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

THE EDDIE AWARDS ISSUE

IN THIS ISSUE Golden Eddie Honoree Career Achievement Honorees JERROLD L. LUDWIG, ACE and CRAIG MCKAY, ACE PLUS ALL THE WINNERS...

FEATURING DUMBO : THE HIDDEN WORLD AND MUCH MORE!

US $8.95 / Canada $8.95 QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Veteran editor switched to Adobe Premiere Pro CC to cut Why this pro chose to switch e Old Man & the Gun. See how Adobe tools were crucial to her work ow and to Premiere Pro. how integration with other Adobe apps like A E ects CC helped post-production go o without a hitch.

adobe.com/go/stories

© 2019 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Premiere, and A er E ects are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Veteran editor Lisa Zeno Churgin switched to Adobe Premiere Pro CC to cut Why this pro chose to switch e Old Man & the Gun. See how Adobe tools were crucial to her work ow and to Premiere Pro. how integration with other Adobe apps like A er E ects CC helped post-production go o without a hitch.

adobe.com/go/stories

© 2019 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Premiere, and A er E ects are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. REIMAGINE POST PRODUCTION REIMAGINE POST PRODUCTION Avid MediaCentral connects creative teams like never before Avid MediaCentral connects creative teams like never before Productions are managing increasing amounts of raw footage and higher resolution Productions are managing increasing amounts of raw footage and higher resolution Productionsassets, all while are workingmanaging to increasingtighter deadlines amounts with of moreraw footage content and deliverables— higher resolution assets, all while working to tighter deadlines with more content deliverables— assets,requiring all more while effi working cient ways to tighter to create deadlines and manage with more content content across deliverables— teams. With requiring more effi cient ways to create and manage content across teams. With workfl ow solutions built on the cloud-enabled MediaCentral® platform and a requiring more effi cient ways to create and manage content ®across teams. With workfl ow solutions built on the cloud-enabled MediaCentral platform and® a comprehensive suite of industry-leading tools including Media® Composer for workfl ow solutions built on the cloud-enabled MediaCentral platform and® a comprehensive suite of industry-leading® tools including Media Composer for creative editorial and Avid NEXIS intelligent shared storage, Avid has what® it takes comprehensivecreative editorial suite and ofAvid industry-leading NEXIS® intelligent tools includingshared storage, Media AvidComposer has what for it takes to get the job done. ® creativeto get the editorial job done. and Avid NEXIS intelligent shared storage, Avid has what it takes toNow get with the Avidjob done. MediaCentral ® | Editorial Management we’re adding powerful, with Avid MediaCentral® | Editorial Management we’re adding powerful, simple-to-deploy asset management® capabilities that adds in-app and browser-based Nowsimple-to-deploy with Avid MediaCentral asset management | Editorial capabilities Management that adds we’re in-app adding and browser-based powerful, access to shared projects, bins, and media—connecting editors with assistants, simple-to-deployaccess to shared assetprojects, management bins, and media—connecting capabilities that adds editors in-app with and assistants, browser-based loggers and producers, on any device in any location. accessloggers toand shared producers, projects, on anybins, device and media—connecting in any location. editors with assistants, loggersAvid delivers and producers, the enhanced on any collaborative device in anycapabilities location. that enable teams to stay in Avid delivers the enhanced collaborative capabilities that enable teams to stay in sync, have greater control over their media assets, and turn around their best work Avidsync, delivers have greater the enhanced control over collaborative their media capabilities assets, and that turn enable around teams their to best stay work in faster than ever before. sync,faster have than greaterever before. control over their media assets, and turn around their best work Learn more at: avid.com/video-post fasterLearn morethan ever at: avid.com/video-postbefore. Learn more at: avid.com/video-post

YOUR PLATFORM YOURTO CREATE PLATFORM YOURTO CREATE PLATFORM TO CREATE © 2018 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, the Avid logo Avid NEXIS, MediaCentral, and Media Composer ©are 2018 either Avid registered Technology, trademarks Inc. All rights or trademarks reserved. ofAvid, Avid the Technology, Avid logo AvidInc. in NEXIS, the United MediaCentral, States and/or and Mediaother countries.Composer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

© 2018 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, the Avid logo Avid NEXIS, MediaCentral, and Media Composer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Avid PostProduction Ad_165x240mm.indd 1 10/31/18 3:12 PM Avid PostProduction Ad_165x240mm.indd 1 10/31/18 3:12 PM

Avid PostProduction Ad_165x240mm.indd 1 10/31/18 3:12 PM Avid is honored to be a part of the lives of ACE Film and TV Editors everywhere. REIMAGINE POST PRODUCTION REIMAGINE POST PRODUCTION Avid MediaCentral connects creative teams like never before Avid MediaCentral connects creative teams like never before Productions are managing increasing amounts of raw footage and higher resolution Productions are managing increasing amounts of raw footage and higher resolution Productionsassets, all while are workingmanaging to increasingtighter deadlines amounts with of moreraw footage content and deliverables— higher resolution assets, all while working to tighter deadlines with more content deliverables— assets,requiring all more while effi working cient ways to tighter to create deadlines and manage with more content content across deliverables— teams. With requiring more effi cient ways to create and manage content across teams. With workfl ow solutions built on the cloud-enabled MediaCentral® platform and a requiring more effi cient ways to create and manage content ®across teams. With workfl ow solutions built on the cloud-enabled MediaCentral platform and® a comprehensive suite of industry-leading tools including Media® Composer for workfl ow solutions built on the cloud-enabled MediaCentral platform and® a comprehensive suite of industry-leading® tools including Media Composer for creative editorial and Avid NEXIS intelligent shared storage, Avid has what® it takes comprehensivecreative editorial suite and ofAvid industry-leading NEXIS® intelligent tools includingshared storage, Media AvidComposer has what for it takes to get the job done. ® Congratulations to this year’s creativeto get the editorial job done. and Avid NEXIS intelligent shared storage, Avid has what it takes toNow get with the Avidjob done. MediaCentral ® | Editorial Management we’re adding powerful, Now with Avid MediaCentral® | Editorial Management we’re adding powerful, ACE Eddie Award honorees and nominees. simple-to-deploy asset management® capabilities that adds in-app and browser-based Nowsimple-to-deploy with Avid MediaCentral asset management | Editorial capabilities Management that adds we’re in-app adding and browser-based powerful, access to shared projects, bins, and media—connecting editors with assistants, simple-to-deployaccess to shared assetprojects, management bins, and media—connecting capabilities that adds editors in-app with and assistants, browser-based loggers and producers, on any device in any location. accessloggers toand shared producers, projects, on anybins, device and media—connecting in any location. editors with assistants, loggersAvid delivers and producers, the enhanced on any collaborative device in anycapabilities location. that enable teams to stay in Avid delivers the enhanced collaborative capabilities that enable teams to stay in sync, have greater control over their media assets, and turn around their best work Avidsync, delivers have greater the enhanced control over collaborative their media capabilities assets, and that turn enable around teams their to best stay work in faster than ever before. sync,faster have than greaterever before. control over their media assets, and turn around their best work Learn more at: avid.com/video-post fasterLearn morethan ever at: avid.com/video-postbefore. Learn more at: avid.com/video-post

YOUR PLATFORM YOURTO CREATE PLATFORM YOURTO CREATE PLATFORM

TO CREATE ©2019 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid and the Avid logo are registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. © 2018 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, the Avid logo Avid NEXIS, MediaCentral, and Media Composer ©are 2018 either Avid registered Technology, trademarks Inc. All rights or trademarks reserved. ofAvid, Avid the Technology, Avid logo AvidInc. in NEXIS, the United MediaCentral, States and/or and Mediaother countries.Composer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

© 2018 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, the Avid logo Avid NEXIS, MediaCentral, and Media Composer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Avid PostProduction Ad_165x240mm.indd 1 10/31/18 3:12 PM Avid PostProduction Ad_165x240mm.indd 1 10/31/18 3:12 PM Avid ACE Ad_8-5x11.indd 1 2/6/19 2:41 PM

Avid PostProduction Ad_165x240mm.indd 1 10/31/18 3:12 PM QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69

stock footage 42 editor’s cut

06 28 Letter from the Editor The 2019 Acronyms ACE Eddie Awards BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE 50 10 ACE Holiday Party What’s New! 46 ACE president Stephen Rivkin, News & Announcements ACE, presented new member Short Cut Comic plaques during the BY JOHN VAN VLIET 52 16 ACE Internship Aspects of Editing Program Want to optimize your creativity? BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE Start with sharpening the axe BY ZACK ARNOLD, ACE 54 Cinema Eye Honors 20 The annual event celebrates Tech Corner 32 the artistry in nonfiction films BCC 2019 BY GREGOR COLLINS BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE 38 56 24 Remembering Global Editing , ACE Perspectives BY BOBBIE O'STEEN Canada 35 BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE 58 Remembering 60 , ACE Cuts We Love BY JACK TUCKER, ACE BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

features

32 35 38 Guillermo del Toro Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE Craig McKay, ACE 2019 ACE Golden 2019 ACE Career Achievement 2019 ACE Career Achievement Eddie Award Honoree Award Honoree Award Honoree BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON BY WALTER FERNANDEZ JR.

42 46 How to Train Your Dragon: Dumbo The Hidden World , ACE, reteams with John K. Carr, ACE, brings the third in the to make an elephant fly animated trilogy to an emotional climax BY SCOTT LEHANE BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

04 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Cover image: Dumbo. ©2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Introducing DaVinci Resolve 15, revolutionary tools for editing, color correction, audio post and now VFX, all in a single application!

Faster and more precise editing! New cinematic quality effects with Fusion! DaVinci Resolve 15 is perfect for both offline editorial and online DaVinci Resolve 15 now has Fusion built in! The new Fusion page finishing. You get every editing and trimming tool imaginable, gives you a true 3D workspace with over 250 tools for creating new stacked and tabbed timelines, multicam, closed caption and feature film quality visual effects and motion graphics! Now you subtitling tools, on screen annotations, faster project loading, more can create sophisticated composites, use vector paint, animate customization options, 2D and 3D title templates and dozens of titles, add 3D particles, key, rotoscope and more, all inside of other new features! DaVinci Resolve 15! Amazing new color correction tools! True multi user collaboration for teams! Hollywood’s favorite color corrector keeps getting better! Whether you’re working solo or collaborating with a team, all it DaVinci Resolve 15 features an entirely new LUT browser, multiple takes is a single click to move between editing, color, effects and playheads, shared grades, better noise reduction, 10x faster audio. With DaVinci Resolve 15 Studio, you get bin and timeline stabilization, 8K super scaling, GPU accelerated HDR grading, locking, secure chat and timeline comparison tools so multiple Revival dust and dirt removal plugins, new ResolveFX lens filters, users can work in the same project at the same time. Best of all, smart fill patch cloning and more. because everything is in the same software application, you don’t Incredible new Fairlight audio features! have to import, export or translate projects and you’ll never have With hundreds of new pro tools, the Fairlight page is now a full to conform again! blown digital audio workstation! You get a complete set of ADR tools, support for sound libraries, audio and video scrollers, a fixed playhead with scrolling timeline, automatic normalization DaVinci Resolve 15 Free Download Now! and over a dozen cross platform FairlightFX plugins including a hum remover, de-esser, reverb and more! DaVinci Resolve 15 Studio $299

Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com

Cinema Editor_DaVinci Resolve 15_US.indd 1 7/2/19 9:50 am LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

onorary societies in the motion picture industry such as American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), Motion H Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), Casting Society of America (CSA) and, of course, ACE are mostly known to the public by the acronym that they allow their members to carry after their name. Just like M.D. or Ph.D., these acronyms reflect experience and professionalism. Films and TV series earn a badge of distinction when they can show off these acronyms in their credits and promotional materials. When directors, producers and studios are assembling their crews, having one of these acronyms after your name, gives you a leg . Unfortunately, it’s recently come to ACE’s attention that certain productions do not want to include the ACE acronym in the credits. The main reason seems to be that they are confusing these honorary acronyms with an affiliation to a union. Since the ‘closed shop’ man- date was abolished from motion picture productions, the usually low-budget, independent, non-union productions were gaining more and more terrain because it meant a substantial savings to the bottom line when union benefits could be evaded. It became a standard procedure for even higher-budget productions to start non- union and hope that the crew they hired would not have too many union members who could organize and turn it into a unionized one. Acronyms Because usually most writers, producers and directors are members of the Writers Guild, Producers Guild and Directors Guild, which are actual independent unions that allow their members to use union acronyms like WGA, PGA and DGA after their name, a lot of confusion seems to exist about how to differentiate the honorary and union acronyms. So the easy way out was to just deny honoring the use of any acronym. Even though the WGA, PGA and DGA acronyms also carry a legitimacy of the professionals who use them, they are mainly based on work on official union productions while the honorary societies base their acronyms not only on the over-time accrued experience of an individual but even more on the creative, artistic and innovative accomplishments. Documentary and independent feature film editors who almost exclusively work on non-union productions, are eligible to earn the ACE acronym if the quality of their work meets the high standards set for active membership. While most editors have a contractual agreement that determines the size, placement, spelling and use of the acronym, it all too often escapes the ability to enforce this promise. In the last year we have received many complaints from ACE members who were denied the use of the ACE acronym in credits or promotional materials. This is unfair to the editor and ACE. We want members to know that the ACE Board of Directors has opened up lines of communication with other honorary societies to plan to work together to ensure that our acronyms are used to identify our professional members in the film business. –Edgar Burcksen, ACE

06 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photo by Peter Zakhary. YOUR Experience a world of opportunity to benefit your craft, your career and your business. NAB Show® is the most dynamic gathering of forward-thinking technologists, developers and thought leaders who you need to meet — and who want to meet you, too. They will inspire you, enlighten you and collaborate with you to ensure a bright future in challenging times. This is an investment in yourself and the career you’re passionate about. Come to enhance your productivity and performance in the digital era and capitalize on the people and the technology that will take you further. Your story will never be the same.

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*Free Exhibits Pass offer expires March 24, 2019. Starting March 25, a $50 fee will be applied. Conference savings on non-member rate only. Official Periodical of the , Inc. Founded November 28, 1950.

