T H E T E L E V I S I O N I S S
THE MAGAZINE FOR FILM & TELEVISION EDITORS, ASSISTANTS & POST-PRODUCTION PROFESSIONALS
THE TELEVISION ISSUE
IN THIS ISSUE KILLING EVE GAME OF THRONES BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH FOSSE/ VERDON LORENA THE GOOD PLACE AND MUCH MORE
US $8.95 / Canada $8.95 QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 THE YEAR’S MOST ACCLAIMED NEW COMEDY
“ BRILLIANT. A GORGEOUSLY REALIZED, FUNNY, TIGHT AS A DRUM STORY.” VULTURE
EMMY® NOMINATIONS INCLUDING OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES OUTSTANDING SINGLE CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES “ARIADNE” LAURA WEINBERG
FYC.NETFLIX.COM
CINEMA EDITOR MAGAZINE ACE , COVER 2 ISSUE: TV ISSUE EMMY FINAL VOTING ISSUE NETFLIX: RUSSIAN DOLL PUB DATE: 08/15/19 TRIM: 8.5” X 11” BLEED: 8.75” X 11.25” PETITION FOR EDITORS RECOGNITION
he American Cinema Editors Board of Directors • Sundance Film Festival 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 • New Orleans 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 – Spirit Awards • Los Angeles Film Critics Association You can help by signing the petition to help get • Chicago 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: Annie Awards • Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror – Saturn Awards
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 QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69
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04 34 Letter from the Board ACE Annual Meeting A message regarding the Lea Yardum receives 2020 ACE Eddie Awards Heritage Award; New members presented plaques 08 What’s New! 38 News & Announcements Lea Yardum Short Cut Comic ACE Heritage Award Honoree BY WALTER FERNANDEZ JR. BY JOHN VAN VLIET 10 26 40 Aspects of Editing ACE TechFest Reflections of Debuts in L.A. a TV Repairman BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE BY STUART BASS, ACE 44 14 EditFest London Tech Corner Lee Smith, ACE, keynotes the Avid had a party. But wait... 24 celebration of film editing BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE 48 16 In Memoriam Global Editing Terry Rawlings, ACE Perspectives BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON Examining India’s expansive film industry 50 BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE In Memoriam Barry Malkin, ACE 52 BY JACK TUCKER, ACE Cuts We Love Se7en BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON 20 22
features
20 22 24 26 Black Mirror: Game of Thrones The Good Place Fosse/Verdon Bandersnatch Tim Porter, ACE, pours his proud Eric Kissack is in heaven The miniseries is a time capsule of Tony Kearns solves the puzzle and battle-hardened soul into for NBC’s hit comedy drama Broadway’s glitziest years as much as of Netflix interactive drama episode 3 of the series’ final season BY GREGOR COLLINS an exploration of the romantic and BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON creative partnership of the iconic couple BY NANCY JUNDI 30 32 Lorena Killing Eve Poppy Das, ACE, searches for Gary Dollner, ACE, describes the truth behind the punchlines lacing the stylish cat-and-cat BY SCOTT LEHANE thriller with humor BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON
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CANYON DESIGN GROUP CLIENT: HBO ISSUE/POST: 08/15/19 PRINTED: 07/22/19 Mechanical: Bleed: 8.75" X 11.25" 6-21-78-0 24-20-20-25 2019 EMMY FYC JOB NO: J4657_47474 POSITION: 1 OF 3 SCALE: 100% Trim: 8.5" X 11" PHASE 2 & 3 — 1 0F 3 8F Live: 8" X 10.5" MEDIA: FULL PAGE FILENAME: J4657_47474_2019FYC_PH2_CINEMAEDITOR_AUG15_FP_1OF3_8F DENSITY: CINEMA EDITOR
24-20-20-0 75-68-67-90 CANYON DESIGN GROUP • 4929 WILSHIRE BLVD., SUITE 500 LOS ANGELES, CA 90010 (P) 323 933 2203 • CONTACT: JUDY KEMPER • EMAIL: [email protected] LETTER FROM THE BOARD
A MESSAGE REGARDING THE 2020 ACE EDDIE AWARDS
elcome to the annual CinemaEditor Television with contenders having to be released between Jan. 1, Issue. We hope you enjoy the feature stories 2019, and Dec. 31, 2019. W on series including Bandersnatch, Killing The black-tie awards ceremony will again unveil Eve, Fosse/Verdon, The Good Place, Lorena and Game winners for outstanding editing in 11 categories of of Thrones. This issue also presents roundups of recent film and television including: Best Edited Feature Film ACE events including its successful debut TechFest, as (Drama), Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy), Best Edited well as the Annual Meeting and EditFest London. Animated Film, Best Edited Documentary (Feature), ACE recently announced the 2020 ACE Eddie Best Edited Documentary (Non-Theatrical), Best Edited Awards schedule – culminating with a Jan. 17 ceremony Drama Series for Non-Commercial Television, Best at The Beverly Hilton – and we want to add a reminder Edited Drama Series for Commercial Television, Best that there’s been a shift in timing to almost three weeks Edited Comedy Series for Non-Commercial Television, earlier than usual. This was prompted by a truncated Best Edited Comedy Series for Commercial Television, awards-season landscape, ignited by the 2020 Oscars® Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television moving up to Feb. 9. and Best Edited Non-Scripted Series. Most notable for Eddie entrants, the television Submissions for the ACE Eddie Awards open Sept. 13 categories’ eligibility dates have changed. Television and close on Nov. 1. For more information or to submit contenders must have aired between Jan. 1, 2019, and for awards consideration beginning Sept. 13, visit the Nov. 1, 2019. Feature film eligibility remains the same ACE website at www.americancinemaeditors.org.
