satirized by Rian Johnson’s Knives Out with Daniel Craig as a Poirot-esque sleuth complete with rogue accent. CinemaEditor wondered if that had played into the filmmaker’s approach?

“Both Ken and I had seen Knives Out and we loved it but Death has a much darker story and is definitely not a pastiche,” says Ní Dhonghaíle. “Our film is a little more serious than that. Michael wrote a beautiful script that gets under the skin of Poirot a bit more. Ken also wanted that subjectivity and was willing to go darker.”

Ní Dhonghaíle is an Agatha Christie fan and says she enjoyed previous incarnations of Poirot by actors including Peter Ustinov, David Suchet, Ian Holm, Albert Finney, Alfred Molina, even Orson Welles.

“Poirot is one of those well-known characters that generations of audiences are willing to take in any form and expression,” she says. “That’s because Christie has created a character that warrants interpretation in different ways.

“What I like about Poirot is that his quirkiness, and things that are deep in his psyche, enable him to solve the riddle.”

Audiences love a good whodunnit because of the fun to be had in teasing out the red herrings from the facts of the case. They like to be their own detective. The trick for the filmmaker is to give an audience just enough rope to play along with, but not quite enough that they guess who did it before the final curtain.

“That’s what I found fun about working on this film,” says Ní Dhonghaíle. “You can plant seeds that are going to pay off later. With a sound or an image that you plant early on and echo later you hope the audience will have a little rush of recollection and think that that person did it. Then five minutes later the suspicion has switched to another person.

“The script contained all the verbal clues but we had such a strong cast of actors who all seemed to live their characters. I made sure I saw everything that was shot to catch those little ad libs that Ken had encouraged his actors to deliver.”

Viewing all the dailies also helped to catch the non-verbal cues. “For example, if there was a little flick of the eye I could steal like a magpie and use it to maybe hold a fraction longer. Or, if there was a big clue and we didn’t want to signpost it, I might be lighter, more implicit – I didn’t linger in the cut.”

She adds, “Knives Out celebrates a more pastiche style, using sound design or flashbacks to telegraph clues. In our film we wanted to throw it away a bit more, make it a bit more subtle and not reveal too much that might give the game away. We were mindful of an audience who may not know the book or have seen previous versions, so we want to keep them guessing.”

Another delight for an audience in watching one of the Christie canon on film is the all-star ensemble. Death On The Nile features Gal Gadot as unfortunate heiress Linnet Ridgeway, with Emma Mackey, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, Sophie Okonedo, Ali Fazal and British comedy stars Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Russell Brand.

“The challenge is to craft a picture that meets audience expectations of seeing their favorite actor while balancing the

Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE, is at the scene of the crime for Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot.

Death onthe Nile

BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

Top: Scene from Death on the Nile. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. Bottom right: Armie Hammer and Gal Gadot. Photo by Rob Youngson. ©2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Bottom left: Editor Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE. Photo courtesy of Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE.


screen time for each without letting the pace slack. We had a really great script with a cast of incredible characters each with their own reason to murder.

“The first cut was massively enjoyable but 40 minutes too long – so the task was to hone it by losing some scenes and collapsing others while maintaining the essence. The challenge of shortening is something I enjoy. You want to feel the visceral nature of the scene by shrinking it or merging things together so that you don’t ever notice anything is missing.”

Principal photography last Autumn was at Longcross Studios, just outside London, where Ní Dhonghaíle was stationed. Having championed her usual assistants to go solo on their own shows, she arrived needing a new team. She quickly called up first assistant Simon Davis and VFX editor Matt Glen, both of whom had worked on Branagh productions before. Joining them were Sarah Bowden second assistant; Katie Nicholls, editorial trainee; and Thora Woodward, assistant VFX editor.

“They were all brilliant. Simon would organize all the rushes. I would start cutting what was shot that day. Then I would give the scenes to Simon and Sarah and they would begin doing sound design,” Ni Dhonghaile says. “Matt was also with us from week one and began painting in any bluescreen backdrops. It meant that by Friday I could send Ken the first-week assembly that looked and sounded pretty good. That’s a good boost for any director. All directors need a good editorial team just to give them a little email to say ‘well done, it’s beautiful’ but for them to see it is even better.

“Every week I would send [Branagh] that week’s cut but halfway through the shoot I pulled the whole film together so he could view it. We were in constant communication about anything he needed to drop or pick up, but because of time pressures it was a bonus to be able to watch it together at this moment and know where to go from there.”

It was also beneficial to project the film, shot on 65mm, at Longcross’ screening rooms for editorial, the camera team, and art department. Glen was able to drop in backdrops from the location shoot in Egypt so Ní Dhonghaíle could cut those in before the VFX department began to work in earnest.

“George Murphy (VFX supervisor) and Claudia Dehmel (VFX producer) were just down the corridor from me at Longcross which was really handy. We had great communi-cation. They shared some early imagery with us of the CG boat which I could put some sound design on and add a push in on a shot to give it more life so that we could better understand how the story was working. Ken is very good at watching work-in-progress VFX and not being put off!”

The film had wrapped by January but editorial was bare-ly begun when COVID-19 forced everyone to quarantine. Ní Dhonghaíle decided to return to Dublin, where she has an Avid-equipped studio, and maintain regular communication with Davis and Glen in England, talking with Branagh every morning.

“We were lucky in being further down the road than some films,” she says. “We’d had a few screenings together and were on our third cut but we had to abandon plans to screen our DCP, with temp mix in L.A. for Disney – which would have been their first screening – because of the COVID restrictions.

“The big thing with the pandemic is that everyone pulled together. From the top executives on down everyone was kindness and consideration,” she adds, noting that Disney Co-Chairmen Alan Bergman and Alan Horn, 20th Century’s president of production Steve Asbell, Michael Green and producer Judy Hofflund “had to review on PIX and I was struck by how gracious they were in accommodating this. They quickly sent over notes to us. Ken would digest them, attack them and we had another screening one week later, so it was a really quick turnaround.”

Ní Dhonghaíle spent two weeks on the sound mix at Twicken-ham Studios following COVID-safety protocols.

“As the VFX came in, Simon would send them to me and I’d cut it in and send on updated reels. If anything needed adjusting we talked it through over the phone. It’s the biggest-budget feature I’ve worked on to date and despite all of the challenges working remotely it proved to be one of the most rewarding because of everyone’s attitude. We were just working as a team and very aware how lucky were to be able to work and blessed that none of us or our families were sick. Everyone took that as a real positive sign to just do our best to finish the film.” With the story in good shape they locked the cut in June giving additional time for VFX to work through shots in remote workflows.

“At film school I studied directing and cinematography and part of our course was on Dead Again (Branagh’s thriller from 1991). I would draw diagrams and mis-en-scene about how he’d placed the camera. So, I was thrilled when I got to work with him years later on Wallander and honored to join him on his journey down the Nile.”

30 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Top: Glenn Close and Amy Adams. Photo by Lacey Terrell. ©2020 Netflix.