EDITORIAL STAFF

EDITOR IN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL EDITOR EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Edgar Burcksen, ACE Adrian Pennington Carolyn Giardina

ART DIRECTOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Luci Zakhary Peter Zakhary

BUSINESS AFFAIRS

PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION COORDINATOR PRODUCTION ASSISTANT ADVERTISING & DISTRIBUTION Jenni McCormick Marika Ellis Gemmalyn Brunson Peter Zakhary PRESIDENT Stephen Rivkin, ACE ADVISORY BOARD

VICE PRESIDENT Edgar Burcksen, ACE Harry B. Miller III, ACE Andrew Seklir, ACE , ACE CONTRIBUTORS SECRETARY Zack Arnold, ACE, has been editing feature films and Bobbie O’Steen is a -based writer and film Lillian Benson, ACE television for over 15 years. He is currently working on historian, dedicated to sharing the editor’s invisible art with season 2 of Cobra Kai, and other notable credits include film students, professionals and the movie-going public. TREASURER Empire, Burn Notice, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and She is an Emmy®-nominated editor and author of two the Notorious B.I.G. and Glee. He is also the founder of the acclaimed books about editing. Cut to the Chase is based Stephen Lovejoy, ACE ‘Optimize Yourself’ program which helps creative profes- on interviews with her late husband and colleague, leg- sionals learn to better manage their time, their energy, endary editor Sam O’Steen; and her second book, The and their attention so they can maximize their creativity Invisible Cut, deconstructs classic movie scenes through a ... and avoid burnout. cut-by-cut analysis. She has taught graduate school workshops at NYU Edgar Burcksen, ACE, is an award-winning, veteran, and contributes commentary and interviews about the art BOARD OF DIRECTORS working editor. He is the Editor in Chief of and regular of editing for The Criterion Collection releases. She has contributor to CinemaEditor magazine. moderated numerous panels honoring master editors Jacqueline Cambas, ACE at EditFest as well as NYU, Emerson College, UCLA and Gregor Collins is a speaker, author, actor and script- Dorian Harris, ACE 92Y Tribeca. She is now partnered with Manhattan Edit writer living in New York. Starting his career in Tina Hirsch, ACE producing reality TV, he shifted gears to acting, performing Workshop to regularly host her evening event series in NYC on stage, television and independent films. His writing and called “Inside the Cutting Room.” She has also written for Maysie Hoy, ACE acting have been featured in the , The such publications as ACE’s CinemaEditor magazine, which Guardian, Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, Cinema- named her “’s Greatest Champion.” Bonnie Koehler, ACE Editor magazine, and on Off- and Off-Off Broadway stages O’Steen’s next project is an authoritative, media-rich , ACE across New York. Gregor currently travels the globe giving eBook called Making the Cut at about the editor’s talks about his unique relationship with Holocaust refugee pioneering role in . For more info visit , ACE Maria Altmann, chronicled in his memoir, The Accidental bobbieosteen.com. Caregiver. Altmann was portrayed by in the Michael Ornstein, ACE film, Woman in Gold. Adrian Pennington is a journalist, editor and mar- Sabrina Plisco, ACE keting copywriter whose articles have appeared in the Walter Fernandez Jr. was the Editor in Chief of Financial Times, British Cinematographer, Screen Inter- , ACE CinemaEditor magazine from August 2010 until June 2013. national, , Premiere, Broadcast, He has worked in marketing and distribution at IMAX RTS Television and . He is co-author and the MPAA. He has written for CinemaEditor since 2003. of Exploring 3D: The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking (Focal Press, 2012) and his favorite film of Carolyn Giardina is an award-winning journalist and all time is Gilda. author who serves as tech editor at The Hollywood ASSOCIATE BOARD Reporter, for which she writes its Behind the Screen ® Jack Tucker, ACE, Emmy -nominated editor and first- Kate Amend, ACE blog. She is also co-author of Exploring 3D: The New ever recipient of the ACE Award, was Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking (Focal Press, at the helm of CinemaEditor magazine at the close of Mark Helfrich, ACE 2012). One of her first assignments at the start of her the 20th century. He has recently produced the docu- career was a feature story about editing – and she has mentary feature, American Empire, with his partner, Eric Sears, ACE enjoyed covering editors ever since. director Patrea Patrick. Andrew Seklir, ACE Scott Lehane is a freelance journalist who has John Van Vliet has worked in animation and visual covered the film and TV industry for over 20 years. effects for more than 32 years. Although his involvement Harry B. Miller III, ACE, serves as an associate on bad pictures far outnumbers the good ones, all have on the ACE Board of Directors. His recent credits include provided raw material for his drawings – for which he’s Turn: Washington’s Spies and The . grateful. Visit MigrantFilmWorker.com for more. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jenni McCormick SUBSCRIPTION, ADVERTISING & CONTACT INFO

LETTERS, SUBSCRIPTIONS, OR SUBSCRIPTION RATE OTHER CORRESPONDENCE $39 for one year. Subscription cost includes CinemaEditor Magazine printed magazine and online access. 5555 Melrose Avenue THE ACE CREDO Marx Brothers Building, Room 108, BACK ISSUES Los Angeles, CA 90038 Please indicate which issue(s). The objects and purposes of Cost is $10 per issue. the American Cinema Editors PH 323.956.2900 MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO American Cinema Editors are to advance the art and science TO ADVERTISE OR FOR ADVERTISING RATES Credit cards accepted. CinemaEditor is complimentary of the film editing profession; Peter Zakhary [email protected] to ACE members. to increase the entertainment DIGITAL ADVERTISING QUESTIONS ACE WEBSITE QUESTIONS Libby Higgins [email protected] Kate Higgins [email protected] value of motion pictures by attaining artistic pre-eminence CinemaEditor Magazine is published quarterly by the American Cinema Editors. The views expressed in this and scientific achievement in the periodical 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. creative art of film editing; to bring into close alliance those STAY CONNECTED film editors who desire to advance Like us on Facebook Follow us on the prestige and dignity American Cinema Editors (ACE) @acefilmeditors of the film editing profession.

American Cinema Editors website www.americancinemaeditors.org Disney Digital Studio Services congratulates the 2019 ACE Eddie Award honorees and winners WELCOME COMING SOON SAVE THE DATE

The American Cinema Editors would Join ACE at the like to welcome new ACE members: JUN Yvette M. Amirian, ACE 8 Shannon Baker Davis, ACE Pia Di Ciaula, ACE APR 6-11 Richard Cox, ACE American Cinema Editors will once again Jeff Granzow, ACE present a Creative Masters Series Lee Haxall, ACE panel at the upcoming NAB Show. JUN Nick Houy, ACE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ACE EVENTS 29 Kenn Kashima, ACE Call the ACE office at 323.956.2900 or visit the ACE website at www.americancinemaeditors.com Kenneth LaMere, ACE David Lebowtiz, ACE In The Next Issue Of Amy Linton, ACE AUG Kelly Matsumoto, ACE 24 Úna Ní Dhonghaíle CINEMAEDITOR Hilda Rasula, ACE The Summer Movie Issue Keith Reamer, ACE TO ADVERTISE OR FOR ADVERTISING RATES FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ACE EVENTS Peter Zakhary / 626.695.7493 Call the ACE office at 323.956.2900 or visit the Jason Savage, ACE [email protected] ACE website at www.americancinemaeditors.com

SHORT CUT COMIC BY JOHN VAN VLIET Advertiser Index IFC Adobe 02 Avid Technology, Inc. 05 Blackmagic Design 07 NAB Show 09 Disney Digital Studio Services 11 The Gersh Agency 12 ACE TechFest 13 Deluxe Companies 14 Petition for Editors Recognition 15 Paramount Studios 17 Twentieth Century Fox/ Regency Enterprises 19 ICM Partners 21 Sim International 23 Universal Studios 25 Warner Bros. Pictures 26 Going Postal 27 Tribeca West Kilroy Realty Corporation 45 Cutting It in Hollywood 49 Motion Picture Editors Guild 55 ACE EditFest BC The Looping Group

TO ADVERTISE OR FOR ADVERTISING RATES Peter Zakhary / 626.695.7493 [email protected]

10 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 We would like to congratulate

ACE Golden Eddie Award Honoree Guillermo del Toro

ACE Career Achievement Award Honorees Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE Craig McKay, ACE

and all the ACE Eddie Award Winners Something New Is Coming...

6 8 19

Find out more at www.AmericanCinemaEditors.org/techfest Deluxe_CinemaEditorsAd_2019_Final.pdf 1 2/4/19 4:26 PM

C

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K PETITION FOR EDITORS RECOGNITION

he American Cinema Editors Board of Directors • T has been actively pursuing film festivals and • Shanghai International Film Festival, China awards presentations, domestic and international, • San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain that do not currently recognize the category of Film • Byron Bay International Film Festival, Australia Editing. The Motion Picture Editors Guild has joined • New York Film Critics Circle with ACE in an unprecedented alliance to reach out • New York Film Critics Online to editors and industry people around the world. • National Society of Film Critics

The organizations listed on the petition already We would like to thank the organizations that have recognize cinematography and/or production design recently added the Film Editing category to their Annual Awards: in their annual awards presentations. Given the essential role film editors play in the creative process • Durban International Film Festival, South Africa of making a film, acknowledging them is long • Film Festival overdue. We would like to send that message in • Tribeca Film Festival solidarity. Please join us as we continue the effort to • Washington DC Area Film Critics Association elevate the perception of editors everywhere. • Film Independent – Awards • Los Angeles Film Critics Association You can help by signing the petition to help get • Film Critics Association recognition for film editors by asking these • Boston Film Festival organizations to add the Film Editing category to • The International Animated Film Society – their annual awards: • Academy of , & Horror –

Please sign our petition at: www.EditorsPetition.com 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 Congratulations to

ACE Golden Eddie Award Honoree Guillermo del Toro

ACE Career Achievement Award Honorees Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE & Craig McKay, ACE

and all the 2019 winners We devote an ungodly amount of our time, energy and Want to Optimize attention to chopping down a giant redwood tree and carving it into a beautiful pencil (within an impossible deadline) when we should instead be spending the majority of our time sharpening Your Creativity? the axe. (Hint: You are the axe). But with the rapid advancement of modern technology and the Start with Sharpening the Axe expectation that we now practically do everything in our timelines, what other choice do we have? It simply isn’t possible to prioritize our well-being ahead of our careers anymore. Having interviewed some of the top editors in our industry, I am 100-percent confident the job hasn’t gotten any harder, the hours aren’t longer, and the deadlines aren’t any tighter than they were decades ago. As , ACE, told me in an interview: “There’s a famous story at Universal Studios from 40 years ago. There was some terrible deadline, and they were throwing as many people on the problem as they could and people were working 16-20 hours a day. Finally, the person responsible went to the head of post- production and said, ‘We can’t keep going on like this, people are dropping like flies.’ And the answer was, ‘Get more flies.’” The job is no tougher now than it has ever been. The only fundamental difference between the lifestyle of the editor decades ago versus today is that editing no longer requires physical BY ZACK ARNOLD, ACE effort or movement ... editing is now a 100% sedentary activity that requires nothing more than a keyboard. I’m just as guilty espite the rapid advances in digital technology, the funda- as everyone else of locking myself in the ‘edit cave’ for weeks mental role of the picture editor hasn’t really changed. on end without exercise, sleep or sunlight, and I unfortunately D Whether physically splicing film or editing via a touchscreen, experienced the consequences of working a sedentary job for long what the picture editor has always brought to a project is the ability hours the hard way very early in my career. to introduce order into the randomness of hours upon hours of raw As a young editor only recently inducted into ACE, I’m okay footage to ultimately tell a compelling story. As editors we are admitting that I’ve never edited actual film (outside of a 16mm paid for our opinions, our personal tastes and our ability to consis- student project). When my professional career began just short tently make thousands upon thousands of good micro-decisions of 20 years ago I was working with Avid and the early versions on a daily basis. Yes, bedside manner and an ability to collaborate of Final Cut Pro. I lived and breathed film editing and couldn’t with others is also important, and knowledge of the latest imagine myself doing anything else. And I was good enough at it technology is also a given, but that gap can largely be filled by that I quickly transitioned from assisting to editing only five months surrounding yourself with an excellent team. But there is no out of college. By 25, I was editing my first feature film for Fox replacement for your creativity. Searchlight, and the schedule was arduous. At one point I was working with a director for 16 hours per day, seven days per week A woodsman was once asked, “What would you do for just short of three months straight without a single day off. if you had just five minutes to chop down a tree?” Once hiatus hit, I crashed. Hard. So hard in fact that I exper- He answered, “I would spend the first two-and-a-half ienced burnout and anxiety so bad that it led to my first (but not minutes sharpening my axe.”1 last) bout of suicidal depression. I distinctly remember sitting in the dark one evening with my head in my hands thinking, “I can’t Although the fact that as film editors our #1 asset is our creativity, live like this anymore.” Knowing how passionate I was about the we have adopted a less-than-ideal lifestyle and enabled a work craft of film editing, I knew there was no way I would survive culture that does everything it can to completely rob us of our ability the next 40 years of my career myself like a Ford Pinto. to be creative. We spend the majority of our waking hours sitting in So I decided it was time to begin treating myself like a Ferrari, dark rooms (usually without windows) behind computers screens. because it requires a high-performance machine to do the kind of We eat lunch (and dinner) at our desks. We put our kids to bed via work we do for a living. FaceTime. Late nights are simply a given, and we routinely work This realization led to over a decade of research and experi- six-day weeks (seven when it’s crunch time). And worst of all, we mentation where I dove deep into the psychology of human behavior, have all collectively accepted that 60 hours per week is a ‘standard’ habit formation, workflow efficiency, biomechanics, exercise contract despite all modern scientific research proving that anything physiology and the effects of nutrition and sleep on cognition and beyond 45 hours rapidly diminishes productivity (and our sanity). creativity. I attempted every day to apply everything I was learning

16 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 1| “Objectives and Philosophy of Public Affairs Education” by C. R. Jaccard. Photos of Zack Arnold, ACE, by Irina Logra and courtesy of Frame.io Insider. We congratulate ACE Eddie Award Winner , ACE Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) Bohemian Rhapsody

and all this year’s honorees and nominees about athletic performance and human potential to optimize my role 1-2 minutes every hour, or ideally every 30 minutes. It’s literally as a film editor and maximize my creativity (and avoid burnout). as simple as standing up then sitting back down again. Or touching While there are countless ways to optimize your creativity your toes. Or walking down the hall and right back to your desk. and well-being, if I were to take all the various knowledge I’ve Height-adjustable workstations were a novelty 10 years ago, but learned in over a decade and narrow it down to just one thing, my they are now practically standard from most rental companies. fundamental discovery is that the most detrimental thing to our Take advantage of them and change your working position frequently. creativity is being sedentary. It’s that simple. The less you move, If you’re having trouble reminding yourself to move enough, make it the more difficult it is to be creative. a point to drink tons of water throughout the day. Your bladder will Carol Littleton, ACE, experienced this firsthand: “If I was do a great job of reminding you to take frequent breaks! working with a Moviola I would stand all day long. You would be rewinding film, splicing ... you’d constantly be in motion and 2. Get out of your office and take at least one walking always moving film around. Only recently when I moved from film break every day. I know, I know. You don’t have time for breaks. to Avid the first thing I noticed was that I was far more sedentary. But from a scientific perspective there is nothing more beneficial Sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting just drove to generating creative ideas than walking. According to a Stanford me crazy. I wasn’t eating as well, I wasn’t taking breaks, I wasn’t research study2, “A person’s creative output increases by an average thinking straight, and I would forget footage ... I never forgot of 60 percent when walking.” Think about it this way: When was footage! So I decided to go back to the things that kept me going the last time you had an amazing creative insight blindly staring while I was cutting film.” into your computer screen? Walking activates what is called the If you’ve had the pleasure of meeting Carol, you know that’s ‘default network’ in the brain, and I find that I solve the majority she’s 70 years old going on 25. She has more energy, clarity and of my creative problems during my afternoon walks. Like Walter vibrancy than most young assistant editors I know. Clearly she’s onto Murch, I make sure while I’m on my walks I have a way to capture something when she says, “If you take care of yourself, everything my ideas and record them (he uses a voice recorder, I use the else will just fall into place.” ‘voice memo’ app on my phone), a process he says is like having So let’s start taking care of ourselves and begin collectively a ‘mental butterfly net.’ taking back our health, one literal step at a time. Here are three Remember, creativity is not only a part of our job, it IS our job. simple suggestions to get you started sharpening your axe. Therefore thinking means we’re still ‘on the clock,’ whether we’re in front of our workstations or not. 1. Never allow yourself to work in the same position for more than 60 minutes at a time. We’ve all heard the term by now: 3. Make it a rule to never eat lunch (or dinner) at your ‘Sitting is the new smoking.’ And countless research has proven desk. Ever. I cannot stress enough how unhealthy it is to chronically how detrimental chronic sitting can be to your health (including eat at your workstation. It inhibits digestion, it raises your stress drastically shortening your lifespan). But here’s the good news: levels, and it’s just one of many missed opportunities to change your There’s nothing wrong with sitting. The problem is being sedentary. perspective during the day, get some air and actually be social with Sitting, standing, kneeling, doesn’t matter. All are detrimental to other human beings. But we have fallen into the trap of thinking your health if done for long periods of time without interruption. there aren’t enough hours in the day, so it’s no longer time we can But they are also detrimental to your ability to generate ideas and afford. Moreover, most productions now furnish free lunches and be creative. If you’re trying to solve creative problems and meet a dinners ... with the caveat that you’ll stay at your desk to eat them. tight deadline, the last thing on your mind is what might happen to I call these free meals ‘edible handcuffs.’ If you do the math, it doesn’t your health in a few decades – but not being able to think clearly add up. If you take your hourly wage (let’s use an even number of is another story. So make it a point to simply move around for $50 per hour) and subtract the cost of the meal (generally around $15), you are essentially paying someone $35 for the privilege of eating in front of a computer screen and skipping a much-needed break that will actually benefit your creativity. Whenever I interview successful editors and break down the keys to their success and longevity, a common theme is the refusal to work through meals unless there is absolutely no other option. I simply cannot put it better than Jeffrey Ford, ACE: “Taking care of yourself and taking breaks is a strength, not a weakness. Your physical well-being is connected to your mental well-being is connected to your success as a creative professional.” I promise that it is actually possible to excel in your career because you prioritize your health, not despite it. If you’re in this business for the long haul, stop treating your health and well-being like a game of checkers and start playing a game of chess. And the first step is taking the first step – away from your desk, that is.