Awards Timeline
September 13, 2019 Submissions for Nominations Begin November 1, 2019 Submissions for Nominations End November 18, 2019 Nominations Ballots Sent December 9, 2019 Nominations Ballots Due December 11, 2019 Nominations Announced December 16, 2019 Final Ballots Sent December 20, 2019 Deadline for Advertising January 5, 2020 Blue Ribbon Screenings (TV Categories) January 6, 2020 Final Ballots Due January 15, 2020 Nominee Cocktail Party January 17, 2020 70th Annual ACE Eddie Awards
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CANYON DESIGN GROUP CLIENT: HBO ISSUE/POST: 08/15/19 PRINTED: 07/22/19 Mechanical: Bleed: 8.75" X 11.25" 6-21-78-0 24-20-20-25 2019 EMMY FYC JOB NO: J4657_47475 POSITION: 2 OF 3 SCALE: 100% Trim: 8.5" X 11" PHASE 2 & 3 — 2 0F 3 9F Live: 8" X 10.5" MEDIA: FULL PAGE FILENAME: J4657_47475_2019FYC_PH2_CINEMAEDITOR_AUG15_FP_2OF3_9F DENSITY: CINEMA EDITOR
24-20-20-0 75-68-67-90 CANYON DESIGN GROUP • 4929 WILSHIRE BLVD., SUITE 500 LOS ANGELES, CA 90010 (P) 323 933 2203 • CONTACT: JUDY KEMPER • EMAIL: [email protected] Official Periodical of the American Cinema Editors, Inc. Founded November 28, 1950.
EDITORIAL STAFF
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR EDITORIAL CONSULTANT ART DIRECTOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Adrian Pennington Carolyn Giardina 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 Alan Heim, ACE
SECRETARY CONTRIBUTORS Lillian Benson, ACE
Stuart Bass, ACE, won an Emmy® for Pushing Daisies Nancy Jundi has been a contributing writer to Cinema- TREASURER and an ACE Eddie Award for Arrested Development. He has Editor since 2006. She is a technical consultant and Stephen Lovejoy, ACE many Emmy/Eddie nominations including for The Office, communications strategist in the Los Angeles area for The Wonder Years and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and post-production facilities, non-profit organizations and has worked with highly-talented helmers such as Barry tech start ups. Sonnenfeld, Paul Feig and Andy Ackerman. Scott Lehane is a freelance journalist who has Edgar Burcksen, ACE, is an award-winning, veteran, BOARD OF DIRECTORS covered the film and TV industry for over 20 years. working editor. He was the Editor in Chief of and is a Jacqueline Cambas, ACE regular contributor to CinemaEditor magazine. Harry B. Miller III, ACE, is a feature, television Dorian Harris, ACE and documentary editor. His recent credits include Turn: Gregor Collins is a speaker, author, actor and script- Tina Hirsch, ACE writer living in New York. Starting his career in Los Angeles Washington’s Spies and The Predator. producing reality TV, he shifted gears to acting, performing Maysie Hoy, ACE on stage, television and independent films. His writing and Adrian Pennington is a journalist, editor and mar- Bonnie Koehler, ACE acting have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The keting copywriter whose articles have appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, Cinema- Financial Times, British Cinematographer, Screen Inter- Carol Littleton, ACE Editor magazine, and on Off- and Off-Off Broadway stages national, The Hollywood Reporter, Premiere, Broadcast, Mary Jo Markey, ACE across New York. Gregor currently travels the globe giving RTS Television and The Guardian. He is co-author talks about his unique relationship with Holocaust refugee of Exploring 3D: The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Michael Ornstein, ACE Maria Altmann, chronicled in his memoir, The Accidental Filmmaking (Focal Press, 2012) and his favorite film of Sabrina Plisco, ACE Caregiver. Altmann was portrayed by Helen Mirren in the all time is Gilda. film Woman in Gold. Kevin Tent, ACE Jack Tucker, ACE, Emmy®-nominated editor and Walter Fernandez Jr. was the Editor in Chief of first-ever recipient of the ACE Robert Wise Award, was CinemaEditor magazine from August 2010 until June 2013. at the helm of CinemaEditor magazine at the close of He has worked in marketing and distribution at IMAX and the MPAA. He has written for CinemaEditor since 2003. the 20th century. He recently produced documentary feature American Empire with his partner, director ASSOCIATE BOARD Carolyn Giardina is an award-winning journalist and Patrea Patrick. Kate Amend, ACE author who serves as tech editor at The Hollywood Mark Helfrich, ACE Reporter, which includes hosting its Behind the Screen John Van Vliet has worked in animation and visual podcast series. She is also co-author of Exploring 3D: effects for more than 32 years. Although his involvement Eric Sears, ACE The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking (Focal on bad pictures far outnumbers the good ones, all have Andrew Seklir, ACE Press, 2012). One of her first assignments at the start provided raw material for his drawings – for which he’s of her career was a feature story about editing – and grateful. Visit MigrantFilmWorker.com for more. she has enjoyed covering editors ever since.
SUBSCRIPTION, ADVERTISING & CONTACT INFO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jenni McCormick LETTERS, SUBSCRIPTIONS, OR SUBSCRIPTION RATE OTHER CORRESPONDENCE $39 for one year. Subscription cost includes CinemaEditor Magazine printed magazine and online access. 5555 Melrose Avenue Marx Brothers Building, Room 108, BACK ISSUES Please indicate which issue(s). Los Angeles, CA 90038 THE ACE CREDO Cost is $10 per issue. PH 323.956.2900 The objects and purposes of MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO American Cinema Editors TO ADVERTISE OR FOR ADVERTISING RATES Credit cards accepted. CinemaEditor is complimentary the American Cinema Editors Peter Zakhary [email protected] to ACE members. are to advance the art and science
DIGITAL ADVERTISING QUESTIONS ACE WEBSITE QUESTIONS of the film editing profession; Libby Higgins [email protected] Kate Higgins [email protected] to increase the entertainment value of motion pictures by CinemaEditor Magazine is published quarterly by the American Cinema Editors. The views expressed in this periodical do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Directors or the membership of ACE. Reproduction attaining artistic pre-eminence in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. ©American Cinema Editors, Inc. All rights reserved. and scientific achievement in the creative art of film editing; STAY CONNECTED to bring into close alliance those film editors who desire to advance Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter the prestige and dignity American Cinema Editors (ACE) @acefilmeditors of the film editing profession.