BY SCOTT LEHANE

R on Howard’s latest film, Hillbilly Elegy for Netflix, is based on the 2017 best-selling autobiography of J. D. Vance, a Yale Law student (played by Gabriel Basso) who has to

leave the big city on the eve of landing a coveted interview for his dream job at a top law firm in order to help his sister Lindsay (Haley Bennett) deal with his mother Bev (Amy Adams) who has been hospitalized in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, after a drug overdose.

The narrative jumps through time as he recalls the lessons about family loyalty and responsibility that he learned from his grandmother, Mamaw (Glenn Close), who helped raise him as his mother struggled with addiction.

Howard tapped editor James Wilcox, ACE, to cut the film. He had worked with Wilcox before on National Geographic’s biopic series Genius, which follows the lives of some of history’s greatest minds. Wilcox’s work on the pilot episode, Genius: Ein-stein (2017), earned him an ACE Eddie Award, and the editor was keen to work with Howard again when they reconnected in 2019.

“He sent me a script. We talked over what I thought about it. He called me on a follow-up interview and I reminded him that I was from Pittsburgh. He was looking for someone who was authentically familiar with some of the challenges that J. D. Vance faced in his life and could really relate to the material,” Wilcox explains. “Before I knew it, he was asking if I would be okay with relocating to New York to work on the project, and that was a no-brainer. It was great script.”

Wilcox relocated to New York in June 2019, taking a red-eye flight hours after being inducted into ACE. Less than a week later, he started receiving dailies. Production initially shot for 44 days though mid-August. A few days later he was turning over his first cut.

“Ron works really fast. I’m pretty fast myself. And all along the way I was sending him cuts as he was shooting in Atlanta

and on location in Ohio and Connecticut. And he was giving me feedback. So we were progressing through the notes as we were putting the editor’s cut together. Then he came in, and he worked really fast, because he wanted to see just how the movie was shaping up. And we had our first screening Sept. 10.”

The editor reports that there was a wealth of coverage and he had superb performances from the entire cast. His original cut was over two and a half hours. “We all knew we had a movie there, but it was time to roll up our sleeves and find it.”

Through the rest of 2019 there were numerous friends-and-family screenings as they worked to refine the edit based on feedback. Then, pickup shots were filmed in early March, coming in just under the wire before Netflix decided to shut down all physical production due to the pandemic.

“No one really knew exactly how this was all going to unfold,” says Wilcox. “From March 17 all the way through to June 14, I worked from my apartment in New York. Then I came back to Los Angeles and we finished the movie here. We locked the picture during the pandemic. And boy was that tough because, first of all, the energy that comes out of the cutting room when I’m sitting with Ron or sitting with one of our producers and writers was just amazing. We could really solve things quickly in the room, or kick around ideas and then they’d leave and I’d go and execute the things that we talked about.”

But under the pandemic protocols, the entire crew ended up widely scattered using Evercast to work collaboratively and Zoom for video conferencing meetings. “We had to mix remotely. We had to do all our ADR remotely. We color timed the movie remotely,” Wilcox says.

Carefully sanitized and packaged mobile mic systems were shipped out to cast members for ADR sessions. “That’s where it really got interesting because everyone was everywhere. I think Amy was in Los Angeles. Glenn was somewhere out in Montana. Haley lives in England. Bo Hopkins was in Los Angeles. So, that’s how we were recording all of our sessions. Then, I’d get the recordings back and just start rifling through the multitude of recordings and cutting in all of our ADR and temp, voiceover, whatever we needed.”

Stylistically, Wilcox reports that they were going for a documentary sensibility. “I think it’s a movie that, stylistically, has documentary-like DNA. Ron wanted a very authentic feel, almost a voyeuristic look at this family,” says Wilcox. “Our DP Maryse Alberti comes from a documentary background and I ultimately have news in my background as well. So there was a lot of handheld. We added grain when we finished the movie. There’s a lot of jump cuts when they need to be there. There’s a lot of point-of-view cutting, just to have it become more experiential than observational and that’s the approach I took.”

That sensibility also extended to composer Hans Zimmer’s restrained music track. “He was very protective to not overscore the picture or not get in the way of the dialogue because Glenn Close and Amy Adams are phenomenal.”

For Wilcox, one of the more challenging scenes was when Vance finally finds his mother in the hospital in the midst of a heated argument with the nurse and the doctor who wants to discharge her. The moment is intense and emotional as they plead

James Wilcox, ACE, examines family responsibility in Ron Howard’s biographical drama

HILLBILLY ELEGY

Bottom left: Owen Asztalos and Amy Adams. Photo by Lacey Terrell. Top right: Editor James Wilcox, ACE. Photo courtesy of Netflix. ©2020 Netflix.


with the hospital staff to keep her for one more night, because, otherwise, she has nowhere else to go.

“There’s a lot of overlapping dialogue in the scene. It’s raw and it’s how people speak in real life when they’re upset and everyone wants to get their point across and they don’t always wait for someone to end a sentence before they begin. But those scenes were tricky to cut because they had to make sense. I had to cut for the logic to the ear first before I cut for what was on camera. You can’t just have a jumbled mass of noise.”

One key area where feedback was essential was the opening of the film. Originally, it opened with a powerful introduction of Bev and Mamaw. Young J. D., (played by Owen Asztalos) wasn’t introduced until a little later.

“When we screened it, there was a little bit of confusion as to whose movie this is, because when you introduce Amy and then you see Glenn, you just know it’s their movie. The audience kept suggesting that they wanted to be introduced to J. D. earlier. So we went the opposite way and brought the kid out first. Once we did that, the question was never ‘whose movie is this?’”

A lot of the character development came out in the editing room as well.

“Glenn, Amy and Haley did a tremendous job, but at the same time we had to find that delicate balance of introducing these characters, and getting people on board and understanding who they are.”

For example, Bev’s drug problem originally came out early in the film, when J. D. goes to visit her in rehab and she tells him, “It’s going to be different this time.”

“After evaluating my initial cut, I realized, I needed to introduce her in a kinder, gentler, more motherly way before we discover what is bugging her on the inside, because she’s a tough pill to swallow in this movie,” says Wilcox.

Wilcox adds that Close’s Mamaw is more redemptive and matriarchal, though it took a week or two to really find her character in the editing suite. “It was almost like fine tuning an instrument, but the performance choices were all there.”

The editor relates that with so many influential women on screen, it was essential that they mimic that off screen too. “Our cinematographer [Maryse Alberti], our production designer [Molly Hughes], our online producer [Karen Lunder], our writer Vanessa Taylor – there were so many women that played an

integral part in giving us feedback as to how we were proceeding. I think women are well represented on camera and behind the camera with the people who have influ-enced the story.”

Wilcox worked very closely with Howard throughout the edi-torial process. “The great thing about working with Ron is he has a plan for everything, but he also has the confidence in me to find the

story as best I can,” he says. “That was really liberating because he’ll have a shot plan, but he doesn’t want you to necessarily be wedded to that, if you see something in there that was unplanned.”

Wilcox says that over the course of the film, they developed a bond of friendship and mutual respect.