18 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 2| Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz, Stanford University, Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2014, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1142–1152. We Proudly Congratulate CRAIG MCKAY, ACE 2019 ACE Career Achievement Honoree JOHN OTTMAN, ACE ACE Eddie Award Winner Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) - Bohemian Rhapsody

And Our Nominees , ACE Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) - Vice ADAM GOUGH Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) - Roma , ACE Best Edited Animated Feature Film - Isle of Dogs The Mocha tracking tool within the Film Damage plugin is shown in previous image. It takes some time and editing, but Mocha will accurately track the movement of this plane through BCC 2019 the frame, and apply the filter to the plane. Boris Takes Over the World Here is Film Damage applied outside of the tracked plane.

BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE

n 2014 Boris FX acquired Imagineer Systems, which devel- oped the Mocha Pro tracking software. Then in 2016 Boris I FX acquired GenArts, the software maker of the VFX plugin, Sapphire. That puts three of the top VFX plugins for multiple nonlinear editing hosts (Adobe, Avid, OFX, Final Cut) under one corporate roof. It has recently released updated versions of all three programs. And BCC 2019 is a great tool, with some Primatte Studio: Not new, but a recent addition. It is a quick, significant new features. efficient and very versatile color-key effect. Similar to Avid’s I have used Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) for a very long SpectraMatte, but it contains many more controls. It features an on- time. I’ve edited a number of science-fiction shows, which needed screen widget that makes setting and refining a green/blue screen various types of looks, and odd effects. BCC is ideal shot very easy. And it has controls to soften and choke the matte as it has so many useful effects: Damaged TV to add an old video you’ve created. And then there are Masks. You can use the built-in look, Film Damage to mimic old film projection, Film Glow for Mocha tracker to add a mask shape and track it in the shot. Think flashbacks or memory scenes, Film Process which can create a of it as if you had Animatte within SpectraMatte. Only on steroids. bleach-bypass look a la Se7en, Gaussian Blur, Rain, Snow, Stars, Here is the record monitor with a freshly-applied Primatte Clouds, Lightning, solid objects like Steel Plate and Wood Grain. Studio plugin. With a few clicks, you can replace the blue with a And more. Lots more. new background. Temp VFX are important to telling a story, and BCC is essential to my workflow. The hard part of using it is understanding just how many things it can do. Then you have to try and learn how to use them. Every so often I go down the rabbit hole of trying one filter after another, going through the myriad of presets, just to see what each one does. The latest update provides a lot of powerful new and updated tools.

Mocha Essentials: One of the best aspects of the latest BCC is that Mocha’s tracking tool is built into many of the plugins. While Mocha Pro remains a standalone tracking program, it is very useful creating split screens and screen replacements. But with Mocha built into BCC many of the plugins and effects are easily trackable into a shot. And here is the shot with the replaced background. I used Mocha’s masking tool within Primatte studio to refine the key effect.

20 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Boris Continuum Complete ©Borix FX, Inc. All rights reserved. Screenshot courtesy of Harry B. Miller III, ACE. Sim congratulates 2019 ACE Golden Eddie Honoree Guillermo del Toro

and all the ACE Eddie Award Winners

siminternational.com Title Studio: This is an update of their title tool. The built-in Then there are whole categories like Explosions, Fire, Fireworks, title tool of most NLEs is usually very serviceable. BCC Title Magic, Sci-Fi, Smoke, Snow, Space … you get the idea. Studio is for very advanced motion graphics, with many different As with many of the newer BCC filters, Particle Illusion uses textures and options. Title Studio opens in its own interface, with its own interface to design and modify the filter’s parameters. a keyframeable timeline. It takes some serious study to understand Here is a PI effect with 10 different particle effects applied. all of its capabilities. Most recently, I was able to create type on text for the opening of a film. Something I was not otherwise able to do with Media Composer’s default title tool. Although reminiscent of Avid’s Marquee title tool, BCC’s title tool is quit a bit easier to manage and operate.

Pan and Zoom: Although not new, it has been slightly refined. While cutting a documentary about Americans flying for the French air service in WW1, I used this many times for linking to uncompressed images, and animating camera moves. This was successfully used to offline and then online a short version of this project at the video facility, Alpha Dogs. The animation didn’t have to be created in a separate application, and the full resolution of the image could be used. Here the record monitor shows the applied Pan and Zoom Particle Illusion: PI was a stand-alone VFX plugin (Particle- effect. The green bars show the final frame. The upper right Illusion) which Boris has integrated and updated (another acquired shows what it will look like. And the lower right shows the size of VFX program). It is hard to describe what PI does: It starts with image. emitters that create particle imagery. It can have multiple emitters whose properties change over time. The parameters are key- frameable. What is it used for? One can only use their imagination. PI has a crazy number of particles to choose from: abstract shapes and motion like Blue Tendrils and Warp Pool, backgrounds like Hypno Area and Bamboo Wave, creatures such as Single Eagle.

For more info on how to use these BCC plugins, go to Borisfx.com/training where you’ll find many training videos. Also, Kevin P. McAuliffe has created numerous training videos which can be found on YouTube (Lets Edit MC){sic}, Facebook (LetsEditwithMediaComposer) and Twitter (@LetsEditMC). I keep trying different video and audio plugins to see what helps to better tell stories in interesting and complex ways. But because Boris is taking over this world, I now only have to send my credit card to one place…

22 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 We proudly congratulate our ACE Eddie Award nominees Patrick J. Don Vito for Green Book

and , ACE for First Man CANADA BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE

ike ACE, Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) – established February and its annual CCE Awards in April or May. CCE mem- a little more than a decade ago – is an honorary society bership includes discounts to these events, as well as participation L with similar goals. With more than 400 members, CCE in podcasts and pub nights. is also one of the editors organizations on the roster of ACE’s Many of its members are based in production hubs such as International Relations Committee. and Vancouver, as well as Montreal, Quebec (where Just as U.S.-based editors sometimes travel to Canada to apart from producing content for the French Canadian market, edit shows, CCE editors sometimes come to the Southland to it provides content for France and other French-speaking markets). work. Among them is CCE President Stephen Philipson, CCE Of its board make up, Stephen explains that CCE “aims to (American Gods, The Bold Type), who recently is editing have at least one board member in every region of Canada, not series Sneaky Pete starring . Since he was working necessarily every province.” These regions are British Columbia, in L.A., we caught up during the recent ACE Holiday Party. Ontario, Quebec, Prairie provinces (Alberta, Manitoba and To become a full CCE member, an editor needs to be nomi- Saskatchewan), the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Edward nated by a full member (each member may nominate up to two Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland), and the territories new full members a year). She or he is responsible for making (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut). “Though we don’t a case for a new member, before a committee, who may grant yet have any operations in the territories,” Stephen explains, full membership. The committee considers the candidate mainly adding that since there are fewer members in the Atlantic and on their body of work as there isn’t a specific minimum hours of prairie regions these members receive discounted membership. content requirement. CCE members who nominate a prospective In order to involve all board members, monthly meetings are held member may submit films, TV series or other work to support via Skype video conference calls. the application. This differs considerably from the ACE procedure Stephen explains that he is very much interested in working where the prospective member needs to have at least 60 months with ACE on the global motion picture scene. Because there is such of verifiable credits and will be interviewed by the membership a close international relationship with all the productions moving committee reporting to the ACE board. almost freely from country to country and particularly between the CCE also has associate and student members that may borders of U.S. and Canada, there needs to be a tight communication participate in most of the organization’s activities and may later between editors. The editors unions in Canada mainly deal with move up to a full membership if editing is their main trade. labor and remuneration issues and are fragmented between the The group holds an EditCon (similar to ACE EditFest) each Atlantic and Pacific, where the bulk of the editors in the East are

24 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Toronto skyline. Next page top: EditCon television panel. Photo courtesy of Canadian Cinema Editors. Next page bottom: CCE President Stephen Philipson, CCE. Photo by Edgar Burcksen, ACE. Warner Bros. congratulates ACE and all of the 2019 winners and nominees part of the DGC (Directors Guild of Canada) and in the West they’re represented by the IATSE Local 891. He also notes that editing unions are different for each province. This fragmentation makes it even more important for CCE to unite the editing community in Canada on artistic, creative and technical issues. In light of this Stephen thinks that it is a great idea that ACE tries to do the same on a global scale, so that we can inform and learn from each other. He thinks that there will be a great interest among the CCE mem- bers to join ACE as International Affiliate members. The Canadian domestic market motion pictures in the English as well as the French territories, produce highly skilled editors that would be eligible to become ACE International Affiliate members. Additionally, they can become full active ACE members if they meet the application requirements when their work is distributed in the U.S. Stephen is very aware of the fact that not everybody has the unique qualifications that he has to be able to straddle the international borders, having parents from both the U.S. and the U.K., as residents in Canada. Stephen believes that it is in CCE and its members’ interest to tighten the lines of communication with editors in other countries since the film industry has already gone global a long time ago. He invites American editors and especially ACE members to contact CCE when they’re working in Canada. CCE would like to invite them to participate in its events to share their knowledge, experience and stories. American Cinema Editors would like to thank

Tribeca West Kilroy Realty Corporation

for being a sponsor of the 2019 ACE Eddie Awards and for generously providing the bar for the evening The 2019 ACE Eddie Awards

Bohemian Rhapsody, are among the winners, as Guillermo del Toro accepted the Golden Eddie and Craig McKay, ACE, and Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE, take career honors

ohn Ottman, ACE, who edited Bohemian Rhapsody; early editing career. “It’s not just the craft and the technique that and Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE, who cut period comedy I recognize, it’s the partnership that I value. It’s the most intimate The Favourite, won Eddie Awards for best edited fea- and most vulnerable time of filming.” ture, drama and comedy, respectively, at the 69th ACE Del Toro has a prolific track record producing, writing JEddie Awards. and directing for film and TV including Cronos, , Pan’s During the gala, visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone and is currently embarked received the Golden Eddie; Craig McKay, ACE, and Jerrold L. on his first directorial feature animation, Pinocchio, for . Ludwig, ACE, earned Career Achievement Awards; and Eddies He continued, “What makes editing unique is that I work were handed out to editors of 11 feature, documentary and with the actors, then I block it with the cinematography but I am series categories. very, very careful not to tell the editor how to cut it or what I am More than 1000 guests attended the black-tie ceremony, held thinking because you learn that when two people agree in a room Feb. 1 at The Beverly Hilton hotel, with ACE President Stephen then one of them is not needed. An editor listens to the movie and Rivkin, ACE, presiding over the festivities and comedian Tom that is what I most value.” Kenny serving as the host. McKay, whose credits include The Silence of the Lambs and Del Toro’s award was presented to him by friend and collabo- , thanked his grandmother for first taking him to the rator , who co-starred in the director’s best cinema when he was 6 years old. “It was a black-and-white film picture Oscar®-winning film, . that then exploded into glorious Technicolor. It blew me away “This is a profession that I tried myself when I was an amateur and my course was set on the road to making movies.” He added, filmmaker making Super 8 and 16mm films,” del Toro said of his “To receive this honor from all of you is an enormous thrill.”

28 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: ACE President Stephen Rivkin, ACE. Photo by Peter Zakhary. Ludwig’s distinguished career editing TV movies saw him win two Eddies and a further eight nominations plus several Emmys® for work including An Early Frost and The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank. While he was unable to attend the awards, he said in a statement, “I feel extremely fortunate to have had the experience in the industry that I have had and I commend every one of the fantastically-talented and generous people who I have met and worked with on that journey. Thank you so much ACE and all its members for this award which I dedicate to them.” Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, edited by Ottman, won Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic). “This was a very inspiring film and a labor of love in trying circumstances,” Ottman said, making the audience laugh by adding, “It’s always great when you get the first dailies in and you realize no one has been miscast … because you don’t have to polish that turd for a year.” Royal period film The Favourite, edited by Yorgos Mav- ropsaridis, ACE, landed Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy). Mavropsaridis thanked director Yorgos Lanthimos “for taking me along on his journey.” He added, “It is a great honor for me, a Greek, to receive this award thanks from ACE.” Oscar nominees were out in force at the ceremony includ- ing Spencer, , and Alfonso Cuaron. The Roma director, who was also an ACE Eddie Award nominee for the film, said on the red carpet, “I always enjoy partnering

with someone in the edit because, for me, it would otherwise be a very lonely experience. In this case with Adam Gough who is an amazing editor and the partnership we have enriches the whole process.” Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, edited by Robert Fisher Jr., won Best Edited Animated Feature Film; and , edited by Bob Eisenhardt, ACE, for Best Edited Documentary (Feature). Television winners of the night included , “Teddy Perkins,” edited by Kyle Reiter, for Best Edited Comedy Series for Commercial Television; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “Simone,” edited by Kate Sanford, ACE, for Best Edited Comedy Series for

Left frrom top: Tom Kenny; Guillermo del Toro and Octavia Spencer. Right from top: Craig McKay, ACE and Carol Littleton, ACE; CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 29 John Ottman, ACE and Peter Farrelly; Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE, with Tatiana Riegel, ACE and Paul Walter Hauser. Photos by Peter Zakhary. Non-Commercial Television; , “Nice Face,” edited by Gary Dollner, ACE, for Best Edited Drama Series for Commercial Television; and Bodyguard, “Episode 1,” edited by Steve Singleton, for Best Edited Drama Series for Non-Commercial Television. Hunter Gross, ACE, used the occasion to speak to the loss of Anthony Bourdain, whose eponymous show, Parts Unknown, “West Virginia,” won Best Edited Non-Scripted Series for Gross. “This year is special because of the passing of my dear leader, Anthony. He talked a lot about telling people to get out and explore the world and I was lucky to have had an opportunity to follow him on travels where the message was always about building bridges not walls.”