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CANYON DESIGN GROUP CLIENT: HBO ISSUE/POST: 08/15/2019 PrINTEd: 07/22/19 Mechanical: Bleed: 8.75 X 11.25” 6-21-78-0 24-20-20-25 2019 EMMy FyC JOB NO: J4657_47932 POSITION: SCALE: 100% Trim: 8.5 X 11” PHASE 2 & 3 — 3 0F 3 10F 3 OF 3 Live: 8 X 10.5” MEdIA: FULL PAGE FILENAME: dENSITy: CINEMA EdITOr 4657_47932_HBO_2019EMMyNOMS_CINEMAEdITOr_FP_3OF3_10F
24-20-20-0 75-68-67-90 CANyON dESIGN GrOUP • 4929 WILSHIrE BLVd., SUITE 500 LOS ANGELES, CA 90010 (P) 323 933 2203 • CONTACT: JUdy KEMPEr • EMAIL: [email protected] Oct. 5 gala at the Sheraton Universal Hotel CONGRATULATIONS in Universal City. Cohen served as head of WELCOME Martin Cohen To Receive MPEG post-production for Amblin Entertainment American Cinema Editors would Fellowship and Service Award beginning in 1987 and then for DreamWorks like to welcome new ACE members: from 1994 to 2005, before moving to Jason Ballantine, ACE Paramount Pictures where he oversaw Jeff Buchanan, ACE all aspects of feature post-production for all the studio’s releases through 2010. Monty DeGraff, ACE He has also served as a producer or execu- Robert Fisher, Jr., ACE tive producer on films such as The Hunger Carla Gutierrez, ACE Games and supervised the restoration of Martin Singer, ACE classics such as The Godfather trilogy and Steve Welch, ACE Jaws. “We are delighted to honor Marty with our Fellowship and Service award,” says MPEG President Alan Heim, ACE. “He perfectly exemplifies the values that the CORRECTION Guild holds most dear by forging a career The article John Wick: Chapter 3 – in this industry that has served not only the Parabellum in the second quarter issue films on which he has worked, but the many of CinemaEditor magazine incorrectly The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG) filmmakers and colleagues with whom he’s identified one of Evan Schiff’s co- will honor veteran post-production execu- collaborated. He has consistently given editors. He is Matt Evans, not Matthew tive and producer Martin Cohen with its back to our community and that makes him Evan Walsh. Fellowship and Service Award during an the ideal recipient for our highest honor.” Advertiser Index
IFC Russian Doll 01 Petition for Editors Recognition 03 HBO FYC 05 HBO FYC 07 HBO FYC 09 Blackmagic Design 11 Adobe 13 Avid Technology, Inc. 17 NBCUniversal StudioPost 19 Filmtools 29 Sohonet 35 Fleabag 37 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 39 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 42 ACE TechFest Sponsors 43 Ever/Cast 47 EditFest London Sponsors 49 The Looping Group 49 Cutting It in Hollywood 51 Motion Picture Editors Guild BC Ozark
TO ADVERTISE OR FOR ADVERTISING RATES Peter Zakhary / 626.695.7493 [email protected] SHORT CUT COMIC VLIET BY JOHN VAN
08 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Shown with the DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel
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Cinema Editor - DaVinci Resolve Panel.indd 1 11/7/19 10:50 am Reflections of a TV Repairman
BY STUART BASS, ACE
here are many excellent television directors who understand Executive producers brought Myron Smith to direct MacDriver, the pace and limitations of series television and guide the because they had great experiences with him 20 years before T actors to subtle performances. They know how to shoot on TV westerns. In that time, audience expectations had changed coverage and maybe design a few cool-looking camera moves. a lot. Old TV westerns were shot in seven days. Action scenes But on occasion we get directors who are mismatched for a show. were composed of a wide master of cowboys shooting at each They can’t block, get hung up on unimportant story points, and other and a few choice medium shots for dialogue. Smith’s miss key scene beats. episode was so badly directed it required 108 second-unit insert On most long-running TV series the actors know their shots (many were technically principal photography) shot over characters, the photographic style is set, most departments from three days to make the scenes coherent. In one scene, the director casting to set design answer to the showrunner not the director. covered an intense four-page car chase setting the camera on Here is a thought experiment: Imagine a show without a one hill to capture the cars on an opposite hill thinking this was director, where the actors block themselves, the camera operators enough action to engage the audience. Along with a lack of figure out the shots, the AD runs the set. This occurs when coverage, the close-ups were shot at the same angle as the master, an unseasoned crew member is moved up to director. Usually making matches difficult. the show turns out okay. Some jokes may be missed, some So it begins for the editor. What are we going to do to make moments are flat but usually about 80 percent of the script this episode look and feel like other episodes of MacDriver? makes it to the screen. First off there is the ‘brilliant edit.’ We run the scene and The horror that I confront as an editor is the rare occasion the dailies over and over again looking for inspiration. Then a when a terrible director gets the gig and I have to contend with conversation with my assistant; a late night revelation; encouraging 40-50 percent of the script realized on the screen. These rubes words from the showrunner; and the answer is there. Aha! Use the make the show worse than if there was no director. They may bad take for picture but repo it and steal dialogue from another be maestros with a skill such as shooting live sport events or episode. It was so clearly the answer! excellent at pitching network execs but fail miserably at working Maybe I can use the tried and true blow-up. If a wide shot is a nuanced comedy. in sharp focus, a 200 percent blow-up can create coverage when When writers, directors of photography, actors, editors, set there was none. I have heard editors refer to slow optical push-ins designers and others on a crew don’t perform well, they don’t as Dramanators. They add tension to lifeless scenes. survive. But directors are different. A director with poor skills can Speeding up or slowing down the frame rate will build build a reel of material that can be very impressive after rewrites, moments. If the director didn’t get a reaction maybe a bit of the reshoots, opticals and intense editing go into fixing the show. actor can be found before a slate and slowed down to look like For the purposes of this article I am going to fictionalize and an intense look. There is a very poignant Wonder Years episode create a composite director named Myron Smith and a composite ending made from Mobius strip loops of manufactured reactions. series I’ll call MacDriver which is not related to my experiences When scenes are blocked badly and jokes or beats are not on MacGyver (1985-92). Hopefully, using anonymity I may working I will trim out pages of dialogue. I enlist the writers as continue living my life without a bodyguard and food taster. reinforcements. On Arrested Development with the help of the
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Uncommonly good stories with one thing in common.