“Because we were [editing] in New York, there were times where we could just go out for a beer after work and really talk a little bit more about a scene or an idea,” he says. “In L.A. you don't always have that because traffic is such a prevailing force that when people break for the day, we've got to get in our cars and go home.”

He revealed that Howard even coordinated with his son back in Los Angeles to plan a surprise birthday party for him. “He’s awesome. In my book, you cannot say anything bad about Ron Howard to me. I mean, he’s just the best,” says Wilcox. “And honestly this was a dream job.”

The editor was supported by assistant editor Ulysses Guidotti and second assistant Nolan Jennings. PA Hillary Carrigan rounded out the team. Wilcox explains that while he had worked with Jennings before and knew that he would bring a deep level of commitment and enthusiasm to the project, Guidotti came highly recommended by a friend.

“They both were outstanding, from keeping pace with me, to anticipating not only my needs, but what Ron would need for the day. Both of them are really strong, but we decided early on, it would be better to have a good division of labor,” explains Wilcox. “So Ulysses did a lot of temp visual work, overall managing of the film and the comps. We have some driving sequences that needed to be comped and needed a proof of concept, because I don’t like showing anything that has greenscreens in it. So he would cull together the backgrounds.

“Nolan did a lot of sound design,” he adds. “I would tell him when I’m looking for, in a given scene, and then we’d go from there. He would often cut in some of the source cues and give me a variety of choices, because we were using source cues to delineate the time periods.”

Overall, Wilcox hopes that people are inspired by this movie. “I think that this movie has a lot of hope in it. It has a lot of love in it. It has a lot of comedy in it. And you know, it raises some tough questions. What does it mean to be loyal to your family? What are those sacrifices?” Wilcox sums up. “I hope people get the universal themes that they can identify with. It’s not just about life in Appalachia, it’s about life in general and the obstacles we face and how we survive and persevere.”

32 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Top: John David Washington and Robert Pattinson. Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon. ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.


J ennifer Lame, ACE – the twice Eddie Award-nominated editor of character-driven dramas Manchester by the Sea and Marriage Story – teamed with Christopher Nolan

for the first time on the director’s latest globe-trotting sci-fi espionage thriller, Tenet. Nolan has spoken about his ability with longtime editor Lee Smith, ACE, to craft action sequences in films like Inception and Dunkirk. With Smith unavailable (working on 1917) Nolan sought an editor who would shape the action scenes while curating the story in his new movie.

Written by Nolan, the film centers on John David Washington’s Protagonist, a secret agent working to manipulate the flow of time to prevent World War III. As with Nolan movies like The Prestige and Interstellar, the script deconstructs linear story-telling and our idea of memory, this time by playing three major set pieces forward and backward. The concept is reminiscent of 1962 French classic of time travel La Jetée (reworked by Terry Gilliam in 12 Monkeys) which has a central character witnessing their own death.

Lame was in the middle of mixing Marriage Story in New York when she got the call to say she was on the interview list for Nolan’s project. She describes what happened next.

“I was shocked when I got an interview for it,” says Lame. “It didn’t even occur to me I would get the job. I was a mixture of disbelief and excitement. It was so unexpected. I assumed maybe he was making a smaller indie movie back to his roots and that was why I was on the list.

“I got a call on the Monday to be in L.A. on the Thursday. I thought, it would be exciting just to meet him so I went to L.A. for 24 hours. I had no material to prepare for the interview which is a little unusual.”

CinemaEditor: What did you talk about in the interview? Jennifer Lame, ACE: I really admire his work but I was also nervous. When we met, we talked about his approach as a filmmaker and his process technically – about IMAX and how

he does the DI, how he finishes photochemically. Then it was over really quickly. I only felt we’d just met. He asked me had I any other questions and I said is there anything you can tell me about the movie? He said it was a very large-scale big action movie and I made some joke like ‘have you seen my resume?’

He added, as I departed, that this would be one of the most difficult movies to edit ever. ‘The editing is incredibly difficult,’ he said. He was saying that with a smile – he wasn’t being literal – but it just seemed like a crazy way to end an interview.

A couple days later I had a phone interview with Emma Thomas (the film’s producer and Nolan’s wife). Again, it was really short but she asked really perceptive questions like ‘why did I want to work on such a big movie?’ She wanted to get to the heart of what interested me about the project.

CE: Why did you want to work with Christopher Nolan?JL: That was a question I’d thought about a lot. I’m not the type of person who will do a film for the sake of it. I wanted to do it for the right reasons and not just because it was a Christopher Nolan movie. I knew I’d have to travel around the world which would have implications for my family.

The conclusion I came to was that I’ve always been a fan of his work especially his earlier movies like Following, The Prestige and Memento. One reason is that he can make both small movies and big-budget blockbusters which very few filmmakers can do well. I feel like his sensibilities as a filmmaker are rooted in being an auteur and that he makes $200-million movies with a small crew on set to retain that intimate indie filmmaking spirit. A few days later, I got the call!

CE: How did you begin to wrap your head around the script?JL: In script form it was definitely difficult to understand. Once I got the footage it helped so much. One of the things I found throughout the movie was that I’d have days where I’d get frustrated by thinking too hard. By overanalyzing it became

Jennifer Lame, ACE, straps in for Christopher Nolan’s time-traveling spy thriller

TENET

Left: Kenneth Branagh. Top left (L-R): Jack Cutmore-Scott, John David Washington and Robert Pattinson. Photos by Melinda Sue Gordon. ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. Top right: Editor Jennifer Lame, ACE. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Lame, ACE.


more difficult. On other days I was more clearheaded. I learned that it’s easier to understand the film when you don’t overthink it and I think that goes for the audience too. I had the same reaction with Inception – your emotional response to the film is more important than trying to dissect it. If you try to pick it apart you will lose the emotional connection to the characters. If you take things at face value and don’t overcomplicate things, you enjoy it more.

CE: A pivotal scene in the narrative around which the film seems to tilt, is when Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) is inter-rogated by Russian oligarch Sator (Kenneth Branagh). Tell us about that.JL: This is the blue-and-red room scene and we had to nail it for an audience to follow the rest of the film. The blue and the red is the first time visually that you see the mechanics of the world and how it works. The challenge was that we were showing the same sequence twice, back to back. So, how do we make that visually interesting and give it energy aside from the cinematography and set design. How do we ensure the audience follows it?

Working on this sequence really me helped me to understand the mechanics of how the film works. On the one hand it functions to explain the mechanics of the world to the audience and on the other this is an incredibly emotional narrative turning point. It’s when Kat gets shot and potentially killed – twice – and the Protagonist realizes that he has put her in that situation. We need to register the emotion on John David’s face and understand his character’s struggle to reconcile what he has done.

I’d play the backward dialogue forward to be totally sure it made sense. It took a long, long time to get it right. It’s kind of mind-boggling that it works on so many different layers.

CE: How did you build a working relationship with Nolan?JL: I was with the production all the time, traveling to every location (including Estonia Italy, and the U.K.). [Nolan] has a film dailies trailer and a mobile screening room which is pretty unique. Every evening all the HoDs would watch dailies which was so helpful. I’d be sitting next to him so I could ask him any questions.