ACE Eddies were awarded to Malcolm Jamieson and Geoffrey Richman, ACE, in the Best Edited Miniseries category for Escape at Dannemora, “Episode Seven,” and to Greg Finton, ACE, and Poppy Das, ACE, for Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind in Best Edited Documentary (Non-Theatrical). The latter award was presented by director Spike Lee who said, “Any documentary can show us something real but not any doc can show us what is true.” Emma Hickox, ACE, presented the Anne V. Coates Student Editing Award to Marco Gonzalez of Boston University, one of hundreds of competitors from film schools and universities around the country. This honor was renamed this year in honor of legendary editor Coates, who was Hickox’s mother, who passed away this past year. Actress Jenifer Lewis (Black-ish) presented and said, “I never get a chance to say anything to a room full of [editors] but I want to say that you may think we don’t see you, but I am honored to be here now and say to you all that we know how hard you guys work.” Jon Chu, director of Crazy Rich Asians, called the audience “the mad architects of Hollywood” and director Peter Farrelly (Green Book) said, “The editor is the director’s best friend. Not just because we spend the most time together on a movie but because when we have something good going you make our dream come true and when it is less good you save our asses.”

30 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Left from top: Hunter Gross, ACE; Spike Lee; Emma Hickox, ACE. Right from top: Jenifer Lewis and John Peter Bernardo; Harry Shum Jr. and Jon M. Chu. Photos by Peter Zakhary. THE 2019 ACE EDDIE AWARD WINNERS

Best Edited Non-Scripted Series (L-R): presenter Angela Sarafyan, The Student Editing Award (L-R): presenter Emma Hickox, ACE, Best Edited Limited Series or Motion Picture for Television winner Hunter Gross, ACE, presenter Andrew Seklir, ACE. and winner Marco Gonzalez. (L-R): presenter Angela Sarafyan, winners Malcolm Jamieson and Geoffrey Richman, ACE, presenter Andrew Seklir, ACE.

Best Edited Documentary Non-Theatrical (L-R): ACE Eddie Awards host Tom Kenny (left) with presenter Cathy Repola. Best Edited Documentary Feature (L-R): winner Poppy Das, ACE, presenter Spike Lee, winner Greg Finton, ACE. Career Achievement honoree Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE, presenter Spike Lee and winner Bob Eisenhardt, ACE. was unable to attend the event.

Best Edited Comedy Series for Non-Commercial Television Career Achievement Award (L-R): honoree Craig McKay, ACE, Best Edited Comedy Series for Commercial Television (L-R): presenter (L-R): presenter Jenifer Lewis, winner Kate Sanford, ACE, with presenter Carol Littleton, ACE. Jenifer Lewis, winner Kyle Reiter, presenter John Peter Bernardo. presenter John Peter Bernardo.

Best Edited Drama Series for Non-Commercial Television presenter Golden Eddie Award (L-R): presenter Octavia Spencer Best Edited Drama Series for Commercial Television (L-R): D’Arcy Carden. Winner Steve Singleton was unable to attend the event. with honoree Guillermo del Toro. presenter D’Arcy Carden with winner Gary Dollner, ACE.

Best Edited Feature Film Animated (L-R): presenter Jon M. Chu, Best Edited Feature Film Comedy (L-R): presenter Tatiana S. Riegel, ACE, Best Edited Feature Film Dramatic (L-R): presenter Peter Farrelly winner Robert Fisher Jr., presenter Harry Shum Jr. winner Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE, presenter Paul Walter Hauser. with winner John Ottman, ACE.

Photos by Linda Treydte/Tilt Photo. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 31 Guillermo del Toro THE 2019 ACE GOLDEN EDDIE AWARD HONOREE

BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

he teeming imagination of Guillermo del Toro has inspired After studying screenwriting at the Centro de Investigación us with magical worlds filled with fantastic, horrific and y Estudios in City, he executive produced his first T unforgettable imagery and characters, from the monsters in feature, Dona Herlinda and Her Son, at the age of just 21. Pan’s Labyrinth to the aquatic creature in The Shape of Water. He produced and directed several shows for Mexican tele- The prolific Mexican writer-director and producer has vision including episodes of sci-fi anthology La Hora Marcada embraced the whole range of media and storytelling styles for Televisa, a cult series that also helped launch the careers to blend horror with science-fiction and fantasy into a visual of compatriots director Alfonso Cuaron and cinematographer poetry that inspires both mainstream crowd pleasers and more Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki. art house projects. In preparation for making his first feature, Cronos, a stylish His stories are rich in religious symbolism and often use the and original take on the vampire legend which he wrote and classical structure of fairy tales to subvert what he considers the directed, del Toro contacted legendary special effects and true horror of authoritarian rule. make-up artist Dick Smith (Little Big Man, , From the industrialists in Cronos, to the Nazis in Hellboy, The Exorcist and Amadeus). the Francoists in Pan’s Labyrinth to the government “Without Dick Smith, I would not be making movies,” he told scientists in The Shape of Water the villains of his stories seem- Vulture, at the time of Smith’s passing in 2014. “The first time I ingly exist to show that the only real monsters are human. came into contact with him was as a child. When The Exorcist Del Toro was born in 1964 in Guadalajara, Mexico and came out, I bought his makeup kit in a toy store. It came with was already involved in filmmaking by his teens, making gelatin and molds and colors, and I did my own makeup effects short Super-8 films. at a very young age. It wasn’t until later that I actually wrote to

32 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: On the set of The Shape of Water. Photo by Kerry Hayes. ©2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All rights reserved. Dick, explaining to him how much I needed to take his makeup- effects course because no one in Mexico was going to help me do effects for Cronos. I said, ‘I cannot afford an American makeup effects artist. I have to sculpt, paint, design – I have to do everything myself!’”1 He was mentored by Smith and Cronos (1993) went on to win nine Ariel Awards from the Mexican Academy of Film, and the International Critics’ Week Prize at Cannes. Following this success, Hollywood beckoned. The making of his first English language feature, Mimic (1997), a horror sci- fi starring Mira Sorvino for /Dimension, influenced his editorial style. “I learned to make my camera more fluid, more a storytelling character,” he said in an interview with The Independent. “It taught me to edit every day because I was always expecting to be fired. I’ll have a cut of the movie six days after wrap. I think adversity is good ... that is very Catholic of me.”2 Indeed, his next film was the Spanish language gothic horror The Devil’s Backbone (2001), independently produced by Pedro Almodovar and set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. Del Toro directed and co-wrote the script based on an earlier draft of the story he had written about the Mexican Revolution. He returned to Hollywood for Marvel’s vampire superhero The film won numerous awards, including ® sequel, Blade II, directing Wesley Snipes and followed that by for production design, cinematography and make-up and directing and scripting another successful comic-book inspired three BAFTAs®. film,Hellboy (2004), and its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army Now an even hotter property, del Toro embarked on an (2008), starring with whom del Toro had worked on astonishingly prolific workload from which he has not let up. Cronos and Blade II. It has seen him produce multiple features and TV series (both In between he made perhaps his most loved film, Pan’s live action and animated), author novels and direct big-budget Labyrinth, a parable which revisits some of the themes of The studio pictures, the latter including science-fiction film Pacific Devil’s Backbone and interweaves the reality of life under Spanish Rim (2013) and gothic romance (2015). dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco with a mythical world As a producer, he worked on the features, The Orphanage inhabited by a mysterious faun creature with which the main (2007), Julia’s Eyes (2010) and (2010), for director character, Ofelia, forms a bond. Alejandro Iñárritu and Pacific Rim Uprising (2018). With , he co-authored trilogy of vampire horror novels, later adapted into both a graphic novel series and a live-action TV series (2014–17) for which he directed the episode, “.” With DreamWorks Animation he created the Netflix animated trilogy, , which includes the award-winning Trollhunters, the recently-released 3 Below and the upcoming Wizards. The different attributes of episodic and feature formats clearly offer del Toro different opportunities for storytelling but he still believes nothing quite matches cinema’s impact. “TV is long-arc. It is offering characters, plot and stories,” he explained to The Independent. “Movies can offer vistas, images, moments that are larger than life. I adore TV and I do binge-watch, but with most of the series I love, I can quote you a moment, a line, a character gesture but I cannot quote you a single image that is memorable as an image in the way that the elevator is opening and the blood pouring in the corridor in or the space baby in 2001.”3 The Shape of Water, released in 2017 by Fox , is his most garlanded film to date. The enchanting love story between a mute woman and an amphibious creature

1| https://tinyurl.com/y8cxyn3z; 2, 3| https://tinyurl.com/yd5vykha; 4| https://tinyurl.com/y7vlnwxf CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 33 Above: On the set of Crimson Peak. Photos by Kerry Hayes. ©. was nominated for 13 Oscars® including for the editing of , ACE. It won for Best Picture, Director, Production Design and Score, landed del Toro’s first DGA and Golden Globe® awards for best director and picked up three BAFTAs, also including Best Director, and won the at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival. “For 25 years I have handcrafted very strange little tales made of motion, color, light and shadow,” he said in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. “In three precise instances, these strange stories, these fables, have saved my life. Once with The Devil’s Backbone, once with Pan’s Labyrinth and now with The Shape of Water, because as directors, these things are not just entries in a filmography. We have made a deal with a particularly inefficient devil that trades three years of our lives for one entry on IMDb. And these things are biography and they are alive.”4 Del Toro has long been attracted to animation as a storytell- ing form, variously acting as creative producer for TV animated feature Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron (2007); creative consultant on (2010), executive producer of Puss in

Boots (2011), (2012) and 3 (2016) and as producer of The Book of Life (2014), set vividly amid the carnivalesque Mexican Day of the Dead. Most recently he announced that he will be directing his first animated feature. Pinocchio is a lifelong passion project, which del Toro is also writing and producing as a stop-motion musical for Netflix set in Italy during the 1930s. “No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio,” del Toro said in a released statement. “In our story, Pinocchio is an innocent with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend. I’ve wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember.” Over his career del Toro has collaborated with editors in- cluding Bernat Vilaplana (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Crimson Peak); Peter Amundsen (Blade II, Hellboy, Pacific Rim with John Gilroy, ACE); and Wolinsky (who worked with the director on The Strain followed by The Shape of Water).

34 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Left top: The Shape of Water ©2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All rights reserved; Hellboy ©. Sony Pictures Entertainment. Left bottom: Pacific Rim. Photo by Kerry Hayes. © 2013 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Legendary Pictures Funding, LLC. Right top: Blade ©. ©Marvel Enterprises. Right bottom: Hellboy II: The Golden Army ©Universal Pictures. Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE 2019 ACE CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD HONOREE

BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

f the hallmark of every successful editor is to have elevated all While the young Jerrold visited the local cinema for regular the material they touch few can have done so as consistently Saturday morning shows just like millions of other kids, he had a Iand with as much humility as Jerrold (Jerry) Ludwig, ACE. unique exposure to the industry from his uncle who lived in the He scaled the Hollywood ladder from messenger boy to same duplex apartment. go-to editor for some of the most acclaimed TV specials of “He lived above us and so I got my film knowledge from him,” the 1980s and 1990s. Beginning in the first golden era of episodic says Ludwig. “I remember him saying that a good way to become drama, his four-decade long career is studded with multiple ACE a director would be to go through editorial which kind of put it Eddie and Primetime Emmy® Award nominations and wins. into my mind that was something I wanted to do.” Ludwig’s father and uncle were immigrants to the United Edward managed to secure his nephew an interview at States from Russia. His mother was from Chicago and met his Universal with head of the art department responsible for father, settling in Los Angeles where Jerrold was born in 1941. designing posters and trade ads. While his father worked as an accountant and his mother a “They were looking for a bike messenger so I said, ‘Sure, I’d homemaker, it was his uncle Edward who had a lasting influence love to,’” Jerrold recalls. “My duties basically included peddling on Jerrold’s career. from the facility where we were through the lot to the photographic Edward Ludwig (born Isidor Litwack) was a silent movie actor department and back again. I remember seeing once, turned prolific director of shorts in the early days of Hollywood but not too many other big stars.” before directing dozens of B-movie features including The This was in the early and Jerrold had his mind set Fighting Seabees (1944) starring , Caribbean Gold on climbing the next rung of the ladder. “I’d pass the editorial and (both 1952). department and go in and ask if they needed anybody. They asked

Photo by Peter Zakhary. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 35 if I was in the union. I wasn’t of course, so they just told me to come back. I did this I don’t know how many times. It was always ‘come back next week, next month, next year.’” His persistence finally paid off, however, when he landed the job of apprentice film editor on the Universal lot. “In those days it was all about hot splicing picture positive for the editor. You’d sit at a bench and hook up a reel of cut film opposite an empty reel then you’d make your hand into ‘scissors’ with your second and third finger and crank the empty reel. When you hit a splice – and you’d know this because it would ‘pop’ in your fingers – you put glue on one side of the reel and used a machine to bring the two reels together and effectively heat seal the join. You’d do that day after day reel after reel.” Universal at that time was churning out dozens of popular syndicated TV shows like Presents, Laramie and The Virginian in what was arguably the first heyday of TV drama. Ludwig was involved at ground level, picking up the rushes which came in from Technicolor and then, separately, the sound from another building across the lot, then syncing the material together before bringing it to the editor. “I’d hang out late or come in early and see how assistant editors would put the material together for dailies viewing later Ludwig soon gained a reputation as a go-to guy for projects that day,” Ludwig says. that were short of a helping hand. He worked for Douglas Stuart, Among his mentors at this time were editor Frank Morriss already an experienced editor who went on to edit Invasion of the () and Jack Webb, an actor (Sunset Boule- Body Snatchers (1978) and The Right Stuff (1983) and with whom vard) turned writer and producer of hit cop-series Dragnet. Ludwig shared editing duties on Rich Man, Poor Man – Book II “He had a lot of power around the set and the studio,” Ludwig says. (1976-1977). This sequel to the hit miniseries, Rich Man, Poor “I brought a dailies reel to him one day which unfortunately had Man, earned Ludwig his first Eddie and Emmy nominations. the audio out of sync with the picture. He hated that. He’s sitting “Doug would always say that people watch a picture with their there with four or five other people and he leaned over and glared, ears. I wondered what that meant but if you think about it if you ‘I presume the rest of reel is out of sync too?’ I replied, ‘No, just can keep the sound going then you can cut a scene all you want that one scene’ and thank god I was right – everything worked and the story will remain intact. That was good advice because it just fine after that.’” inspired me to attempt some crazy things with the picture and as long as the sound was consistent it worked out great.” Remarkably, Ludwig stayed at Universal for 14 years working on shows like Wagon Train, McHale’s Navy and Ironside, assistant editing the documentary, Survival of Spaceship Earth (1972), and earning sole editing credits on shows such as A Question of Answers (1975), and episodes of classic detective series Kojak (1975-76) including “Life, Liberation and the Pursuit of Death” (1975). Then, in a career turning point, he struck out on his own. “I decided to try my luck and go independent, as a freelance editor under my own steam,” he says. “It was one of the riskiest but most rewarding decisions I ever made. I was very fortunate that time and time again I worked with good people.” Ludwig was soon . For director Lou Antonio he made The Critical List (1978), The Chinese Typewriter (1979) and Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story (1979), a true-life story about a young girl (played by Stockard Channing) who overcame her deafness to become one of the top stuntwomen in Hollywood, which earned Ludwig a second Eddie nomination. In 1981 he won an Eddie for crafting Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, a TV special starring the singer which also netted Ludwig an Emmy nomination. A year later he was Eddie nominated again for the TV special thriller, A Gun in the House,