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© 2019 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, and Adobe Premiere are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. writers we often came up with a graphic joke, insert of a news- Marco was the nicest person. He treated everyone with respect. caster, or a flash to another scene to bridge missing story. He was soft spoken. When he worked with producers he did not Often poor directors will miss the sense of urgency in a resist or make faces, he gleefully executed their notes. However, scene. Well-placed ADR and insert shots can help create urgency. he had a secret super power. If he had a better idea of how to fix Underscore can build emotion when there was nothing. Sometimes a scene, using humility he carried out the fix and somehow he it’s just a matter of when to start and stop a cue to underline a story allowed the producer to feel it was their idea. It was a humble point. I often joke after hearing in the final mix how the composer transference of ego. The producer would sit behind him and say, should get the directing credit. “That joke isn’t landing.” Marco would quickly trim a few frames, Back in the day on MacDriver (totally fictional), one of the steal a reaction and praise the producer for his comedy chops. editor’s tasks was shooting inserts. Sometimes they are details like This was not condescending. Marco sincerely communicated a bomb ticking to create tension, or tight shots of Mac building gratitude with subtle expressions and knowing nods. The producer his gimmicks for clarity. The inserts might be a wide shot which left feeling success and empowered. In this world of ‘lean in’ and doubles to create geography that the director missed. Very often ‘sharp elbows’ Marco’s zen approach had him cutting several the careful use of inserts and sound can fill out drama where there sitcoms a week, taking a percentage of the video facility profits, was just a limp master shot with the actors lined up like a remake and buying apartment buildings throughout Los Angeles. of A Chorus Line. An insert can create a scene transition when the Myron Smith has pissed off the performers; missed moments; director left bupkis. missed technical fundamentals like the 180-degree rule; and VFX editors and assistants who are masters at temp effects called me every morning in an attempt to have me fawn over the are heroes. In order to be in the bad directors club you have to dailies. He insists on sitting next to me while going through his ignore framing. Why is there a piece of that distracting character cut and his touches and goofy punches are a bit over-friendly. floating at the edge of frame? Presto! Gone. Why don’t the over- It’s as if Myron has hidden a flaw in every scene for me to find. the-shoulder shots match? Voila! Clean Cut. Why don’t the actors His scenes remind me of the kids magazine, Highlights, What’s react at the same time in that group shot? Bam! Frankenshot. And Wrong with This? Look closely to find 24 silly things. After sitting by Presto! Voila! and Bam! I mean many growling hours in After with Myron for a day hoping he could give me a clue of how to Effects pounding out traveling mattes. unlock these scenes I realize he is as clueless in the editing room as We employ these technical measures to fix mediocrity; he is on the set. We swap out a performance; find the camera move the tricks learned since I picked up my dad’s 8mm camera and he loves even after I point to the c-stand clearly passing by; we end started shooting war stories with neighborhood kids in the with a reaction though the scene was over long ago. We add top-40 backyard. But these schemes are not the whole story. There is music he brought in though the studio warned us about licensing another ingredient to successful TV repair. costs. I summon the inner Marco Zappia in me and happily perform Back when I was an assistant trying my damnedest to move his lateral notes praising his comedy chops. His DGA-designated up to editor there was a guild rule that assistant editors had to days are over, he tells me he can’t wait to work with me again, and I assist for eight years. I had cut about 800 commercials and many sigh with relief as his Ferrari speeds off the lot. industrial films before coming to Los Angeles. However, because A few days into cutting a poorly-directed show are voyages into of how I changed guild jurisdictions I could not keep my status darkness. The first thought upon waking is the disaster awaiting as a picture editor and had to work as an assistant editor. It was on the file server. I drag myself to the studio and procrastinate by frustrating forced to assist even with so much cutting under my chatting with the guys down the hall. I take my time preparing belt. I remember asking the president of the guild at the time, Irv caffeine strong enough to keep me focused. Even scary emails Rosenblum, why is there an eight-year rule? He told me that an from the IRS are a preferable distraction. When I ask my assistant assistant had to gain a certain amount of maturity to navigate the about the dailies he just drops his face into his hands and politics of the editing room. The rule may have been arbitrary but shudders. I approach yesterday’s shots and am a kid again looking there is wisdom to the thought. at Highlights magazine. What’s wrong with the picture? The next Marco Zappia (1937-2013) may have been one of television’s 10 hours I am immersed in damage control, looking for order most successful editors. He started physically cutting two- where there is nothing but chaos. I call on the editing gods to help inch videotape on Laugh In and became the most sought-after find the hidden moments and accidental treasures. Strangely, the multi-cam editor. He lived and breathed editing. He didn’t take editing gods answer my pleas as if I am worthy, uncovering story, vacations, he told me once he had only been out of the state once building arcs. Keystrokes and mouse movements are elevated to on a sports remote. On the weekends he took home dailies to moments of grace. In the end I have the gratification of having a cut as side projects. I had the pleasure of working with him on show that matches the episodes in the series. It may have added 30 a couple shows. What I learned from him had nothing to do with hours to my week but I’m done and ready for the next one. This is split screens or selecting a performance. the job and that is why I’m paid the medium bucks.
12 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 FOR THE MAKERS
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The new Media Composer 2019 is everything you already know and love — reimagined for more.
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Avid_MC_Ad_8-5x11 in.indd 1 4/30/19 10:33 AM Avid Had A Party. But wait… BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE
“Neo, I want to tell you something…” – The Matrix (1999)
vid had a party. A coming-out party for their new, hap- in a Windows laptop to replace the aging MacBook Pro (2014)? pier interface. Their Burbank office was jammed with Mac laptops were heading in the wrong direction for usability A people on May 15 to enjoy food and drink, and to see and performance, and PC laptops were getting faster and more demonstrations of the latest Avid Media Composer. But wait, flexible. Then Apple released the 2018 Mac mini. Up to a 6-core I want to tell you something, but that isn’t it… i7 processor, up to 64 GB RAM, and up to a 2 TB SSD. Premiere Pro has added a couple of features in its latest version And this is what I wanted to tell you: This thing is great! that make it a very strong competitor to Avid Media Composer in But more on that later. the Hollywood editing space. You can see two timelines at once, The Avid event was sort of a coming-out party to show lots of including your source monitor, and edit from one into the other. people the redesigned Media Composer interface. It is brighter, more Bins can be locked on networked systems, so projects can now colorful and now modular. That means that, like the Premiere Pro be shared. Under fairly simple circumstances it is very, very fast interface, everything is locked into a full-screen dock. Resize the and never crashes. And a new bin layout type called Freeform has host panel, as it is called, and everything resizes. It is simplified, been introduced, which is terrifically flexible, and unique among more for new users. For power users however, the whole single editing systems. But that isn’t what I wanted to tell you… dock can be broken up to individual components, like the current Media Composer. There were several spaces at Avid’s office where Media Composer was being demonstrated. It was, however, a bit difficult to get a lot of information because the place was so crowded. But it was a very good opportunity to run into fellow editors and post people. The new Media Composer, during these demos, had a tendency to crash. Presumably now all of the bugs will be worked out. (Um, presumably. Right Avid?) Adobe has made great strides in fashioning Premiere Pro Premiere Pro pancake timeline, not something new but I was unaware. for bigger things than just home videos. Currently I am editing an Imax nature film calledBack From the Brink. The story is I wrote previously for CinemaEditor that Apple had apparently about three animal species that were endangered, but concerned given up on making computers for professional editors (Miller, H.B. scientists and researchers discovered what was necessary to {2017} “Is Apple Inc. Just a Phone Company?” CinemaEditor, ensure their survival. Steps were then taken to successfully save Quarter 1, Vol. 67, 16-17). My question: Was it time to invest these species, by rebalancing their environment.