The first scene I worked on was the prologue, filmed in Estonia and set in a packed opera house. It was the first piece I showed

him. That was pretty stressful since I was trying to keep up with the shoot and cut the prologue but it was incredibly helpful because I got to know how to work with him very quickly.

He was very involved in the edit room. He is very direct about his ideas but also very open to saying when he didn’t know how to figure something out. I think he is like that with all his collaborators. He knows what he wants but is happy to let others chime in. He’s also very fast, extremely meticu- lous and detail oriented. That kinda blew my mind. And he always hit deadlines.

CE: How did you cut the fight scene in the airport secure vault?JL: I cut the fight scene pretty early on and it was a useful process in working through how I would approach the rest of the film. In the film, the scene plays forward the first time around and then backward later in the story but in either case I decided to approach it as a normal fight scene in a normal movie. At first, though, I did feel like I got bogged down organizing the footage and making a list of different bins and labeling everything into different parts of the fight. I had all these different sections that I needed to make sure worked both ways. I had to use the right piece of film for each sequence.

Fortunately, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema had used perspective differently in his coverage so I was able to use dif-ferent angles from the point of view of the characters to find a way to build each sequence. I made so many different cuts before I realized I was overthinking things and settled on cutting it like a normal fight.

CE: If editing is the art of manipulating time, Tenet appears to take this to the limit. JL: Yes and I thought about this a lot especially with the scenes that are shown twice like the vault fight scene and the red/blue room scene. I didn’t have to mirror everything perfectly since the scenes are from different perspectives, but of course it had to feel the same in many ways such as when dialogue was involved. It couldn’t feel repetitive even though it also had to be repetitive in some ways. Sometimes I found working on a Christopher Nolan movie is like watching a Chris Nolan movie! I would play a scene forward and then play it backward and then I’d understand the bigger picture at play and suddenly it was less daunting and then I would feel free to attack the scene on a deeper level. So many layers. So exciting for an editor.

34 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Above: Jason Sudeikis. ©2020 Apple TV+. Facing page left top (L-R): Post Coordinator Robbie Stevenson, Editor Melissa Brown McCoy, Assistant Editor Francesca Castro, Editor A.J. Catoline. Photo courtesy of A.J. Catoline. Facing page left bottom: Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple. ©2020 Apple TV+.

BY NANCY JUNDI

P rofessional football (soccer) arrived on TVs around the world with the sound of 25,000 Crystal Palace fans singing The Dave Clark Five’s “Glad All Over” when

their team wins a home match at Selhurst Park, which doubles as the stadium for Ted Lasso’s fictional U.K. Premier League club, AFC Richmond.

Music Cue: “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols

Streaming on Apple TV+, the freshman platform which launched by offering a free year of viewing for anyone with a new Apple device, Ted Lasso was poised to find a fast home in the hearts of soccer fans. But it found a wider audience thanks to its heartwarming and comedic story, centered on a title character who exudes kindness and optimism – along with his favorite condiment turned popular catch phrase, ‘barbecue sauce.’ This was also the type of story that was needed by captive audiences amid the pandemic.

Originally conceived in 2013 as NBC Sports promos that introduced Premier League matches to an American audience, Jason Sudeikis stars as affable Lasso, an American football coach hired to coach a Premier League soccer team – and therefore entering the world of a high-profile sport he’d known nothing about before taking the job. In fleshing out the series with co-star Brendan Hunt (Ted Lasso’s Coach Beard), and fellow Saturday

Night Live writers’ room alum Joe Kelly, Sudeikis began crafting Lasso’s world. “I focused on why someone would take this job, what else could be going on beneath the surface of someone so seemingly happy-go-lucky, and how to simplify Ted’s innocence, ignorance and intelligence,” relates Sudeikis

Enter co-creator Bill Lawrence.

Music Cue: “Superman” by Lazlo Bane

“This is my fifth show working with Bill,” says editor Melissa Brown McCoy (Undateable, Whiskey Cavalier), who traded off episodes with fellow editor A.J. Catoline. “He’s a master at getting each scene to its best comedic potential,” she notes. “There’s a great line in episode 5 where we had a hard time landing a joke without it feeling cheesy. Looking through dailies, we found [AFC Richmond’s director of communications Leslie Higgins, played by Jeremy Swift] making a funny ‘meow’ sound after describing his cat. His delivery was so natural, while lifting his hand like a paw, that Bill suggested using that to get a laugh before Higgins landed his last poignant line. We found a take of Coach Beard laughing at Higgins so it became a meaningful ice breaker before laying down hard truths. Adding that bit of comedy before the heartfelt line saved the day. That’s the genius of Bill.”

“Bill knows how to pick the right arrows from the editorial quiver to move a scene along,” offers Catoline. “Sometimes it’s writing clever ADR to join one line of dialogue with a line later in the scene, which can be seamlessly hidden in a wide shot or a cutaway, getting us to a joke quicker or moving on to the next beat of emotion. Our challenge was to enjoy Ted’s quirks. Outwardly he may seem like a barbecue-loving country bumpkin, but he’s also very intuitive, kind and predominantly optimistic. Bill was explicit that we protect him in the performance, balancing takes to ensure he didn’t seem overly broad and goofy, while showing that there’s also a sophisticated, message-driven side of Ted.”

“From the jump, Bill understood the big picture story we were trying to tell,” shares Sudeikis of Lawrence, who also created Scrubs, Spin City and Cougar Town. “Put the 10 best episodes of Scrubs up against any TV show in history and it would hold its own. As viewers, we cared about those characters. We cared about their relationships. There was enough specificity to them that we felt like we knew them, but there was also enough space within them to interject ourselves, our friends, family and co-workers who we saw in them. Bill’s use of music in Scrubs was another of the many reasons I felt he’d be a great partner for this project. Music really helps grease the wheels for tonal shifts, and we tried to make each choice intentional from a thematic, macro-level.”

Music Cue: “Sweet Georgia Brown” by Brother Bones

Sudeikis describes the pilot as the ‘overture’ for the season. “The show’s called Ted Lasso, but it’s a team vibe. The best teams always have more than a few folks to cheer for, to care about.”

While Brown McCoy and Catoline traded off episodes, they also tag-teamed character arcs with deeply meaningful touchstones being dropped into filming. Following a sports montage, the pilot opens on a close shot of AFC Richmond owner

Melissa Brown McCoy and A.J. Catoline bring a kick of optimism to viewers

Ted Lasso

Right top: Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis. Right bottom (L-R): Kola Bokinni, Nick Mohammed, Brett Goldstein, Billy Harris, Toheeb Jimoh, Stephen Manas and Cristo Fernandez. ©2020 Apple TV+. Next page: Script excerpt with music cue courtesy of Jason Sudeikis.


Rebecca, played by Hannah Waddingham, staring at the camera. “She’s the first character we meet; Jason and director Tom Marshall were intentional in framing this shot,” Catoline explains. “She opens the story suffering emotionally but looking outwardly put together. The season ends with an identical match-frame close shot, an emotional inverse to the opening, with her feeling healed inside, but a comedic mess on the outside.”