36 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photos by Peter Zakhary. but it was an invitation from director John Erman to edit his next feature which took Ludwig’s career to another level. “We just got along really well from the get-go,” Ludwig says. “He was a hot property at the time and luckily I was part of that streak.” The first movie of the week they made together was Who Will Love My Children? based on the true story of an Iowa farm wife whose dying wish was to find loving families for her nine children. Starring Ann-Margret and Frederic Forrest, the feature netted Ludwig a second Eddie win. Next up was A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) an acclaimed adaptation of ’ 1947 play for ABC starring Ann-Margret and which garnered both an Eddie and an Emmy award for Ludwig, one of the show’s 11 Emmy nominations. They followed this with An Early Frost (1985) for NBC, recognized as the first drama tackling AIDS to be commissioned by a major network. In it, Aidan Quinn plays a young lawyer who not only has to tell his parents (, Ben Gazzara) about his homosexuality but he has also to reveal he has been diagnosed with AIDS. “I tell you, NBC were terrified,” recalls Ludwig. “They were scared to death about putting this film on air. But credit to them, they did, and the audience loved it.” The film was number one in the during the night it aired, watched by 34 million people and going on to be nominated for 14 , winning three including for Ludwig who also took home an Eddie for his work on the show. “I’m very proud of it,” he says. Ludwig was in high demand over the next decade, team- ing with Erman again for When the Time Comes (1987), The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987) and The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988), the latter two landing his eighth and ninth Eddie nominations. Afterburn, made in 1992 with director Robert Markowitz and starring Laura Dern, told the true story of the woman who overcame male prejudice in the U.S. military to become the best tactical fighter pilot in the world and also succeeded in winning Ludwig Eddie and Emmy nominations. His other credits include miniseries Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III (1994), and the TV movies, Deadly Vows (1994), Dalva (1996), Echo (1997), Love-Struck (1997) and Looking for an Echo (2000). That was to be his last major credit, although he returned to Universal in 2000 to recut feature films for TV distribution (cutting for compliance with swearing, nudity, violence, timing and ad breaks among other considerations). He enjoys his retirement in Pasadena with his wife, Lois, a former court reporter whom Jerrold dated when he was an assistant film editor, who remains after 47 years, a great support for him and he for her. Ludwig says, “I feel extremely fortunate to have had the experience in the industry that I have had and I commend every one of the fantastically talented and generous people who I have met and worked with on that journey. Thank you so much ACE and all its members for this award which I dedicate to them.”

From top: Kojak ©NBC Universal Television Distribution; Rich Man, Poor Man – Book II ©A&E Home Video; Kenny Rogers as CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 37 The Gambler ©Timeless Media; Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story © CBS Broadcasting Inc.; Afterburn © 2019 Home Box Office, Inc. Craig McKay, ACE 2019 ACE CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD HONOREE

BY WALTER FERNANDEZ JR.

f you look the right way, you can see that the whole world that. It was very hard to learn anything about filmmaking in my is a garden,” wrote Frances Hodgson Burnett in her small town. There weren’t a lot of film books out at that time. “I classic children’s novel, The Secret Garden. The book His name was Mort Fallick. I went over and spent an afternoon has had a number of iterations through the years on both the big with Mort. At the end of the afternoon, he asked, ‘Do you want and small screens but it was the initial 1949 adaptation that left to come work with me?’ A week later I was carrying cans to the a very young Craig McKay, ACE, spellbound. He may have only laboratory in .” been 5 or 6 years old, but it was a seminal experience. Like the He continues, “I was initially interested in cinematography. two children in The Secret Garden who uncover a world of secrets Mort’s company was Cinemetric in New York. It was a com- and beauty inside this walled garden, so too did McKay in the mercial house. He had a print house and I was working there as possibilities of cinema. a messenger boy and he promised me an apprenticeship at some Two-time Oscar® nominee McKay grew up in New York’s point, which I got sometime later. But I was always fooling Hudson Valley where he developed an interest in photography around with a camera. I was shooting a small movie for 20th and filmmaking at an early age. His parents bought him a small Century Fox Family Club on the side and then I made a little camera and he started making little movies. Film schools weren’t film about Cinemetric. He saw that I could shoot so he would let really a thing at the time and there weren’t any opportunities me do some test commercials. That totally changed once I got in his hometown, but he was determined to pursue his passion involved with editing.” vigorously nevertheless. However, fortune favors the bold. McKay had a hunger for more experience and always kept “A friend of my family knew someone who had a film company. his eye on the prize. “I had always considered myself, even at that He asked if I wanted to meet him. I was very excited about doing early age, a storyteller. I saw the storytelling advantages being

38 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photo courtesy of Craig McKay, ACE. in a cutting room. That sort of galvanized me. But I was in a and we had lunch. Frankly, I wasn’t that impressed with the next commercial house, and I wanted to do feature films. That’s where script. It was . Bear in mind that script won the real fire in my belly was. I met a lot of people in the commercial an Academy Award®,” admits McKay, laughing. “Still, I told him house who also worked in features. I started doing more camera I’d love to work with you and your take on the fractured American work and editing, but I lost interest in the camerawork because culture. Even though I dumped on the script, he hired me. Madison Avenue only wanted to take pretty pictures and I was There was a problem, though. I was still working on a TV movie more interested in storytelling.” of the week and I wouldn’t be able to start work until six weeks He remembers, “One of the people I started out with was into his shoot. I told him that and he wasn’t pleased. He called Richard Marks [ACE]. We were both PAs in the beginning. Barry and complained. Barry said, ‘Hire him, anyway. I’m telling I told Richard my gripes about Madison Avenue. He told me to try you, hire him.’ Demme told the studio that I would be starting coming back in the cutting room. At least you get to learn every six weeks late. The studio was like, ‘Who the f@#% is Craig aspect of it. It’s a very powerful place to be. After that, I started to McKay?’ Demme said well, he just won an Emmy and an Eddie. pursue a feature film career.” That was it. I had the job.” It may have started out complicated, but “Film production was really picking up in New York at it was the beginning of a beautiful partnership. the time,” recalls McKay, “and [sound editor] Sandy Rakow The ‘70s were quite good to Craig McKay and the ‘80s recommended me for an assistant position to a fairly new would be no different. He started the decade with a one- editor at the time – Alan Heim [ACE]. Alan hired me on two punch that set the tone for his career as an editor and my first feature film. Thank you, Alan. I’m forever grateful. his craftsmanship as a storyteller. “Melvin and Howard won That feature was the film, Last of the Mobile Hot a lot of critical acclaim. I had crossed the bridge to feature Shots. There I was … doing a Warner Bros. feature film with land. Not long after that, I got a call from [ACE]. Alan Heim!” From that point, McKay wanted for nothing regard- I had worked with her as an ADR editor on a couple of jobs a few ing assistant work. years prior. She had recommended me for an earlier job for a TV McKay details, “Alan recommended me to Evan Lottman documentary on the American Revolution. She said, ‘I’m doing a [ACE]. I did a film with Evan as his assistant, which was Puzzle of a Downfall Child – Jerry Schatzberg’s first film. From there, [ACE], whom I knew from Cinemetric, asked me to be his assistant on a feature film. It was the Herb Gardner-scripted film, Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? Then, I went back to work on a movie called Scarecrow with Evan Lottman. I told Evan I wanted to do some cutting and he told me to ask Jerry Schatzberg, the director, and if he says it’s okay then it’s okay with him. So I did and I cut two important scenes in the Scarecrow so I got the bug even more. That same year, I had worked on The Exorcist, which was such a big hit. I got a lot of television work from that. A lot of TV movies of the week. Also, my first feature film – Thieves. I also found out after some success, it’s easy to get your first feature film. Not so easy to get your second.” Never one to be discouraged, McKay remained laser-focused on his goals. “I told everybody I’m not going to do anything until I get another cutting job so I stayed in the house for 10 months,” recalls McKay humorously. “Finally, Steve Rotter [ACE] called and said he was doing a miniseries called Holo- caust. It was one of the first big miniseries for television. He hired me and I worked with him and Bob Reitano. Alan Heim was also on board – he was still in New York at the time. I really gave that show everything I had. We were eventually nominated for Emmys®. I remember getting a call from Steve Rotter at 2 a.m. who was at the Emmy Awards and he told me, ‘Our show won!’ I got an Eddie out of that, too.” Around that time Barry Malkin was working on with . “They had a good relationship. Jonathan wanted him on his next film, but Barry had already committed to doing another project. Barry recommended me. Jonathan called

Photos courtesy of Craig McKay, ACE. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 39 very big film. Russian Revolution. John Reed. Ten days that shook shot.’ Of course, he’s talking about the one with the crow’s feet. the world. . Diane Keaton. Jack Nicholson. I need I said, ‘Yes. It’s a really good performance. Very strong.’ He replied, a partner. Are you interested?’ Took me about a tenth of a second ‘Yeah, but don’t you think it shows a little too much character?’” to say yes. I deeply admired Dede and welcomed the opportunity And so character won. to be partners with her on the film. And we were indeed partners. The rest of the decade was filled with three more Jonathan It was a partnership and we did that for two years. We got (Oscar) Demme films (Swing Shift, Something Wild, Married to the nominated for that but didn’t win. I was pretty well established by Mob) and a number of TV movies interspersed throughout. that time as a feature film editor.” Reds scored a slew of Academy Unbeknownst to McKay he was building up to something even Award nominations including a win for its director, Warren Beatty. larger that would bloom in the ‘90s. He explains, “I established Now that McKay was in the big leagues, he learned that editing a great relationship with Jonathan. We were definitely molto is sometimes more than just telling the best story. “When I started simpatico. Sometimes I wouldn’t even see him while he was working on Reds Warren took me aside and said, ‘Craig, I want you shooting but I still had a sense of what he wanted. Most of the to know one thing: I’m the biggest narcissist in Hollywood,’” laughs time we were totally aligned. I had fun with Demme. He was McKay. “I had that in mind when cutting a particular scene where a humanist and it was at the core of his work. It transcended his performance is really good but he had these visible crow’s feet. the quirky aspects of the subject matter. I ultimately did I asked my assistant, Jill Savitt, to take a look at it, and she said, seven films with him and produced a couple of things with ‘Well, he’s really good but I don’t know if he’s gonna go for that shot.’ him. Once, we were in a sound mix and he came in that I said, ‘I know but I’m gonna put it in anyway because he’s that morning and he gave me a book to read. He said, ‘I read this good in it.’ I asked Beatty to come in and look at the scene. book all last night. I gotta make this movie.’ I said, ‘What He came in and after he saw it he said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. is it?’ He said, ‘It’s called The Silence of the Lambs. It’s an It’s a very interesting scene. I like it a lot, but you know that one unbelievable, thrilling ride.’ I said, ‘I wanna do it with you.’ He said, ‘You got it.’ I’ve done a number of movies, but Lambs is probably the one movie where I got to do everything I wanted to do as an editor.” The Silence of the Lambs won the Academy Award for Best Picture and garnered McKay his second nomination. The film was not only a critical smash, but also a box office success proving that horror need not be relegated to B-movie status. There is a now-famous scene in which McKay’s talents truly shine through and it is close to the film’s denouement. “When I first got the scene of the FBI raid, it looked like it was shot in an almost linear or straight line. I looked at it and thought, ‘We should parallel cut that,’ but I couldn’t get a hold of Jonathan while he was shooting out in Pittsburgh. I got a hold of the script supervisor and asked, ‘Was that scene intended to be linear or in parallel?’ She thought it was linear so I went against my instinct and cut a linear version. A couple of weeks later I’m screening it with Demme and in that dark screening room he leans forward and says, ‘How come you didn’t parallel that?’ We had great communication. GamesRadar does a great job describing the scene and the power of editing on full display:

“If any aspiring filmmaker wants to know how to use crosscutting to its full potential, just point them to this sequence. As the film nears its climax, the FBI think they have their killer and are about to raid his house, while Clarice [] follows up on an interview lead separately. We see Buffalo Bill [Ted Levine] panicking as a bell rings at the exact moment the FBI press on the doorbell but, wait, he opens the door to Clarice while the FBI breaks into what they come to realize is an empty house. The added genius to the sequence is that only [the audience] realizes just how screwed Clarice is, meaning we’re hoping and PRAYING she just walks away from the house. She doesn’t.1”

40 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 1| www.gamesradar.com/silence-of-the-lambs-best-moments. Photos courtesy of Craig McKay, ACE. The ‘90s saw its share of other highlights including Blues, Philadelphia, and Cop Land. Eager to impart and discover creativity, McKay was also a creative advisor at Sundance during its zenith as America’s premier independent film festival. It was around this time that McKay made the digital leap. He recalls, “I was helping out Demme on a doc he was producing about Nelson Mandela. He asked me to come take a look at it. There was an Irish assistant on the film named Naomi Geraghty. That doc was being cut on the Avid. I had not made the transition yet. I was able to sit with the editor. While I was on the job, I got a call from a producer who said he was doing a film in Ireland called Some Mother’s Son, and we want to know if you’re interested. He said the director is Jim Sheridan and those are magic words. I said, ‘I’d love to work with Jim Sheridan.’ I didn’t have an agent in those days. We had entertainment lawyers who would make the deals for us. I knew it was an Avid job. I remembered Naomi was in the other room. I asked her, ‘You interested in doing a film in Ireland?’ She responded, ‘You know I came all the way here to make films and now you’re taking me back.’ She was able to help me out and that was the first film I was able to cut digitally.” For someone known for his narrative skills, telling an eloquent and interesting story didn’t happen overnight for McKay. He explains, “The transition between assistant and editor was not easy for me. I was known as the technical guy. I was trying to crack the whole idea of story and I was talking to Herb Gardner, the playwright, about it. He suggested I read a book by Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing. He said, ‘It’s the bible.’ I studied that book over a couple of years and read it two or three times. It really delineated the framework of storytelling for me. That helped me more than anything else. He also suggested Strunk and White’s The one thing that I was really thought of as is a performance The Elements of Style. I took that and applied it to film – omit editor. Dede used to say to me, ‘Performance is everything.’ useless words/shots. Those two sources helped me tremendously. I worked really hard on developing strong performances through Right now, I consider myself more of a storyteller than an editor deep concentration.” Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Maureen or a producer or a director. I was once at a dinner party with Herb, Stapleton, , and even Warren Beatty , Bob and Sam Cohen from ICM. I asked can attest to that. Paddy if he had any advice on storytelling. He said, ‘Kid, there’re Nowadays, McKay continues to edit but is working on a only three things you need to know to tell a story: Who is your passion project that’s a little hush-hush right now. He’s putting all character, what does he want and what’s preventing him from his energy into producing a script that he has written. Not bad for getting it? That’s it.’” the die-hard New Yorker who learned how to not let a disability Filmmaking is about collaboration and asking for help is part hamper his dreams. of that process. It’s a team of specialists working toward a common McKay was born with a dislocated hip, which created a goal: Tell the best story possible. Over the years, McKay has been shortness and a need for an artificial leg. “I’m the one-legged film ably backed by such strong assistants like Joe Landauer, Colleen editor,” jokes McKay. “I never let the handicap get in my way. Sharp, Trudy Ship, Deirdre Slevin and Nancy Kanter, who is now Fortunately, a lot of people wanted to hire the handicapped guy. executive vice president at Disney Channels Worldwide, plus As a kid, I suffered a lot. Doing camera work was pretty aggressive the aforementioned Geraghty and Savitt. “I like giving someone stuff. I still live it today.” When his grandmother took him to see talented the opportunity to be an assistant, but sometimes you The Secret Garden as a child, he had no idea the film was about have to push them out of the nest and find another,” shares McKay. “a rich kid who was handicapped and wore braces and how he Throughout his career, McKay has been adept at hopping healed. I remember, looking up at this big black-and-white screen, from genre to genre, from style to style, without losing any of that I got more deeply involved. I was a moviegoer from that point on. special touch. This century only cements that fact with a roster I was blown away. It was the impetus for me to pursue passion. full of comedies (Surviving Christmas), sci-fi (Europa Report), Interesting now. All these years later, my apartment in Manhattan dramas (), indies (Sin Nombre), is next to a two-acre private garden shared with another build- and documentaries (Babies). He explains, “I felt that I could do ing across the way. An area, which called any genre: documentary, TV, film. My career is varied that way. ‘The Secret Garden.’”