14 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Adobe Premiere Pro © 2019 Adobe. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy of Harry B. Miller III, ACE. thing I’ve ever used, including a refurbished/upgraded Mac Pro ‘cheese grater’ tower. Realizing that I’m much too ingrained in the Apple ecosystem to change editing workstations to a Windows PC (see the above referenced CinemaEditor article), I decided that I’d give this Mini a shot. And it’s a ‘mini.’ How much could it cost? Well, once you ‘spec’ it up, it costs a lot. The upgraded Mac mini with 6-core i7 CPU, 32 GB RAM and 1TB SSD runs around $2900. Then you realize it has lots of connectors, but none connect to any device you own. I needed to invest in $100 worth of adapters (Thunderbolt 2 to 3). And there are so many devices you need to plug in, such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, Avid’s new interface hard drives, you then need to invest in a $300 multi-port dock, which adds several more USB 3, USB 2, HDMI, etc. connections. The movie was shot with a Red camera, at 5K and 8K. The post- The additional components needed to make it work become part production company managing the project, RPG Productions (run of the ‘Apple tax,’ the extra you have to spend to be in the Apple by Rick Gordon), gathered all the media from the many hard universe of products. At least it is less than the newly-announced drive sources and transcoded everything from Red files to ProRes Mac Pro ($6000 to start). 422 HQ, 1920 x 1080. There is so much footage, it is a nature This was just going to be a trial. Apple allows a 14-day window doc after all, that the transcoded media takes more than seven to return a product if you’re unhappy. I tried an iPad Pro. It didn’t terabytes! Fortunately, the director/DP has a pretty good memory work for me (too big), and it was returned without a problem. for what he shot. And he made the initial assembly pass with The test was to see if the Mac mini would truly be a performance his favorite material. improvement over my current home editing system. Because of the solid organization and preparation by assistant I tested the mini with Media Composer for transcoding clips, David Palmeri, the project has not crashed. At all. Not once. rendering a timeline with VFX plugins and timecode, and Adobe (I can’t get through a single day on other unnamed editing systems Media Encoder for an export. and say that same thing.) Rendering a timeline: the mini was twice as fast as the Mac The great thing about Premiere Pro is if you had any experience Pro. Transcode a 3-minute clip: the mini was twice as fast the working on Final Cut Pro 7, you’ll feel right at home. And you MacBook Pro (2014). Export Media Encoder: Laptop 34:05, Mac can easily set up the keyboard to mimic your Avid (or FCP X) Pro 38:00, Mac mini 25:00 keyboard. It is fast and flexible. While the timeline is playing you In every process I tried that is part of my editing workflow, the can even do minor editing without stopping, like Pro Tools. And Mac mini was significantly faster than my other two computers. the new features Adobe has added (viewing multiple timelines at Another great thing about the Mac mini is macOS once, bin locking, Bezier audio keyframes, Freeform bin view) Mojave’s dark mode. It is DARK. But very attractive, and semi- make it very usable. translucent. Some windows, like the Info window, are so dark they The downside is the current version of Premiere Pro (13.1.2) are almost readable. and Media Encoder (13.1) can output incorrect timecode. The fix, The one area where the mini does not excel is using an eGPU until Adobe makes a software correction, is to turn the Mercury (external graphics card) with Media Composer. Michael Kammes Playback Engine to ‘Software Only’ in both programs. Thanks to reviewed a Mac mini with an eGPU on his podcast, “5 Things” Mike Kanfer of Adobe for that information. (https://5thingsseries.com), and found that Media Composer But what I really wanted to tell you about is this: does not take advantage, while Premiere Pro does. But where is the graphics card important? Mostly for computer displays and running intense graphic games. Where Adobe fails is that editing projects aren’t always backward compatible. You can open an Avid sequence with a few exceptions in every version of Media Composer. A Premiere project often can’t be opened in the next previous version of the software. And this timecode issue could be serious if not quickly addressed. The Mac Mini. And I don’t know of a shared/networked project on Adobe that has worked well. Not as seamlessly as Media Composer projects The Mac mini. It’s so small and cute! And dark. It literally work. There may be, I just haven’t heard of one. disappears on the unlit shelf on my desk. And outperforms any- And that’s what I wanted to tell you!