This was a nod to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “We opened on Rebecca to show she was as imperative to the story as Ted, much like the lesser-known Robert Redford was to Paul Newman at that time.” Brown McCoy explains, “Jason had a clear vision for each episode and the season as a whole. At times he’d reference a scene from a movie or show when giving notes and, after watching it, I’d have that lightbulb moment. They were always very smart comparisons, which especially resonated with me in the context of a male-dominated sports world where female relationships were given equal space. I relished editing such strong female characters.”

With the freedoms of a streaming platform, editorial could track character arcs as a season whole. “No episode was locked early on so we could adjust if something in the later episodes sparked an idea for a previous one,” adds Brown McCoy. “A.J. and I had a few episodes built up while everyone was still filming in London, so as we started on producers’ cuts, we also knew the quality of what was to come, which really benefited consistency and tone. The number of cues planted in early episodes that played out later was really satisfying.”

While centered around soccer, there were very few moments on the field. Most all game play was shot in the last days of

production,” Catoline says, explaining that editorial worked with supervising producer Kip Kroeger and post house DigitalFilm Tree to create previs of these sequences.

“We needed to know how those scenes were going to fit into the cut, as well as have something to share with the network for context and narrative purposes,” explains Kroeger. “[Previs] also provided an important roadmap for production while filming at night, in London’s freezing November rain. DigitalFilm Tree’s previs team built a virtual stadium and executed game play of the matches all the way down to camera angles we’d want to cover in each beat.”

Remembers Brown McCoy, “When we got all the footage back it was a great joy putting it together again because I felt like I already knew the scenes so well. They shot everything in slow motion, so I had a lot of fun playing with speed ramps for all the big moments of the game.”

Music Cue: “Award Tour” by A Tribe Called Quest

Another important element is music, which Catoline describes as “another character” in the series. “It’s a show about deal-ing with our own personal and emotional challenges, so music helps to cue the pacing of jokes, anchoring us back in comedy.” At a time when most of us are isolated from loved ones and the hope of new relationships, Ted Lasso invites us into the familiarity of old friends and the freshness of potential. Abundant pop culture references are peppered throughout a collection of tracks fashioned to emote far more from a scene than what’s on screen.

Brown McCoy, who doubles as a veritable jukebox, elab-orates on the heart behind music cues, which ranged from

“God Save the Queen” to “Sweet Georgia Brown.” “It’s always the goal to find a song that works so well that viewers feel they need to hear it again. I lived for that with my favorite TV shows growing up. When a scene made me feel a certain way, listening to that music connected me back to that feeling.”

“There was a very intentional music cue, “Opus 26” by Dustin O’Halloran, at the end of the pilot,” reveals Brown McCoy. “There was a note in the script asking us to play the song while reading the end. When I listened to the song, a melancholy piano piece, I knew this show was going to straddle the line between comedy and pathos, making it important to get

the tone of the comedy right early so we’d be on board with Ted when we lift the curtain.

“It’s during this beautifully heart-breaking one-sided phone conversation between Ted and his wife where we get a hint of why he’s taken this job so far out of his comfort zone,” she continues. “I went back and re-read the beginning of the pilot with the knowledge that once we got to the end of the episode, we were going to drop an emotional hammer. The comedic elements had to be authentic to the characters; we never went for the joke at their expense. We could then lean into the more serious moments because it was always about being true to the character. You believe it, even though it might not be what you were expecting when you first clicked on the episode.”

MUSIC CUE: “Opus 26” by Dustin O’Halloran

Ted Lasso, both the Coach and the show, were well hyped but underestimated. The satisfaction of watching an under- dog win never gets old, but has rarely been more needed. It’s in the breaths we take, and the breaths we have taken away, that a part of ourselves is given over to others. Sharing air has never seemed more difficult, nor more important, than it is today. It’s in our communal moments, grounded by common stories, that we remain tethered to one another. If Ted Lasso is our current tie that binds, I think we’re going to be okay. Barbecue sauce.

AVAILABLE ONLY AT CuttingItInHollywood.com

INTRODUCTION BY THREE-TIME ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MICHAEL KAHN, ACE

“For anyone who dreams of becoming an editor, it is an essential read.” Betsy A. McLane, CineMontage

“A remarkable insight into the evolution of an editor as an artist.” Jack Tucker, ACE, CinemaEditor

PRIMETIME EMMY® AWARD-WINNING EDITOR

MITCHELL DANTON, ACEMITCHELL DANTON, ACE

Cutting It in HollywoodTOP FILM EDITORS SHARE THEIR JOURNEYS

FEATURING STORIES & EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH SOME OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS:John Axelrad, ACEZene Baker, ACEJosh Beal Norman Buckley, ACE Betsy Comstock Todd Desrosiers

Nena Erb, ACEBilly Fox, ACE Barbara GerardJoseph M. GonzalezLise JohnsonMark Jones

Michael Kahn, ACEPaul KarasickIvan LadizinskyMary Jo Markey, ACETyler NelsonTony Nigro

Jim Page, ACEChris PeppeJulius Ramsay David Rogers, ACERon Rosen

MD-CE-ad0717.indd 2 6/16/17 1:44 PM

Above: ACE President Stephen Rivkin, ACE. 37CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70

M ore than 800 registrants representing 20 countries participated in ACE’s wildly-successful first EditFest Global – a virtual EditFest event, held from Aug. 29-

30, in response to circumstances related to COVID- 19, which prompted the cancellation of the 2020 EditFest London and EditFest L.A. events.

Hosted by ACE President Stephen Rivkin, ACE, the event additionally launched the new EditFest Global website (EditFestGlobal.com), an online resource for events and other content and information for the editing community. This will include past EditFest presentations, moderated panels sponsored by studios, streamers and networks, journalist-led discussions, content from our global partners and technical information and tutorials on important products. Membership in EditFest Global is open to all and free to ACE members.

The EditFest virtual event featured Terilyn A. Shropshire, ACE, in a conversation with Inside the Cutting Room’s Bobbie O’Steen. Shropshire’s credits include When They See Us, Secret Life of Bees, Love & Basketball and the recent Netflix hit The Old Guard, based on the comic book series and directed by longtime collaborator Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Shropshire explained how she had to convince Netflix she was the right choice to edit the action movie. “I feel that I’ve clearly proven I know what I’m doing but there is this reluctance among all studios to believe you can do it. I’ve worked over many years in many genres but what happens is people narrow those films down to what they would describe as black film. The truth of the matter is, editors are artists and we are always honing our skills. So, when I went in to meet [with] Netflix the question about whether I could cut an action film did come up. But before I’d crossed that threshold into the meeting my headspace was ‘why would you not hire me?’ I need to educate you why I should be the one. I’m used to it.”

Shropshire also talked about the need to make the very best film you can each time whether that’s for a first-time director or a seasoned one. “Sometimes you only get that one chance,” she said. “Failure is not an option. You are working together to get it right, so that you have the opportunity to do others. There is definitely a pressure to make sure it’s the best film it could be. When we make films we don’t have that luxury to not get it right. That’s what keeps us pushing and pushing.”