Photos courtesy of Craig McKay, ACE. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 41 How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

John K. Carr, ACE, brings the third in the animated trilogy to an emotional climax

BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

roduced by DreamWorks Animation, How to Train Your Carr says the production originally targeted for release in Dragon: The Hidden World concludes the trilogy started 2016, “however, about a year towards the end of D2 the studio P with 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon. had Dean write a new ending which completely changed the story The film picks up where the second (2014) film dropped off, with for D3. So, in the summer of 2014, after the release of D2, Dean Hiccup, now the chief of Berk, having fulfilled his dream of creating conceived and wrote a whole new story for D3 minus the ending. a peaceful dragon utopia. It’s not long before danger threatens their “Something we didn’t fully realize until a research panel was village, notably in the form of a dragon slayer called Grimmel, who put together after the release of Dragon 2, was how much the hunts Toothless, Hiccup’s lovable Night Fury companion. The duo audience loved all the dragons,” the editor says.“There is a scene must embark on a perilous quest to a world thought only to exist in in Dragon 2 where two gigantic dragons, called Bewilderbeasts, myth to save both dragon and humankind. are engaged in a fight to become the sole alpha dragon; much Director Dean DeBlois takes the reigns again as writer and like two male lions fighting to become the leader of their pride. director. Also returning is John K. Carr, ACE, an additional editor When the benevolent Bewilderbeast is killed by its evil rival, the on the original, and editor on HTTYD2. recruited panel vocalized how upset they were with the outcome

42 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Toothless and Hiccup (Jay Baruchel). © 2019 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All rights reserved. of that particular scene. So, what we learned was there are a lot of animal lovers out there, and even though the movie is animated, and the dragons are mythical … don’t kill a dragon.” The third in the trilogy marks a shift in tone from the first movie, with the stakes heightened, to match the growing maturity of the characters. “The challenge was to create fun character moments that paid homage to the previous two movies, but be fresh in [their] content,” says Carr. “The scene of Toothless courting [his love interest] the Light Fury was a fresh take on the moment where Hiccup first tried to befriend Toothless. The trilogy has been so well crafted by Dean, that to push the characters in a different and new direction was always the intent, and necessary for the story, and character development as a whole.” Carr explains that his main thought when cutting a scene together is finding ‘point of view.’ “Whose point of view is it, and what is the story that needs to be conveyed to the audience through that character’s POV?” For example, a scene where Tuffnut tells Hiccup about what he needs to do to be a worthy man so [Hiccup’s girlfriend] Astrid will consider marrying him is a comedic one, Carr explains. Tuffnut is doing 99 percent of the talking, but Hiccup is on a completely different mission where he is trying to find out more information about the Light Fury, and makes a shocking discovery. “It was one

of those fun, challenging and cleverly-written scenes where you have to decide what funny lines we need to be focused on Tuffnut, for maximum comedic value, and what lines could we still get the same comedic laugh from, even though the camera is on Hiccup.” The quest begins in the first scene in the second act but after a test screening some viewers felt the second act was a little too long. Editorial was also tasked with trimming six minutes out of the movie for budgetary reasons. Carr explains, “All the original sequences are still in the movie, they’ve just been trimmed a little, and rearranged. It starts the same way with Hiccup leading the Vikings and dragons away from their island of Berk, and following them along their journey until they stop and set up a temporary camp on a new island. Then we cut to our villain, Grimmel, back on Berk discovering Hiccup and the Vikings are gone. I pitched to Dean the idea to intercut Grimmel in the middle of Hiccup and the Vikings leaving Berk, and landing on the temporary island. He gave me the okay to try it, but because we were in a production crunch working on other sequences, I tasked [associate editor] Mary Blee with cutting what I pitched to Dean. “I don’t think I could have cut it any better; she did an amazing job. I had her cut back in a couple of dialogue exchanges I thought Dean would miss, and we showed it to him. By intercutting Grimmel into Hiccup’s journey, Grimmel was no longer recap- ping for the audience what they’d already witnessed happen.

Left top: Light Fury dragon. Left bottom (L-R): Hiccup. © 2019 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All rights reserved; Editor John K. Carr, ACE. Photo by Eric Charbonneau. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 43 ©Universal Pictures. Right top: Hiccup (Jay Baruchel). Right bottom: Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham). © 2019 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All rights reserved. Instead, Grimmel became the author to what the audience was says Carr. “Occasionally I’d hear something in line delivery that witnessing, and thus made him look smart, and that he was the would spark an idea, and I’d ask Dean, based on what I heard, orchestrator to everything Hiccup was doing.” whether we could try an additional line, or phrase the line He adds, “We wound up cutting close to two minutes out of differently with an alternate delivery. the total time from the old cut to the revised version, and it made “We had a library of Toothless and Dragon vocals from the our villain smarter. I’m very proud of the way it turned out, and a other two movies to provide a personality of the dragons for the great deal of credit goes to Mary.” animators to animate to, he adds, saying that the most challenging The scene during which Hiccup says a final goodbye to sound was the Light Fury as Randy Thom – the sound designer on Toothless, as the dragon embarks on a new life, was challenging the first two films, who provided vocalizations used for Toothless because of its emotional impact on not only the movie, but the – wasn’t available to lend his voice talents, as he was working on trilogy as a whole. another film. Carr and associate editor Mark Hester “listened to “Everything has come down to this moment, and because of various animal sound effects, ranging from a pig, alligator and its emotional potential, several people had various opinions how various animals from the cat family to create this.” it should be, what should be said, and how much of what is said Carr’s editorial family also included assistants Shane Glick, should be conveyed through dialogue or pantomime,” says Carr. Natalia Cronembold and Vicki Hiatt who assisted with the music “The solution came when [composer] John Powell watched the editing in prep for screenings. latest version that Dean and I worked on, and after watching the “Their contributions to the movie were invaluable,” says Carr. whole movie without music, John said that he loved the movie, “It was important to me that each person cut a scene, so they could and the goodbye moment was perfect.” watch the final product and feel special about their contribution. The voice cast includes F. Murray Abraham (Grimmel), Cate To have been able to contribute along with so many creative and Blanchett (Hiccup’s mother, Valka), Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig and talented people on not only a successful movie, but a . “If there was a funny ad-lib that was recorded, franchise that has endeared the hearts of so many people – and I would ask for a few more takes, just so we had it covered,” hopefully the hearts of generations to come – is humbling.”

44 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Astrid (America Ferrera) and Hiccup (Jay Baruchel). © 2019 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All rights reserved. PRIMETIME EMMY® AWARD-WINNING EDITOR MITCHELL DANTON, ACE Cutting It in Hollywood TOP FILM EDITORS SHARE THEIR JOURNEYS

“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 “A valuable addition to any editor’s reading list.” Jonny Elwin, Film Editors on Film Editing

AVAILABLE ONLY AT CuttingItInHollywood.com

FEATURING STORIES & EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH SOME OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS: John Axelrad, ACE Michael Kahn, ACE Zene Baker, ACE Paul Karasick Josh Beal Ivan Ladizinsky , ACE Mary Jo Markey, ACE Betsy Comstock Tyler Nelson Todd Desrosiers Tony Nigro Nena Erb, ACE Jim Page, ACE Billy Fox, ACE Chris Peppe Barbara Gerard Julius Ramsay Joseph M. Gonzalez David Rogers, ACE Lise Johnson Ron Rosen Mark Jones

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

MD-CE-ad0717.indd 1 6/16/17 1:45 PM Dumbo Chris Lebenzon, ACE, reteams with Tim Burton to make an elephant fly

BY SCOTT LEHANE

wo-time Oscar®-nominated editor Chris Lebenzon, ACE, CinemaEditor: When did you get involved in this project and has worked on almost every major Tim Burton movie where were you based? T since 1992’s , building a close working Chris Lebenzon: I started in June of 2017. The entire movie was relationship and a mutual trust with the director through such films shot on sets at London’s Pinewood Studios. This is because it as Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, , Charlie and the required a lot of visual effects to create an environment, to create Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet the world. I don’t think there was one outdoor shot, even though a Street, Alice in Wonderland, Frankenweenie and Miss Peregrine’s lot of the movie takes place outdoors. Home for Peculiar Children. We also worked at Cardington Airfield, which is getting very With more than 36 film credits dating from 1976, Lebenzon popular. It’s the biggest stage in the U.K. Chris Nolan did some was nominated for the editing Oscar for his work on of the work on one of the Batman films there as well. It’s a huge in 1986 and Crimson Tide in 1995. He has also been nominated hangar that was used in World War I to launch zeppelins. for six ACE Eddie Awards, winning two for his work on Burton’s Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland. CE: What was your process like during production? His latest collaboration with Burton, Dumbo, starring Colin CL: I edit what we’re shooting that day. Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green and Alan When each shot is finished, it is sent right into the Avid and Arkin is a live-action adaptation loosely based on the 1941 Disney by the end of the day the scene is cut. Sometimes there are two or animated classic about a young elephant who can fly. The team more scenes a day depending on the production schedule. also included cinematographer Ben Davis, BSC; production The dailies are conformed the next morning. I make adjust- designer ; costume designer and ments to the scene before the new day’s shots are loaded. But in VFX supervisor Richard Stammers of lead VFX house MPC. this particular case Dumbo, our main character, is not yet in CinemaEditor spoke with Lebenzon while he was in the final the movie. He and his mom are fully CG. There were actors in stages of finishing the March 29 release. green suits in the wide shots portraying Dumbo and his mother.

46 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Dumbo. ©2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Sometimes there were plates for their close-ups and sometimes not. I would overlay a title that described what Dumbo should be doing. The chore became integrating him in a way to achieve the most emotionally-satisfying result. It’s a matter of focusing the story, getting the most I could out of the characters, hitting all the emotional beats and fine tuning the relationships. That’s what we as editors do on any movie, but the added task here was placing Dumbo in where we needed him to get the most out of the scene and his character.

CE: What system were you editing on? CL: I used Avid Media Composer 8.8. Part of my request on the movie, because I’ve done so many in England, was to be home more often and the studio and the director obliged me, which was very kind. I had a system here [in L.A.] and a system [in the U.K.] throughout post-production. There was an ISIS system here to store the material and one in London. It was great for me because with the time-zone difference, at the end of my day I could give my assistant some duties and when I got to work the next day they would be done.

CE: How would you describe the editorial style that you were trying to achieve? CL: This is a movie primarily for families with young children. So, I tried to channel the 10-year-old version of myself which to be honest wasn’t very difficult. I had a very collaborative relationship with the studio; they have a lot invested in this project. So I would implement their notes and review their suggestions and Tim and I would CE: When you were cutting, did you use pre-vis or post-vis to discuss their views and adopt what felt right. That was an ongoing mock up videos in the edit? process and there were previews that guided us in terms of what CL: We did, though this director doesn’t particularly follow pre- the audience might expect and point out the deficiencies that vis. It’s just a springboard for ideas. I did ask for post-visualization we had to address. shots of Dumbo doing something simple to place in the cut We’ve had a lot of time in post-production to step back and as a guide. It helped to crystallize a scene instead of looking at a look at what it is that we were doing and how effectively it was plate with a banner that simply says “Dumbo” or “Mrs. Jumbo.” connecting. As Dumbo’s look became more refined, the movie as It was a good starting point for discussing what the character a whole took a different shape which suggested other ideas on should be doing. how to make it better. We were editing all the way until the last day of final dubbing. CE: What is it like working with Tim Burton? CL: He’s a very familiar entity for me and no doubt I am for him. So there’s the comfort level and understanding of what each other can do. I can complete his sentences, which happens a lot because he doesn’t always finish them. And he’s very intuitive so he can read my thoughts before I express them. It’s a lot of fun working with Tim. He’s more interested in design, really, as an artist, and every shot becomes a kind of painting. Sky replacements are a major issue on all his movies. He’s very careful with composition and atmospheric detail and works hard to create a world like no other.

CE: How hands-on is he in the editorial process? CL: Tim’s a very big-picture director with all of his departments. He’s not that guy that sits behind me and micromanages or talks about frames or wants to watch different versions. In fact, some- times I do different versions and he can’t tell the difference.

Left: Editor Chris Lebenzon, ACE. Photo by Kaitlin Hollingsworth. Right top: Dumbo with Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins. Right bottom (L-R): Joseph Gatt, CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 47 Michael Keaton, Nico Parker, Eva Green, , Finley Hobbins, Danny DeVito, Douglas Reith. ©2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. He generally comes in to see the scenes, discuss his views and leaves. Then I can interpret and implement his thoughts. After a screening, we breeze through the cut, discuss our issues and he leaves me to it.

CE: Tell me a little bit about how you work with music. Did you use temp tracks? CL: Definitely. I had temp tracks during the shooting and we’ve used them as a guide and continued with that through post- production, which is always helpful. I try not to add music too early. I’m just too busy and until the movie takes shape it’s hard to pin down a musical style that’s appropriate. If I can I’d just as soon wait until a music editor starts but that isn’t always possible. There are some directors who don’t like the crutch of temporary music because it may make a scene look better than it really is and then you get the real score and you’re disappointed. It’s that ‘temp-love’ syndrome that composers agonize over. But it’s helpful for me. Mostly, it’s a service for the studio. I don’t necessarily need it and the director doesn’t need it but it does present the movie in a better light.