Avid interface © 2019 Avid Technology, Inc. Mac Mini © 2019 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy of Harry B. Miller III, ACE. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 15 Examining India’s Expansive Film Industry BY EDGAR BURCKSEN, ACE
bout 10 years ago I was invited by Indian production Tamil language in the South Indian city of Chennai (about 140 company Phat Phish to come to Mumbai to help them productions a year). Films in Kannada language, produced from A prepare Quick Gun Murugun: Misadventures of an Indian South Indian city of Bengaluru and in Malayalam, produced from Cowboy, a feature that was already released in India, for the the state of Kerala also contribute roughly 250 films each year. American market. Not knowing more than that India had a huge The rest come from Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya, Gujarati film industry and that Mumbai was one of the major centers of and Bhojpuri language regions. Some of the South Indian films production, I was amazed by the sophistication. My editing room are dubbed and crisscross from one language territory to the other had a fully-equipped Avid Media Composer with all the bells and while some are specially dubbed in Hindi for television. It makes whistles. Because time was of the essence I did not have a lot for a very diverse creative output that is, according to Ganti, self- of contact with editors in Mumbai. More recently, as I’ve been sustaining and fascinating. working to expand ACE’s international reach, I got in touch with There are no honorary societies in India, such as ACE. Mumbai/Hyderabad-based editor Kiran Ganti for an update on In Mumbai, there is an editors organization called the Association this industry from the editors’ point of view. of Film & Video Editors (AFE). Each of the South Indian film Some history: The first feature-length Indian silent film, industries also has an editors association. AFE is also a part of Raja Harishchandra, was produced in 1913 and was directed the All India Film Federation that represents 24 other arts and and edited by Dadasaheb Phalke, who is known as the father of crafts of the industry. The AFE has about 1600 members of the country’s film business. The most prestigious government- which half are still active in the editing rooms across films, TV, presented lifetime-achievement film award in India is named after documentaries and other types of content. Ganti explains that the him. It’s presented every year on May 3, the original release date AFE is strictly a union that solely deals with labor/organizational of Raja Harishchandra. related issues and not with the technical/creative part of editing. Roughly 900 films are released theatrically every year in He adds that there are no other organizations, professional or India. The industry is based in three major production centers: otherwise, that give a platform to editors who want to discuss, Mumbai for the Hindi language (about 140 productions last year), learn or study the craft and art of editing and in that respect, Hyderabad in Southern India for the Telugu language (185 films an ACE International Affiliate membership chapter in India could per year, including 50 films dubbed from other languages) and the fill a large void.
16 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Mumbai, India. Photo by TkKurikawa.
Ganti also conducts classes at Ramoji Academy of Film and ‘unblimped’ film cameras and were dubbed. (A blimp is a housing Television, situated in the world’s largest film studio, Ramoji Film that suppresses the loud sound of the camera, but makes cameras City, Hyderabad. On the professional front, he feels there is a unwieldy and so, in India, filmmakers used unblimped cameras lack of space for sharing of knowledge about editing and a cross- and post synced the dialogue.) Things changed in the Hindi film country sharing of expertise/experience – and that this is the need industry in early 2000 when sync sound picked up momentum, of the hour. He says he is convinced about this because he once especially after the success of the Academy Award-nominated worked with Walter Murch, ACE, and recognizes the immense Hindi film, Lagaan (2001), that pioneered sync-sound shooting. value that he got from the experience. He also shares that two of But when the Arri Alexa, Red and later the Canon 5D and 7D India’s biggest Hindi films from last year – Sanju and Padmaavat cameras were introduced, everything changed. No more ‘heartbeat’ – were directed by Rajkumar Hirani and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, on set because these cameras were silent and no more shooting respectively, who have also worked as editors. discipline because the recording material is so cheap. A majority The creative recognition of editing is only acknowledged at of the films made in Hindi now are shot sync sound though that award ceremonies that are organized and sponsored by the TV is not the case in South India. Ganti reports he is working on a networks of each language region. The Indian government also motion picture in the Telugu language – Phalana Abbayi, Phalana presents yearly awards at the National Film Awards ceremony Ammayi (PA PA ), directed by Srinivas Avasarala and produced by by the Directorate of Film Festivals, an organization set up by People Media Factory – that is shot with sync sound, which he the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The ceremony believes is a first in the region on a medium-budget film. This, he is divided in two categories: feature film and non-feature film; hopes, will help change moviemaking in his region. consequently there are two awards for editing. Ganti likens the On the distribution side, India has around 10,000 theaters; prestige of this ceremony in India to the Academy Awards®. a majority of them have single screens. The digital revolution also Historically, due to technical, logistical and aesthetic reasons, brought new forms of distribution, and streamers like Netflix and the majority of the films produced in India were all shot with Amazon Prime started to gobble up content. A movie acquired by Amazon is on its streaming platform six weeks after its theatrical premiere. Amazon also started to invest in and produce its own content in India. There are also Indian streaming platforms like Zee5, Hotstar, Jio, SonyLIV, etc, which are making original content. Considering India has 370 million smartphone users, this isn’t surprising. The reach of Indian films around the world is extraordinary because of the huge number of expats that are living in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and the Middle East. Because of this, the Indian film industry is shooting a lot of content in these countries and regions that not only cater to the expat community but also to the domestic market. On an average, 25 percent of an Indian film’s revenue can be recovered from these markets. There’s also more crossover to more traditional film markets in Europe and the U.S. For instance the two-part magnum opus Telugu feature Bahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, (2017), edited by Venkateswara Rao Kotagiri on an Avid, was a very successful crossover, especially in the U.K., Europe and China. Presumably, Indian films shot in expat countries will find a broader audience, with Amazon and Netflix hungry for more original content for their global audience. The Telugu film that Ganti is currently editing is a new-age romantic film of which more than 50 percent was shot in the U.S. Ganti had one more thing he wanted to share about the Indian film industry in Mumbai: They hate the ‘Bollywood’ moniker. Saying that ‘Bollywood’ was started as a joke many years back but it stuck, he says his industry thinks that the derivative of Hollywood denigrates the importance and creative uniqueness of their film industry. Says Kiran, “Every year, more films are produced in Mumbai than in Hollywood. ‘To be, or not to be’ is no longer the question. ‘What’s in a name?’ Quite a lot.”