Panels included a look at animation editing and conversations about advancing from intern to editor. They also included “You Gotta Watch This Bit,” an homage to the “Lean Forward Moment” panels conceived and moderated by the late Norman Hollyn, ACE. Ant Boys, ACE (The Great), led the discussion about the films and TV shows that influence and inspire. Speakers included Kabir Akhtar, ACE (Never Have I Ever – director, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – editor/director); Maryann Brandon, ACE (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker); Kelley Dixon, ACE (Better Call Saul); William Goldenberg, ACE (Argo); and Jacques Gravett, ACE (Battlestar Galactica). In moderating the conversation,

ACE EDITFEST GLOBAL

The new virtual event and online portal launched on Aug. 29

ACEDebutsEditFestGlobal

Left top: Bobbie O’Steen and Terilyn A. Shropshire, ACE. Left bottom: “You Gotta Watch This Bit” panel. Right top: “From Intern to ACE” panel. Right bottom: “Animation Editing” panel.


Boys urged the audience “to be an excited fan” of the work in order to create these memorable cuts.

Akhtar showed and discussed the shocking ending to 1995 thriller The Usual Suspects, edited by John Ottman, ACE. “The storytelling is told completely through the editing,” he said of how the mysterious Keyser Soze’s identity is revealed.

Brandon showed a clip from classic ‘60s sci-fi series The Outer Limits, citing its simplicity. “What I love about it, is there are no fancy tricks. It’s very straightforward."

Dixon introduced a scene from Steven Zaillian’s 1993 drama Searching for Bobby Fischer, edited by Wayne Wahrman, ACE, during which a young Fischer plays chess with his father. “We understand that he is going to win, but we don’t know how it’s going to be revealed to us,” she said. “Anytime you can surprise your audience … even if they know what’s going to happen, that’s a huge win.”

Goldenberg introduced the final scene from Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931), in which the Little Tramp has fallen in love with a blind woman. He described the ending of the nonverbal movie as a “beautifully emotional clip” that portrays “selflessness, not caring about class structure and really seeing someone. … It’s loaded with so much emotion.”

Turning the conversation to Tony Scott’s 1995 thriller Crimson Tide, edited by Chris Lebenzon, ACE, Gravett chose the clash between officers played by Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington over whether their submarine should launch a missile attack. “It still gives me chills,” he said. “These are two actors at the top of their game. No camera tricks.” He added that while its dialogue-heavy, "just look at the expressions. It’s all about what’s happening in their eyes. … The challenge is, when do you cut. The performances are so good.”

Moderated by Adobe’s Margot Nack, “From Intern to ACE: Building a Future” featured Amelia Allwarden (Little

Fires Everywhere, Pen15); Alfonso Carrion (House of Cards – assistant editor); Mark Hartzell, ACE (Lost in Space); Melissa McCoy (Whiskey Cavalier); and Gretchen Schroeder (Avatar 2 – assistant editor).

Each panelist screened a clip and talked through it. Introducing Pen15, Allwarden said, “I love this show because I felt like I exercised every different type of editing from documentary and improv to heartbreaking drama and comedy.”

Hartzell picked Sacred Lies, “The Singing Bones” made by Blumhouse for Facebook Watch. He explained how he built the drama using unscripted dissolves, VFX and B-roll and how it became the showrunner’s favorite scene.

Carrion showed a clip from The Dark of the Night, a short film he edited for Robin Wright, pointing out manipulations of the audio, the frame and the use of “a no-good out take” to pull it off.

A clip from the short Push, co-directed by ACE Internship Program co-director Carsten Kurpanek, was selected by Schroeder. She edited the piece having been mentored by Kurpanek during her internship.

“When I was in the process of cutting I remember showing him the opening sequence and he loved it. It was the first time from any mentor I [received] that sort of feedback. It still sticks with me how valuable that mentor experience was.”

Mentoring was also on the mind of McCoy who highlighted a scene from Apple TV+ soccer-comedy Ted Lasso. “I recall my mentor saying,‘You gotta be ready to do the job when you get into the chair,’ and this series was the epitome of that. There were so many different storylines to keep up with. Plus, there were a lot of invisible greenscreen VFX elements involving the on-field action that needed attention to detail.”

“Animation Editing: Inside Look at the Unique Storytelling Process” explored how the animation editing process differs from other genres. Jeff Draheim, ACE, explained it’s almost the exact

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opposite of live action. “In live they shoot all the footage and give it to the editor at the end to put it together. In animation we spend years putting it up on reels – rough storyboard, rough FX, rough dialogue – just trying to figure out what movie we’re trying to make. Once we figure it out then we go into production and actually start animating. It’s a much longer process but it’s also rewarding because you really get to roll up your sleeves and sink your teeth into it.”

Illustrating the storytelling process, Draheim showed and discussed a clip from his latest movie, Disney’s Frozen 2. Additional panelists presented work from each of their films. Catherine Apple, ACE, discussed Pixar’s Onward; Joyce Arrastia, ACE, featured DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians; Sim Evan-Jones, ACE, presented the opening of Aardman Animations’ A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmaggeddon; and Benjamin Massoubre, ACE, presented I Lost My Body.

Moderated by Carolyn Giardina, Tech Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the editors also discussed working from home amid COVID-19.

Apple shared that the studio is recording actors from their bedroom closets as the most soundproofed socially-distant room. “We sent them all a mic and they are doing dialogue in their closet. It’s interesting to see how they have their places set up!”

Massoubre has been working on two productions during lockdown, each with different remote arrangements. “With one I go to the studio and work on the animatic with the director. Both of us are tested and in a bubble. The other is at the animation stage and I’m cutting entirely from home. I’m about to start a new movie where ideally, we’d meet to brainstorm ideas. We’re trying to work out how best to do that virtually.”

Like most editors, Draheim found the early stages of quar-antine hard, particularly with home internet connectivity. “If my kids are playing Xbox I could tell. Sometimes I’d get up at 5 a.m. just to get free open bandwidth. Even when all Disney editors are on the server at the same time the sync can struggle but it is

getting better and Disney and Pixar are coming up with new ways to stabilize the workflow.”

Evan-Jones found aspects of the new normal more productive than before. “We have a 9:15 a.m. Zoom meeting every day and with everyone including assistants. Logistically that never happened before. Now everyone has really clear daily instructions.”

Arrastia also finds communication improved with remote interaction. “We use hangouts to simulate team collaboration and Evercast for over-the-shoulder sessions. I prefer it because it feels less nerve-wracking than someone actually being present. Of course, I miss human interaction but in a weird way WFH has been more efficient and a much better work-life balance.”

EditFest Global presented plenty of opportunities to interact with other editors. Each day, attendees were invited to participate in breakout sessions with editors including Shannon Baker-Davis, ACE; Debbie Berman, ACE; Andrew Buckland, ACE; Aaron Butler, ACE; Poppy Das, ACE; Dody Dorn, ACE; Jeffrey Ford, ACE; Terel Gibson, ACE; Catherine Haight, ACE; Mark Helfrich, ACE; Niven Howie, ACE; Kate Sanford, ACE, and Gary Levy, ACE; Sabrina Plisco, ACE; Fred Raskin, ACE; Tatiana Riegel, ACE; Joan Sobel, ACE; Kevin Tent, ACE; Troy Takaki, ACE; Harry Yoon, ACE; and Julia Wong, ACE.