CE: Tell me about the role that your assistant editors played in the process. CL: I had Keith Mason and Nick Davis in London and they were with me on the last Tim Burton movie that I did out there (Miss Peregrine). They worked very hard during shooting to get me the shots immediately as they were filmed and it was tough to do that. All the takes get loaded right into the system, and it was quite a drill. They came in early and then they’d have to come in early the next day to conform the dailies and over-cut the scene. And then I had my visual effects editor, Tom Kemplen. CE: So overall, what have been the biggest challenges that you He started with me 10 years ago. He was very helpful as always. faced on this film? On a lot of VFX shots, we’d experiment with blow-ups, speed CL: Well, for one, when you’re on a movie for a year and a changes or do camera moves to improve their impact. half, it can be challenging to maintain your interest. But I didn’t There’s so much work in England that it’s hard to get your crew find it hard because it was a dramatic movie and then it became back or even get new people. There are no small American movies an animated movie when we were working with Dumbo so it being made there. They’re all the big tentpole movies that employ morphed into a blend of two genres in terms of one’s approach. a large crew so it’s hard to find assistants. Getting Dumbo to do the right things so you could feel for him I also had my always-reliable American assistant, Joseph was one of the bigger challenges. And we had to be very careful Kirkland, stationed in L.A. of how much we showed of him. We didn’t want to overexpose the main character too early. We had to achieve the balance of showing him just enough to want more. We didn’t even want to show him flying too much because then there’s no buildup to the next time he flies. Keeping the audience wanting more of Dumbo was both fun and challenging.

CE: What’s your main takeaway from this film? CL: This is the kind of movie that can be made better and better in post-production because we could add moments of the main character whenever it felt right. I was very fortunate to be involved with something like this because generally, you are limited by what a director shoots. In the case of Dumbo, it didn’t matter that we didn’t have a plate or a specified angle for our main character. We could create shots that helped propel the story, elevate the drama and elicit the emotion.

48 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Left: Dumbo. Right top: Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito. Right bottom: Colin Farrell, Eva Green. Photo by Jay Maidment. ©2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

ACE HOLIDAY PARTY ACE president Stephen Rivkin, ACE, presented new member plaques during the celebration

ore than 500 guests kicked off the holiday season at the annual ACE Holiday Party, Dec. M8 at Herscher Hall and Guerin Pavilion at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. During the festivities, ACE President Stephen Rivkin, ACE, welcomed attendees and presented new member plaques to Miranda Yousef, ACE; Mark Strand, ACE; John Valerio, ACE; Ghaman, ACE; Andrea Bailey, ACE; Terel Gibson, ACE; Kelly Matsumoto, ACE; Jason Savage, ACE; Kenn Kashima, ACE; Ron Patane, ACE; Scott Stevenson, ACE; David Lebowitz, ACE; Keith Reamer, ACE; Hilda Rasula, ACE; and Arthur Tarnowski, ACE. Also receiving his member plaque was longtime special member Norman Hollyn, ACE. New affiliate member Rachael Wax Taber was also recognized. During the presentation, Troy Takaki, ACE, recog- nized the past and present members of the ACE Diversity Mentorship Program in attendance. “The future of ACE is bright. The future of ACE is colorful. And the future of ACE is full of estrogen,” he said. Guests included ACE Vice President Alan Heim, ACE; Secretary Lillian Benson, ACE; last year’s career achievement award recipients , ACE, and Leon Ortiz-Gil, ACE; and last year’s Oscar® nominees Tatiana S. Riegel, ACE (I, Tonya) and Sidney Wolinsky ACE (The Shape of Water). Guests with recently-released movies included Tom Cross, ACE (First Man); , ACE (22 July); Joi McMillon, ACE, and , ACE (If Beale Street Could Talk); Eddie Hamilton, ACE (Mission: Impossible – Fallout); Hank Corwin, ACE (Vice); and Adam Gough (Roma). During the evening, guests enjoyed live music, a buffet and a full bar sponsored by Tribeca West Kilroy Realty. ACE held a new toy collection for Spark of Love and a raffle benefitting the ACE Educational Fund. Raffle prizes included a DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel donated by Blackmagic Design, two Adobe Creative Cloud one-year subscriptions (all apps), a Media Composer donated by Avid and numerous other prizes generously donated to ACE.

50 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photos by Peter Zakhary. Photos by Peter Zakhary. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 51 lunches with the post-production team were exhilarating and fun. ACE Internship Program She soaked in as much as she could from the years of experience present around the table. She also spent a week with the editorial BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE team of 6 Underground where she learned how to process dailies and prep them for the multiple editors working on the show. Wright shadowed the editorial team of Marvel’s Jessica Jones. She got her feet wet in how to deal with dailies and organize them for the editor. The assistant editor would group clips together and mark them ‘action’ or ‘reset’ and create thumbnails. As an assistant you could then familiarize yourself with the footage and give the editor an opinion if that’s asked for. Her second week was at Disney’s Stargirl where she learned the importance of editing sound effects to help to give an indication of how a sequence is going to evolve. Both Chun and Wright were introduced to the advantages and intricacies of Avid’s ScriptSync, through which clips are organized in lined-script order, a very fast and organized way to get an overview of what was shot for a sequence. They also learned how to do turnovers and how essential these are for a smooth hand-off to all the facilities that take care of the post-production after editorial. How important flawless turnovers are became very clear to both ACE interns when they spent their third week visiting Los Angeles-based post-production facilities. They went to a film lab, ollowing a rigorous selection process, ACE interns Irene a sound studio and a visual effects studio that all needed to work Chun, a grad of Pepperdine University in Malibu, and Katelyn with the flawless EDLs and AAFs supplied by the assistant editors F Wright, an alum of Full Sail University in Winter Park, of all the shows. The interns watched sessions with a colorist, Foley Fla., recently completed a four-week ACE Internship Program walkers, sound mixers and digital artists. They saw the professional that gave them their first look into the professional Hollywood transcoding of dailies, learned how VFX can help pre-visualizing post-production scene. sequences and got a taste of how the cloud can help an editorial The program, chaired by program alums Carsten Kurpanek team to work remotely. and Tyler Nelson, involved spending time in editing rooms and The last week of the ACE Internship Program involved shadow- touring post-production facilities while being mentored by ing a reality-show post-production team. Chun spent the week on experienced ACE editors. The Voice, during which time she was amazed to see how organized Wright remembers how she became aware of ACE and the the assistant editors needed to be in order to keep track of all the intern program: “There was one day during school where we were footage. “They used a whiteboard in the office to communicate analyzing film credits and how the style of them helps introduce tasks from day-shift to night-shift. They not only have to prep the and close the film. I asked my teacher why you would put ACE footage, but also address media requests from producers. Without after someone’s name. I went down a very deep rabbit hole after a script to follow, the editor needed to create a story by combing that. After stalking the different ACE editors and exploring the through the interviews with the transcript and watching the footage. website I fell across the internship program. The same day I “After my week at The Voice, I’ll never be able to watch un- was begging my program director and the editor I had worked scripted shows the same again,” she admits. “There’s so much work for on Fox Hunt Drive to write me recommendation letters. The that goes into creating the story. It was also amazing to see that even program was everything I needed. It would take the basics I had though there are so many editors working on the show, they make it learned in school, and expand my perspective on the roles in post- look seamlessly cohesive." production. I may have had a general understanding of editing, Wright spent the week with teams from American Idol and the but I had no idea how much effort and work went into being the Academy Awards. She enthusiastically recalls how this was a non- assistant, which was the first step I had to take. union house, Sim Digital, so she had the opportunity to do some “Throughout the application process, I was convinced I would hands-on work: “I got to sync and group [15 cameras] on the Avid, not be selected,” she adds. “Even when I was a finalist (which is working with managing assets, and creating outputs from the Avid. already a huge honor) I knew that I didn’t know nearly as much As a kinesthetic learner, this was vital to really bring everything as the others. When I was driving home, I received the call from together. The assistant spent a great deal of time illustrating to me Tyler Nelson and Carsten Kurpanek that I was chosen. And so, how to handle playback for the editors with a tape workflow and the journey began.” conform. Cutting multicam for reality is immensely different from For Chun, participating in the various editing rooms during her anything scripted. It can be said that there is certainly a rhythm to it. internship was a crash course of different aspects of post-production. Navigating 10-15 cameras is no easy feat, but the editors and their During her week in the editing rooms of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, assistants here have mastered the way.”

52 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: ACE interns Irene Chun and Katelyn Wright. Photo by Peter Zakhary. For both interns the first step into the professional world of Production and Editorial Teams post-production will likely be an assistant position, so shadowing an editorial team and learning all the ins and outs are important • Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Nena Erb, ACE; Lynarion Hubbard; Sara aspects. But surely their ultimate goal will be to become editors Isaacs; Deen Dioria; Casey Canoy; Patrick Maxwell; Kirkland themselves. Then the creative part takes precedence. What have Langberg; Kabir Akhtar, ACE; Kyla Plewes; A.J. Dickerson, ACE; they learned about the creative side of editing? Says Chun, “I was Mark Hellinger and Leandra Schatzman. indeed to the creative sides of editing. On the scripted side, • 6 Underground: Roger Barton; Calvin Wimmer; William Gold- I learned that it really is important to watch all the dailies. You don’t enberg, ACE; Pat Sandston; Drew Kilcoin; Jim Schulte; Phelicia want to miss anything and you want to be aware of what footage was Sperrazo and Edward Albolote. shot. By attending the table read and tone meeting, I was reminded of how important communication is to collaboration in film.” • The Voice: Robert Malachowski Jr., ACE; Omega Hsu, ACE; Adds Wright: “Watching all dailies was important for all editors. William Castro; Matt Antell; David McCloud; Vinnie DeRamus; They form the sequence in their head, making sure that all the Melanie Escano; Asher Pink; Garland Young; Ross Prescher and golden moments from production are included.” Addison Williams. Both say they were introduced to valuable contacts and learned • Jessica Jones: Shoshanah Tanzer, Alexander Aquino, Michael technical, organizational and creative information that will Lehrman, Dominique Pieb, Nate Meyer, Kiegan Downs, Kym speed them ahead in their careers in post-production. They both Pereira and Sarah Scharfenberg. recognize that staying in contact with others in the business is key. • Firelight: Tracey Wadmore-Smith, Shayar Bhansali, Lauren Wright remarks that the one thing the ACE internship has taught Carroll, Ayana Saunders, Jeffrey Harlacker and Jason Miller. her is that the post-production community here in L.A. is small. Everyone knows each other. The only way for the editors to stay Post-Production Facilities and Their Personnel sane is for them to stay connected. “I think the most important thing for me is not only stay in touch with the different editing rooms I • FotoKem: Tom Vice, Nick Burson, Vince Hughes, Mark Nakamine, visited, but also stay connected to Irene, my fellow intern, and the Jeff Smith, Ali Kravitz, Alex Sanchez and Ismael Salas. other honorary interns, the people I met at the lecture series, and my Sim Digital: Tim Schultz, Brian Kelly, Kara Forbis, George Carlos, mentors and guides through this journey,” she says. “I have a nice • Brian Montgomery, Stephan Olsen, Hunter Betts, Caleb Kadletz long list of contacts that I can call whenever I run into issues as a and Edwin Mendoza. post-production PA or as an assistant editor.” She plans to continue to grow her involvement in the community by attending upcoming • Larson Studios: Richard Ellis, Fred Howard, Tom Kilzer, Adam events including EditFest LA. DeCoster, Jamie Santos and Alexey Mohr. Chun is determined to do the same: “I’ll be holding up the social • CBS Digital: Chris Tezber, Eric Wilson, Rob McClelland, Chloe part of post-production by going to different mixers. I’ve been to Warden, Aaron Daly and Adriana Dent. every mixer I’ve been invited to since I’ve been an intern and it’s Studios: Colin Dunning, Mark Lee, Jack Semcken and been really fun. I also have a system set up so that I can remember to • Tony Safarik. touch base with those I haven’t talked with for a while. I’ll be going to upcoming ACE events and will try to volunteer as much as I can • Disney/ABC: Bruce Sandzimier. in the years to come.” • BeBop Technology: Bruce Long. Chun, Wright and ACE wish to thank the people, productions and facilities that so generously opened up to make this once again ACE Internship Program Team and Mentors a successful ACE Internship Program. • Carsten Kurpanek; Tyler Nelson; Sabrina Plisco, ACE; Chris- topher Cooke, ACE; Herb Dow, ACE; Troy Takaki, ACE; Mark Andrew, ACE; Nena Erb, ACE; John Axelrad, ACE; Emma Li and Luke Palter.

ACE Office Staff

• Jenni McCormick, Jasmine Staehle, Marika Ellis and Gemmalyn Idmilao-Brunson.

Special Thanks

• Irene and Katelyn’s family and friends, teachers, all ACE interns and many other generous individuals who helped to set them on their path in becoming an ACE intern.

Above: ACE president Stephen Rivkin, ACE, Katelyn Wright and Irene Chun. Photo by Peter Zakhary. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 53 Cinema Eye Honors The annual event celebrates the artistry in nonfiction film BY GREGOR COLLINS

oing into this year’s Cinema Eye Honors awards, I was told Free Solo snagged the trophy for best achievement in produc- by an editor friend that I’d have a good time. Not only did I tion, best cinematography (, Clair Popkin and Mikey G have a good time – I had an incredible time. Schaefer), as well as the Audience Choice Prize. In his final hosting gig for Cinema Eye Honors – the annual As she clutched her statue with husband and co-director Jimmy event that recognizes nonfiction filmmaking, held Jan. 10 at Chin in tow, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi put the crazy ride in unique the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, N.Y. – two-time perspective: “You know, we would never have asked him (Alex Oscar®-nominated documentarian Steve James knocked it out of Honnold, the star of the film) to free solo. We couldn’t. We just had the park in his trademark breezy style, making the evening even to wait and be ready.” more impactful. Nominated for an Oscar last year for his film, After Vasarhelyi and Chin walked off stage, James squeezed Abacus: Small Enough to Jail – but losing out to the similar- in this zinger: “What they did with that greenscreen in that sounding Icarus – James kicked off the evening with an anecdote: film was amazing.” “I have a theory,” he began, slightly resentfully, “Icarus won Best nonfiction film for broadcast went to Baltimore Rising. only because people meant to vote for Abacus and they acciden- Outstanding achievement in an original music score went to tally voted for Icarus.” Ishai Adar for . Additionally, the film won for outstanding At one point during James’ opening monologue, a security achievement for graphic design or animation. guard’s radio went off. James paused and woefully peered out The Spotlight Award went to The Distant Barking of Dogs. at the giddy crowd finding it thoroughly amusing. They even- Director Simon Lereng Wilmont walked up flanked by Oleg tually quieted. “That’s sad that that was the funniest moment Afanasyev, the 10-year-old star of the film. “I owe everything of the evening,” he deadpanned. The crowd exploded. Clearly to this little guy and his grandmother,” is all he said before making stirring documentaries isn’t the only thing James has walking off stage. in his tool belt. Host James won for best drone footage, and for best nonfiction , director Bing Liu’s autobiographical series for broadcast, for his docu-series, America to Me. portrait of friendship, won best debut feature film, outstand- The Heterodox Award – recognizing work that blurs the line ing achievement in direction, and best editing for Joshua Altman between fiction and nonfiction – went to American Animals. and Liu. With seven total nominations for the evening, – the affecting 1987 PBS television series the film tied the record for most nominations in Cinema Eye about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States – took home Honors history. the Legacy Award. The award for outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes won for best achievement in non- filmmaking went to Hale County This Morning, This Evening. fiction short filmmaking.