18 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Editor Kiran Ganti. Photos courtesy of Kiran Ganti. TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS & INTEGRATION FOR TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
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Available at Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Tony Kearns solves the puzzle of Netflix interactive drama
BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON
lack Mirror: Bandersnatch has been heralded as a land- of his own devising, graphics visually representing all the mark achievement not just for Netflix but for the future of interconnected paths and Twine, a scripting software that allows B interactive programming for its fun and challenging ability interactive options to be embedded as links. to include the audience in the story. “It looks like a normal script but when you click on the options In the series, viewers follow a young programmer, Stefan the page will move forward to that branch of the narrative. All (Fionn Whitehead), and are given choices to make as he proceeds of this scared me a little. It was dauntingly complex but after I to adapt a fantasy novel into a video game. broke it down into sections and spent time getting my head round Not for nothing did series creator and show writer Charlie it I had no real concerns. My feeling was that everyone else had Brooker set this in an Orwellian 1984. But with five possible done their homework and Charlie had written a brilliant script so endings and seemingly unlimited unique permutations of the story it wasn’t difficult to resolve any questions I had.” according to Netflix, imagine the byzantine task of editing it all. That said, it was only once footage came in and Kearns could Tony Kearns was invited to the project by director David Slade stress test the assembly that it was possible to assess where there with whom Kearns had worked on Black Mirror, series 4 episode might be issues. 5, “Metalhead” and decades previously on music videos including “The first obvious point to make is that the story does not travel Muse’s “Bliss,” Stereophonics’ “Mr. Writer,” and Tori Amos’ in a smooth arc. It is interrupted by choice points. It made sense “Strange Little Girl.” to first assemble the arcs in the sections between choice points of Since their early collaborations Kearns had graduated to feature which some are quite long and fluid. Then we were also able to film (Cardboard Gangsters, Let Us Prey) and acknowledges he look at various narrative lines using Branch Manager to view the was less well-known for TV drama. film on our laptops.” “My experience on ‘Metalhead’ with David, Charlie and (series This software, specially written in-house by Netflix, enabled co-creator) Annabel Jones worked out really well and I think they the import of segments which, when coded, would play back as a trusted that I could do it.” facsimile (or proxy) of the finished piece. When Kearns boarded, the treatment and script were already “It would start from the beginning and you’d come to a choice advanced. “As far as I was concerned it was always an interactive point, click one and proceed down that route,” Kearns explains. film but the challenge was to create a satisfying single story that “It was very complex and very essential. We wouldn’t have been able would work without any viewer interaction and to deliver on all to make the show without it since it simulated the viewing exper- the other narrative arcs.” ience rather than us trying to assemble a timeline in Premiere Pro.” Kearns first task was to go through the script and break it down Also essential was assistant editor John Weeks who, as fate into constituent parts. This was accomplished using spreadsheets would have it, had prior experience with computer programming.
20 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Fionn Whitehead. Photo by Stuart Hendry. ©Netflix. “It was one of those fortuitous occurrences but not only is John an excellent assistant editor he has such a wealth of experi- ence in coding. It was a bit of a rod for his own back since he was doing the job of two people and, like the rest of us, he was a bit frazzled by the end.” Weeks’ role shouldn’t be underestimated. Indeed, Kearns recommends that anyone embarking on an interactive show – of which there will no doubt be many more – should assign someone with a knowledge of coding to the edit suite. Each viewer choice led down a rabbit hole of different narrative tracks with a version of a scene that may differ from another only in one crucial aspect. “The scenes would be generally shot the same way but the performances would be different,” explains Kearns. “A line or two of dialogue might change or there would be another twist dependent on the viewer choice. For example, the first viewer choice asked them to pick a brand of cereal so we’d insert a commercial on the TV screen in a later scene for either Frosties or Sugar Puffs.” The soundtrack to the drama is also a viewer choice on a couple of occasions. “The first music choice concerns what Stefan should play on his cassette recorder and in both cases the cut’s exactly the same but in a later choice choosing album tracks between ‘Tangerine Dream’ and ‘The Bermuda Triangle’ we had to retweak a little to ensure the cuts of the scene hit different musical beats.” The script was 157 pages (usually the hour-long show runs 65 pages) with 250 segments generating nearly five hours of footage. only had one short segment where we had to extend duration due “Each segment had a four-character alphanumeric number. to this requirement,” Kearns says. The script was divided into eight sections and then variations on that “Charlie wanted to avoid having everything stop while this segment denoted by letter and number, for example 7A2B. This was was going on so he wrote dialogue and action to go under the translated into the shooting script then managed by script supervisor choice points so it’s a visually continuous process. It was my job Marilyn Kirby along with first assistant director Jay Arthur. to work out how to not interfere too much with the choice points “Marilyn was our linchpin on set and everyone’s oracle when and also ensure the last shot of that segment cut well with [the] it came to knowing what we were going to do next. Both she and first of the next segment, whichever was chosen.” Jay did an amazing job marshalling the actors and the crew and Along the way, some choice points were dropped in order keeping them on the right track.” to make the whole story more fluid. Some of these occurred in The choice points themselves were around 15 seconds in dur- scenes set in the office but none of the choices were deemed too ation with additional time on either side of the choice allowed for important structurally by the team. the caching or buffering needed for each choice point. “In reality we Kearns says, “A lot of the time was spent viewing all the multiple narrative arcs, assessing, making structural changes but once in the swing of it I was able to intuitively make decisions about what would work.” A personal favorite scene is one during which Stefan drops acid in Colin’s (a video game developer played by Will Poulter) flat. “It’s the core of the film really since Colin rants to Stefan – but also to the audience – about free will and having personal choice at the same time we realize that Stefan has no control over his fate since that is in the audience’s hands. Will Poulter’s performance is very compelling and it was a pleasure to edit.” Aside from requiring a person with coding experience on your team, Kearns says his advice for preparing to edit nonlinear shows is to be “well organized and to have good communication so you can keep control of what’s [happening] on set. Understand that the review process will be a long process and that you have to think in several dimensions. The trick is not to get lost.”