Additionally, a ‘networking’ feature in the EditFest Global platform (think virtual speed dating) enabled participants to meet old and new colleagues for one-on-one conversation. In short, you could come away from the program saying that you ‘met someone new’ at EditFest.

The program included breakout conversations with repre-sentatives from Blackmagic Design, Adobe, Avid, Netflix and Motion Picture Editors Guild.

EditFest London and EditFest LA are slated to return in 2021. EditFest Global was presented with the generous support of Platinum sponsor Blackmagic Design; Gold sponsors Adobe, Avid, Ignite, Motion Picture Editors Guild and Netflix; and Silver sponsors Amazon and HBO.

WE THANK OUR SPONSORSFOR THEIR SUPPORT

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42 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Left: Kelsy Lua. Photo by Dante Bailey. Right: Leanna Castaldo. Photo courtesy of Leanna Castaldo.

T he pandemic didn’t derail the ACE Internship Program. On the contrary, ACE ensured that this year’s program, generously sponsored by Adobe, continued despite neces-

sitating all communications being conducted virtually online.ACE Internship Program chairs and program alums Carsten

Kurpanek and Tyler Nelson arranged a series of two-hour Zoom workshops with editors and assistants throughout the industry as well as the ‘Master the Workflow’ online course.

The program thanks Sabrina Plisco, ACE, and Maura Corey, ACE, for giving of their time as mentors to this year’s interns, Leanna Castaldo and Kelsy Lua. The interns also spoke with many editors and assistant editors, including ACE members and some former ACE interns. The pair also spoke with others working in post-production and those working in post facilities.

New Jersey native Castaldo graduated from Pennsylvania State University in May after studying film production and photography. She also counts herself fortunate to have attended a high school where she was able to edit on an Avid Media Composer and Apple’s Final Cut.

“I have been in love with editing for as long as I can remember,” Castaldo says. “I started by going to a film camp where I learned the basics of editing on Final Cut Pro. From there I knew I wanted to pursue a career in post. I chose Penn State because it was close to home but it also had a study-away program in L.A. When it came time for graduation and with the onset of the pandemic, I was not able to move out to Los Angeles when I had planned. I wanted to make the most of the time I had even though I couldn’t move right away. I found the ACE program, and realized that it would be an amazing introduction to the industry.”

Lua was born and raised in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of being an editor. She attended the University of Southern California and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Film and TV Production with an emphasis in editing.

“I applied to the ACE Internship Program after I graduated in May because I wanted to take the next step in my career in the industry,” she says. “I knew that the program would allow me to learn from some of the very best minds about working on scripted and unscripted projects.

“With everything being virtual this year, we used Zoom to have very in-depth conversations with people from various fields and they were able to share their unique experiences. We weren’t able to see what goes on in the cutting room, but I felt that everyone we spoke with gave us very detailed information. Because everyone was in the comfort of their home, a lot more people were able to meet with us. We even met with those who are out of state and out of the country through the ease of Zoom.”

They mainly used Zoom and Evercast to attend workshops and demonstrations. Most of the mentors shared their workflow on Avid, but the interns were also able to see the assisting process on Adobe Premiere.

For instance, in a workshop with the editorial team of Clifford the Big Red Dog, they gained a clearer understanding of the workflow of a film with emphasis on VFX.

They met with Kelly Stuyvesant and Anna Terebelo, the editor and assistant editor of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who walked them through their workflow (all media was offline). Terebelo described how she would receive the dailies, and how she would organize the project.

“It is vital for an assistant to be extremely organized and to make sure everything is smooth so the editor can focus on their craft and not worry about anything else,” Lua says. “The assistant editor is also responsible [for] temp sound design and temp VFX. Learning about this has prepared me to improve my technical skills.”

They met with the editorial teams behind The Voice, who shared experiences working in unscripted TV; and Netflix’s CG-animated preschool series Trash Truck. “It was the first time I truly

ACE Internship Program

GoesVirtual


understood the workflow of editorial in animation,” Lua reveals. “I was very fascinated with the process and realized how different an editor for live action is compared to an editor for animation. This program allowed me to open up more opportunities and learn other things that I’ve never explored before.”

Castaldo and Lua were introduced to Nancy Hurley, assistant editor of S.W.A.T., who shared the dailies process and how the log sheet from the script supervisor helped sort the dailies.

“It was incredible to be able to learn from all of the mentors because it allowed me to feel as though I was becoming a part of the community,” Castaldo reports. “The program mainly focused on teaching us about how to be a great assistant editor and how to navigate the politics of a cutting room. We got an in-depth look into what technical skills we will need such as organizing dailies, sound and visual effects workflows, and the turnover process. We also learned soft skills such as how to read a room and anticipate the needs of the editorial team.”

A number of mentors shared PowerPoint presentations with very detailed step-by-step processes of their workflow. Lua says, “One of the benefits to meeting various mentors was being able to see the different working styles and preferences each person has. In one session, the assistant editors showed us the detailed process of the VFX prep, tracking and temping. They explained some common effects and tools used in Avid and showed us specific examples for how each is used. I found this incredibly helpful because many editors look for assistants who are technically proficient.”

Despite the remote learning element there were positive takeaways. For one, it allowed Castaldo to complete the program from the East Coast without the added stress of trying to move during a pandemic.

“The program gave me a full understanding of the post-production industry and the expectations of assistant editors in terms of technical and soft skills,” she says. “The most valuable piece of advice I gained from the program was that you don’t know what you don’t know and always be open to new opportunities. I have learned that being teachable is an asset and being open to learning new things will help you succeed in any cutting room. In post, it is important to never stop learning and never close doors for yourself.”

She plans to move to L.A. as soon as possible and to finish earning her days to join the Editors Guild. She says, “I am excited to meet all of the mentors and fellow applicants in person and to begin assisting.”

Lua also plans to be involved and stay connected with the community as much as possible. “I feel more confident

in knowing what to do on the job to be successful thanks to the ACE Internship Program. I’m very excited to see what’s next to come.

“I learned that when starting out, the level of enthusiasm we have may be more important than our technical skills. Anyone can learn the technical side of things, but people would rather work with someone who cares about the project, is kind, is willing to learn as much they can and put in the work.”

Both Casteldo and Lua express their thanks to all the mentors who supported them and for taking their time to speak with them. They also wish to thank their family and friends, their professors and all ACE interns who have helped along their journeys.

Mentors: Sabrina Plisco, ACE; Maura Corey, ACE.