54 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Left: Cinema Eye Honors winners. Right top: Host Steve James. Right bottom: Bing Liu and Joshua Altman. Photos courtesy of Cinema Eye Honors.

The following year Livolsi would become second assistant Remembering for another editor he considered a mentor, Alan Heim, ACE, on Funny Farm. “My assistant, John Hill, and myself were always worried that Mark would injure himself seriously on the film. Mark Livolsi, ACE He got his finger caught in the coding machine and cut himself on splicers often enough that we bought a big first-aid kit for the BY BOBBIE O’STEEN editing room. Nonetheless, he was eager to learn and an excellent co-worker on the film and a valued part of our isolated editing room family in Vermont.” Soon after, Livolsi worked for Susan Morse as an assistant on four films. She remembers that “he inherited his father’s talent as a caricaturist and illustrator and prepared for his son, Marky’s, birth by painting Peanuts characters on the walls of his room. His obituaries tried to capture the magic he was able to create as a film editor, but I will always remember him first as a kind, warm, empathetic and generous friend.” On Crimes and Misdemeanors, Livolsi met first assistant Bill Kruzykowski. They would end up working on 15 films together. “Mark’s list of films is a testament to his talent and drive to achieve the best that most of us wish could be possible. His strength and mostly his generosity was always a constant force of support for those of us who were lucky to work beside him. The open collaboration that he offered to us was very rare to find in any work environment. And let it not be forgotten, the great joy and fun that he brought to every day.” Livolsi returned to work with Hutshing on The River Wild and then French Kiss. “When Mark became my first assistant, I found ark Livolsi, ACE, a four-time Eddie nominee and truly- it very useful to show him my first-pass scenes before I showed cherished member of the editing community, passed away them to the director. His notes were always excellent and made my M on Sept. 23 in Pasadena. He was 56. cuts even better. But after letting him edit a few scenes on Almost He left behind his wife, Maria, and children, Mark and Madeleine Famous as well as place some key needle drops ... I realized he – and a remarkable body of work, which reflected a passion for had a true genius for editing. It was then I decided to give him the editing and movies. opportunity to be a full editor on . We shared a front Livolsi always loved movies. As a child, in his Canonsburg, credit on that film, and he was off and running.” Penn., neighborhood, he would use his dad’s 8mm camera to make Livolsi’s family ended up settling in New Jersey, but – because his own films. At Penn State University, he originally planned on of the opportunities that were being offered to him in studying aerospace engineering but soon switched to a degree in – he often performed the juggling act that so many editors can film. He gravitated toward editing, which Livolsi said, “was the relate to: working on one coast, while raising a family on another. one thing I could get lost in. It somehow just captivated me, the As Heim recalls, “He cared enormously for his family and re- puzzle solving of it all just kind of thrilled me. Two shots together mained a resident of New Jersey for a very long time, making creating a third idea just really struck me in a way that no other part trips back from Los Angeles as his career expanded.” of the filmmaking process did, so that’s what sort of focused me on His wife, Maria, confirms that “Mark had a very singular passion becoming an editor, and from there I didn’t look to the left or right.” in life: movies. Everything he talked about, collected or planned for Livolsi landed his first job in New York as a messenger for a revolved around movies; whether through his collecting, the music company that made commercial films and then became an apprentice he listened to and ultimately the career he pursued, he fulfilled his sound editor on Seven Minutes in Heaven. However, his goal was to passion in all aspects of his life. And true story, from the first day be a feature film editor, and he landed a film-editing apprentice job we met, I told myself Mark is going to make his mark on the movie on Wall Street. On that film he met , ACE, who would industry! Truer words were never spoken. Love you and miss you become a mentor and lifelong friend. Hutshing remembers their first deeply and forever, Mark.” meeting: “I arrived in New York in the middle of a summer heat During Vanilla Sky, Livolsi found representation with Hilarie wave. When I got to the editing suite, someone was whistling a Roope, who also became a dear friend. “He had the biggest joyous rendition of ‘Sleigh Ride.’ I was delighted, as it was the heart of anyone I knew and was a true artist with his pure, middle of July and sought out the whistler. It happened to be authentic way of storytelling. He was able to intuitively see the the apprentice editor, Mark Livolsi. I introduced myself and we tiny little moments of the actors’ performances in the dailies and became immediate friends.” create real people.”

56 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Mark Livolsi, ACE. Photo courtesy of Joe Hutshing, ACE. Hutshing says that, “In addition to his gifts as an editor, his in The Devil Wears Prada where is “having her break- sweetness of disposition, grace and wry humor endeared him to down on the couch ... and, yes, here was a point when I had cut it every director he worked with and made it difficult for them to and it was so unlike the rest of the rhythm of the movie, that I was want to work with anyone else.” After Vanilla Sky, Livolsi would a little worried. Are people going to be bored, are they going to be edit again for director on Elizabethtown and distracted, are they going to wander away because I’m not cutting? We Bought a Zoo. But the truth is that is one of the scenes that kept them in their seats He said working with the director was his favorite part, that ... It’s not about the rhythm of the cuts – those can facilitate, those the energy of collaboration was the most fulfilling. Crowe has this can help, but really it’s about what’s in the shot, what’s happening, to say about Livolsi: what’s being said.” When Livolsi went to work on The Jungle Book he relished the “He was more than an editor. opportunity to stretch himself on a film that used CG animation, but He was more than a friend. he felt he was hired because of his live-action background, and he He’s our brother. discussed his ability to find truthful moments. Adam Gerstel, who In fact. was second editor on The Jungle Book and co-editor on The Lion Mark will never live in the past tense. King considered Mark “a great friend” and “inspiring mentor ... He’s still with us, always. His cutting room was always a joy to be a part of. With a great sense His heart. of humor, Mark never took anything too seriously. When it came to His laugh. the edit, Mark had a wonderful sense of performance and rhythm. His soul. His work clearly shows what a talented storyteller he was. No detail His love of Godzilla. was ever left unattended.” He is your best partner on the grand creative journey. Livolsi was also able to become a mentor to his son, Mark, who He knows the big picture stuff. worked as a production assistant on The Jungle Book and assistant And the importance of the small picture stuff. visual effects coordinator on . “My dad was many And how to make your life better. things in life: a talented creative, an avid collector and a wise Just knowing him. father, to name a few. Most of all, though, he was my best friend: We love you Mark. someone I knew I could count on to stick by me through thick and Always.” thin, someone to laugh with and to pick me up when I was down. I will forever miss our daily conversations – even when there was Mark would go on to edit multiple features with many other nothing to talk about, somehow we found a way to entertain each directors: The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks for John Lee other. Though my heart breaks knowing I will never have another Hancock; Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus and The Judge for conversation with him again, I will forever treasure the memories of David Dobkin; The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me and The our time together, and strive for the bright future I know he would Big Year for ; The Jungle Book and upcoming have wanted. I love you, Dad” The Lion King for . Livolsi’s daughter, Madeleine: “Anyone that knew my dad knew Livolsi edited many successful comedies, which would often what an incredibly talented and genuine person he was. I was lucky require, as he said, a “breezy and fast-paced” approach, but he also enough to experience that as a child, and I’m so sad I will never had the sensitivity and courage to create an emotional effect by experience it again. I will forever cherish my time with him, like the “stopping and letting something play out.” He described the scene early Saturday mornings when the rumble from the surround sound in the basement would wake me up, and we would yet again pick up our routine of watching old horror movies together before anyone else in the house was awake. Sadly, he didn’t know how much he shaped me to be the person I am, and how proud I am that I’m so much like he was. Later in life, we would play ‘Guess That Tune’ after dinner and he would be amazed that I knew unconventional songs and artists, but of course I knew them because he was my dad. I’ll never forget the silliness and craziness that came with having him around, even if I didn’t get to see him all that much. I had an amazingly happy and goofy family, the core of which is no longer here. I miss you every day, every hour, every minute Daddy, forever and ever.” The artist and man are inextricably intertwined. Mark Livolsi’s warmth, humor, generosity of spirit and unerring kindness left an indelible impact on his films and on everyone who was fortunate enough to have known him. He will be missed but, most assuredly, never forgotten.

Above: Mark Livolsi, ACE, Cameron Crowe and Joe Hutshing, ACE. Photo courtesy of Joe Hutshing, ACE. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 57 Remembering Richard Marks, ACE

BY JACK TUCKER, ACE

evered film editor Richard Marks, ACE, whose best- features without fear of being pigeonholed. In Hollywood there known works include and Broadcast was much less crossover. R News died on Dec. 31. He was 75. Success in a film-editing career depends as much on luck as Over his five-decade career, Marks – a 2013 ACE Career on talent. And Marks managed to secure a position on the sound Achievement Award recipient – earned four Oscar® nominations, crew, run by Alan Heim, ACE, that was working on a film being for Apocalypse Now, which he edited with Walter Murch, ACE, edited by Dede Allen, ACE. Gerald Greenberg, ACE, and , ACE; Terms of When Allen was scheduled to begin editing Alice’s Restaurant Endearment; Broadcast News and . He left his for director she found herself in need of an assistant. mark on many additional classics such as The Godfather: Part II, Marks actively campaigned for the job. He asked everyone he The Last Tycoon (1976), Dick Tracy, Pennies from Heaven, You’ve knew to put in a good word for him and Dede agreed to try him. Got Mail and Pretty in Pink. Unfortunately, he did not have the two years as an apprentice Interestingly, Marks had never intended to enter the film completed to move up to assistant and the New York local wouldn’t business. He liked movies, but he had no knowledge of how let him take the job. Luck intervened, and the film was delayed they were made. three months which made Marks eligible to assist. Marks was an English literature major and he needed a job Allen was the greatest school for young film editors that ever when a friend recommended that he work in an editing room for a existed. She was a natural teacher and loved to explain things company making commercials for television. It was either that or to her assistants. Marks became one of ‘Dede’s Boys’ as her go on to grad school. Fortunately, Marks chose the editing room. assistants were called. She offered Marks the chance to cut a scene. In that environment, he began to see the magic that editors He wasn’t so sure he could do it, but she was very encouraging. create when they manipulate time and space. “I suspect that what She gave him film and set him to work. Afterward, they would attracted me to editing was that you get to control what happens run the scene and she would suggest other approaches to the on the screen,” said Marks. After a while he decided that editing material. Her suggestions were always positive and never critical. “fit my personality well.” When they moved on to Little Big Man (1970), Dede gave him In New York there was much more fluidity than in Hollywood. credit as an associate editor. That city never had the big studios to contend with. You could Marks became a full editor in 1972 with Parades and Bang the move back and forth between television, commercials and Drum Slowly. He co-edited with Allen and joined Peter

58 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Richard Marks, ACE. Photo courtesy of the Marks family. Zinner, ACE, to edit The Godfather: Part II. He began working with many talented directors such as , , , Arthur Penn, James L. Brooks and . Many of these collaborations were repeats. When asked about the reason for this Marks stated that to have a successful relationship with a director that they need to “share your taste or have respect for your taste.” Said Marks, “Filmmaking is all about story and character.” It was his devotion to these concepts that made him such a great editor. “I’ll show my wife a rough cut while beating myself up about it being terrible but she always knows when it’s going to end up great. She sees the potential.” Marks decided to relocate to Hollywood and in those days the East Coast and West Coast unions were separate. He needed to join the West Coast local to do Hollywood pictures. The Guild didn’t want to let him in and Marks almost had to sue them to become a member. Fortunately, today the Guild is national.

Larry Jordan introduced Marks into the world of the Avid when they were doing (2001). Though he loved working with film and the immediacy of handling the negative, he took to the new technology. Many a veteran didn’t – and abandoned their careers. Marks continued on and learned to be as proficient on a computer as on a Moviola. Besides being a working film editor, Marks taught film editing at the UCLA Graduate Film School with his wife, Barbara. One of their students was the Oscar-winning writer and director, . In addition to his Oscar nominations, over the course of his career, Marks was nominated once for an Emmy®, three times for a BAFTA® Award and four times for an ACE Eddie. Marks is survived by his wife, Barbara, who was the great love of his life. He was the father of Leslie; and grandfather and great-grandfather of five and brother of Elinor Ruda. He will be remembered by the people he mentored and taught, and for his kindness and great talent in the editing profession.

Left top: Richard Marks, ACE. Left bottom: Richard Marks, with Michael Ballhaus and James L. Brooks, Broadcast News. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 59 Right top: Richard Marks, ACE, with , Cameron Crowe and James L. Brooks, Say Anything. Photos courtesy of the Marks family. Right bottom: Richard Marks with his ACE Career Achievement Award. Photo by Linda Treydte/Tilt Photo. BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

2012 | Director | Editor Tim Squyres, ACE

Ang Lee won an Academy Award® for Best Director for this adaptation of Yann Martel’s fantasy-adventure novel about a young man (Pi) who survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. Midway through the story we find Pi stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a zoo tiger named Richard Parker. Pi stays on a small raft and is afraid to go onto the boat, for fear of being attacked. Both are very hungry, and there’s no hope of rescue.

“This scene was thoroughly prevised, and stayed closer to the plan than most of the scenes in the film,” relates Tim Squyres, ACE, who was Oscar® nominated for his work. “The order of shots during the fish swarm was different, and Pi’s interaction with Richard Parker with the boat hook changed to get the most of what was actually shot. We dropped a beat at the end of the scene, but otherwise it stayed pretty close to the previs.”

A key element of Lee’s groundbreaking approach was to shoot in stereo 3D. This scene is the only one in the film in which the aspect ratio is varied. Explains Squyres, “The scene is 1:1.85, like the rest of the movie, up until Pi throws the first fish toward camera. The next shot is a 180-degree reverse, and on that cut we crop top and bottom to 1:2.40, and stay there until the end of the scene.

60 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 Life of Pi photos and title ©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. “While we’re cropped, up until the moment when the tuna lands in the boat, everything that would otherwise be converged in 3D in front of the screen is placed in front of the matte rather than behind. “These are mostly fish, and last only a few frames, but the swimming tuna in the underwater shot is partially over black for quite a while. I wish I could say we did it for some important narrative reason, but it was mostly just for fun.”

Another decision impacting this scene was whether to have a score. “The studio really wanted us to add fun music, and composer actually did a piece, but we ultimately decided not to use it,” says Squyres. “We figured, if the scene was fun it would be fun either way, but if people wanted to feel the danger inherent in the situation, that was great too. Music could have told you fun or danger, but not both. Music would also have fought the fantastic sound-effect job Eugene Gearty and our mixers did, which made the scene more visceral and exciting than it was with music.”

One of the enjoyable things about Life of Pi for an editor is that one of the two lead performances is entirely made in post. Pi’s POV of Parker coming out from under the tarp is one of only 23 shots in the entire film with a real tiger.

“While an editor is usually limited by the performances that were shot, here we were shaping every nuance of Richard Parker’s performance from scratch,” says Squyres. “Working with Ang and the animators at Rhythm & Hues to craft that performance was one of the best parts of cutting the film.”

CINEMAEDITOR QTR 1 / 2019 / VOL 69 61 PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE 5555 MELROSE AVENUE PAID MARX BROTHERS BUILDING, ROOM 108 SANTA ANA, CA LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90038 PERMIT NO. 1882