ACE Internship Program Team and Mentors:Carsten Kurpanek, co-chair; Tyler Nelson, co-chair; Sabrina Plisco, ACE; Maura Corey, ACE; Troy Takaki, ACE; Chris Cooke, ACE; Nena Erb, ACE; Mark Andrew, ACE; Stephen Lovejoy, ACE; John Axelrad, ACE; Vince Anido, ACE; David Bertman, ACE; Tina Hirsch, ACE; Tracey Wadmore-Smith, ACE; Herb Dow, ACE; Serena Allegro; Marco Gonzalez; Irene Chun; Katelyn Wright

Editorial: Richard Sanchez; Amelia Allwarden; John Paul Horstmann; Hansjeet Duggal; David Bach; Susana Benaim; Ian S. Tan; Katelyn Wright; Anna Terebelo; Kelly Stuyvesant; Alyssa Carroll; Josie Azzam; Dustin Chow; Katie Langton; Steve Bobertz; Kelly Soll; Esther Sokolow; Gretchen Schroeder; Ben Stringfellow; Ben Murphy; Qingya “Emma” Li; Yu Jung Hou; Brian Parker; Christopher Frith; Paul Penczner; Venya Bruk; Aaron Butler, ACE; Marc Wiltshire; Jesse Chapman; Mark Hartzell, ACE; Emily Streetz; Ashley Riddle; Luke Palter; Sally Bergom; Carol Choi; Gennie Rim; Laura Zempel; Alfonso Carrion; Johan Lugo; Laura Minto; Jesse Averna, ACE; John Venzon, ACE; Iman Ahad; Nancy Hurley; John Baldino; Sean Basaman; Matthew Blair; Vinnie DeRamus; Noel Guerra; Omega Hsu, ACE; Charles Kramer; Alyssa Lehner; Robby Thompson; Robert M. Malachowski Jr, ACE

Post-Production: Stephen Buchsbaum, ADS Hollywood; Erich Gann, Smart Post Sound; Ken Blaustein, Smart Post Sound; Fred Pienkos, Muse VFX; Shane Wise, Muse VFX; Bruce Sandzimier, Post-Production ABC Studios; Brian Bedell, BeBop Technology; Michael Urann, Post Supervisor.

Lecture Series: Aj Francois; Shelby Hall; Kristin Valentine; Nicholas Manting Brewer; Nena Erb, ACE; Robert Komatsu, ACE; Mike McCusker, ACE; Julie Rogers, ACE; James Wilcox, ACE; Molly Shock, ACE; Ben Bulatao, ACE; Michael Lynn Deis; Austin Childress; Kelly Soll

ACE Internship Program Sponsor: Adobe

ACE Office: Jenni McCormick; Marika Ellis; Gemmalyn Idmilao- Brunson; Jasmine Staehle

““The most valuable piece of advice I

gained from the program was that you don’t know what you don’t know and always be open to new opportunities.

44 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 4 2020 VOL 70 Super 8 Title and Photos © Paramount Home Entertainment.

Arguably J.J. Abrams’ most personal film, Super 8 is a nostalgic ride back to the director’s own childhood and a paean to ‘80s cinema favorites like The Goonies and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Not for nothing is Steven Spielberg a producer on Abrams’ pet project.

“It’s my favorite film of J.J.’s,” says Maryann Brandon, ACE. “I love the mix of genre and capturing the excitement of finding one’s love with filmmaking.”

As with other Abrams collaborations, Brandon shares editing duties with Mary Jo Markey, ACE. “We split scenes evenly in a checkerboard sequence throughout the film,” Brandon says. “We watch dailies together and review each other’s work. When we screen the movie with J.J. and other key creatives we’ll make suggestions and then each take our own scene back to recut.”

Super 8 focuses on a gang of youngsters, happily making a zombie movie during their summer vacation when they stumble on what may or may not be an alien monster on the loose.

“In this scene our heroes have been caught by the military and they are being taken somewhere but they, nor we, don’t know where,” says Brandon. “Immediately when you see our main characters locked in the back of a school bus you know something terrible is going to happen.”

Repeat viewings don’t make the timing of the event easier to guess. There is a big crashing sound, something has hit the bus causing it to come to a stop. “We wanted it to be really shocking. There are these low angle close-ups of the kids giving you that feeling of dread. We see them through glass, locked off in the back, and we see that the military have pulled out their guns.”


2011/Director: J.J. Abrams Editors: Maryann Brandon, ACE, Mary Jo Markey, ACE

SUPER 8


She adds, “J.J. and I did consider a false beat. That is, having the bus stop and the action pause, before introducing the shock. We even discussed having a shot of a pair of eyes shining in the dark only to be revealed as a deer in the headlamps. In the end we just wanted to be true to the moment.”

When the bus is hit, the cutting pace speeds up, giving momentum to the vehicle’s movement and the chaos onboard. “When you are cutting you are dictated by the action and here, as well as in a previous scene involving a train crash, the film has a very rhythmical beat to it.”

Crucially, the characters and the audience do not see what has caused the accident. The bus driver is handed a gun by his commander and told to go out and shoot the monster. Everything slows down for tension.

“The driver is clearly afraid. He opens the door and the camera goes out of the door. If I were to edit that scene today, I might have held onto that shot a bit longer and let the camera go into the darkness, the nothingness. At the time, I probably didn’t have any more footage and thought it worked rhythmically.”

Brandon says they decided to show very little of the monster, after all it was hard enough to figure out how to fit it into a bus. “The guns are dart/sedation guns. The military are the bad guys here, they want to recapture the creature to continue experimenting on it. J.J. and I want the audience to feel sympathy for the monster. That emotion is transferred through the kids’ reactions to it throughout the film. That’s one reason humor is so important. Keeping a sense of humor helps ground these stories which are otherwise so out there!”

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EDITORS RECOGNITIONPETITION FOR

www.EditorsPetition.comPlease sign our petition at:

Now endorsed by the Motion Picture Sound Editors, Art Directors Guild, Cinema Audio Society, American Society of Cinematographers, Canadian Cinema Editors, and Guild of British Film and Television Editors

Committee for Creative Recognition

T he American Cinema Editors Board of Directors has been actively pursuing film festivals and

awards presentations, domestic and international, that do not currently recognize the category of Film Editing. The Motion Picture Editors Guild has joined with ACE in an unprecedented alliance to reach out to editors and industry people around the world.

The organizations listed on the petition already recognize cinematography and/or production design in their annual awards presentations. Given the essential role film editors play in the creative process of making a film, acknowledging them is long overdue. We would like to send that message in solidarity. Please join us as we continue the effort to elevate the perception of editors everywhere.

You can help by signing the petition to help get recognition for film editors by asking these organizations to add the Film Editing category to their annual awards:

• Sundance Film Festival• Shanghai International Film Festival, China• San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain• Byron Bay International Film Festival, Australia• New York Film Critics Circle• New York Film Critics Online• National Society of Film Critics

We would like to thank the organizations that have recently added the Film Editing category to their Annual Awards:

• Durban International Film Festival, South Africa• New Orleans Film Festival• Tribeca Film Festival• Washington DC Area Film Critics Association• Film Independent – Spirit Awards• Los Angeles Film Critics Association• Chicago Film Critics Association• Boston Film Festival • The International Animated Film Society – Annie Awards• Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror – Saturn Awards

Documents

the awards issue 1 - American Cinema Editors