Left: Editor Tony Kearns. Photo courtesy of Tony Kearns; Fionn Whitehead. Photo by Stuart Hendry. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 21 Right top (L-R): Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter, Asim Chaudhry. Right bottom: Fionn Whitehead. Photos courtesy of Netflix. ©Netflix. Game of Thrones Tim Porter, ACE, pours his proud and battle-hardened soul into episode 3 of the series’ final season
BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON
he final season of HBO’s sword-and-sorcery epic was The season’s other editors, and also Thrones stalwarts, are Crispin always going to end in tears. If not for some of its char- Green and Katie Weiland, ACE, with whom Porter shared cuts. T acters fated to be given the chop, then for the editing team “Katie, Crispin and I are always incredibly busy on the show, which has carried the show’s battle-fatigued heroes and villains so we don’t religiously share our work, or ask each other’s opinions, over many years. but I will definitely look to show the episode once it’s fully assembled Tim Porter, ACE, is one of those. He joined in season 4 and and get feedback from them. They know the show and their notes edited 11 episodes, of which three were nominated for Emmys® can be invaluable.” and Eddies.“Thrones has been a huge part of my life for the last While there have been lengthy battle scenes in the series seven years, so heading into season 8 definitely felt like the end before, none matched the scale of “The Long Night,” which is one of an era,” he says. continuous sequence from beginning to end. He returned to the Belfast shoot for two of the final season “There wasn’t any build-up within the episode before we episodes: 803 “The Long Night” and 805 “The Bells,” arriving get to the battle, as with the other battles I’d cut,” Porter says. in January 2018 for the edit, although the crew had already been “Creatively I was most interested in constructing this singular filming since October 2017 on episodes 1 and 2. action sequence, as I’d not had the opportunity to do one over “In that week before your episodes begin filming, I’ll set the such a sustained period, as a standalone film. The sparseness of cutting room up with the assistant editor, and reread the script,” dialogue in the episode was also extremely attractive, constructing Porter explains. “An episode like ‘The Long Night’ will all the narrative mainly through action is a rare treat.” have been previs’d. I’ll familiarize myself with that. It’s a great He enthuses, “Navigating and synthesizing the characters’ shorthand into what’s about to be filmed, as I’ve not been heavily journeys across the episode was something that really appealed involved in pre-production.” to me. Rhythmically, it was challenging to decide when to have Unlike other seasons he’s worked on, there was no cross shooting tension, where to have hope, when to feel all is lost.” of episodes 803 and 805. “The Long Night” was shot from January With a considerable quota of visual effects for this episode, to April with delivery of the director’s cut in May. Filming 805 Porter needed to turn over shots very quickly, particularly plates followed for delivery of the director’s cut in September. with a dragon in, or shots that needed tracking for motion capture. These episodes were directed by Miguel Sapochnik with “Miguel and I met every Saturday to watch cuts. We would whom Porter had collaborated on the show since 2014. also make time for VFX, which would have sent a list of shots “I was hugely excited by the challenge of doing two large-scale that they needed us to pick plates for. We turned stuff over to them action episodes to finish off my time at Game of Thrones,” Porter from the very first week of filming. For our offline VFX temps we says. “Teaming back up with Miguel, felt like we were getting the would get the greenscreen elements pulled from the previs and band back together. I had Meredith Leece as my assembly editor use those to temp comps into our cut. Richard [Denbigh] would [Porter’s assistant on seasons 6 and 7] and Richard Denbigh [who’d do all the temp VFX in Avid.” worked with Porter on The Crown] was hired as my assistant. It was It was also a challenge to track the storylines and characters great to be reunited with the editorial team headed by producer Greg in an ensemble sequence such as this. “When you have lots of Spence, with Alan Freir and Ide O’Rourke.” characters with lots of events happening to them in different
22 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: The cast of Game of Thrones. Photo by Helen Sloan/HBO. ©2019 Home Box Office. All rights reserved. locations, the challenge is not being away from those characters or that story for so long that you’ve forgotten about them – unless its Arya, of course, we wanted you to forget about her! “But with everybody else, it’s a juggling act. It means going over and over the sequence and questioning your choices. You need to explore alternative ways of structuring the shots or plotting the character journeys to find a balance again. It takes a little bit of elbow grease to find what feels right for the sequence.” Porter explains that he likes to put the shape on a scene or sequence as quickly as possible, and then go through all of the dailies to make select reels with all of the best bits of action. “I have select reels of each character and each beat or moment, and any cool stuff, all logged and ready for me to use. So, when I start fine cutting these sequences, I can re-watch the selects at any time without having to go trawling back through the dailies, searching for a needle in a haystack. “I suppose what I’ve learned from cutting these big sequences “Jon is fighting his way into Winterfell to get to Bran. is that managing and staying on top of the material on a daily basis The Night King is heading to kill Bran. Theon is fighting for is vitally important. Getting too far behind is a really negative his life while protecting Bran and Jorah is making his last stand place creatively for me to get into.” defending Daenerys while the people in the crypt are being Part of a sequence in the episode was dubbed ‘Man the attacked by the undead. Walls.’ Everyone has retreated inside Winterfell and are being “I found it really tough to find the right pacing. The action overwhelmed by the Army of the Dead. The defenses have just that had come before it had been quite intense, and to find a way been breached, and we see The Hound leaning against a wall, of presenting this act without repetition was hard. When I’m frozen with fear. This is intercut with mayhem all around him. struggling with a sequence, I might do the opposite of what I’ve “What I try to do during these action sequences is to find some been doing. As it was an action sequence, I had some fast-paced character moments in them,” Porter explains. “In this case we action music playing, so I tried a piece of [composer] Ramin had Arya fighting up on the ramparts. I took the opportunity to Djawadi’s music that he wrote for episode 10 of season 6, called intercut her with The Hound, as we know there is an emotional ‘Light of the Seven.’ It’s a fantastic piano piece, that slowly builds. connection between them. While it’s an obvious thing to do, it’s I laid that on this 10-minute sequence of everybody fighting for an effective way of putting an emotional layer in the sequence.” their lives and it suddenly felt like it was the end of the world. Porter went on to mirror this intercut on 805, “The Bells,” “It was a moment of alchemy that, for me, brought the sequence where The Hound is fighting his brother, The Mountain and Arya together. Miguel had also shot some of the material around that in the middle of the obliteration of King’s Landing. section at 96 frames, which lent itself to being slowed down. “Again, I feel that this was a really effective emotional Maybe I should have spotted that sooner, but that’s the fun of what grounding for the sequence, because the audience understands we do, sometimes you need to do the opposite of what you’re the relationship between these two characters and it’s important to thinking. There’s always a solution. There’s a constant sense of them. In both cases, I think it was successful.” discovery happening in a sequence like this. It’s really satisfying Perhaps the biggest challenge of the “Long Night” episode was when you finally find the missing link and it comes together.” act three, and the moment it came together was the most rewarding. It’s been a few months since Porter walked away from the show completely – he was still dropping in visual effects shots and doing final tweaks to this episode until February. Watching the final episode unfurl on TV was, for him, the realization that it really is over. “When I began editing, nearly 20 years ago, I used to get home from work and watch The Sopranos. I was completely in love with that show. My dream was always to work for HBO, and to get that opportunity in 2013 was amazing. It was actually the one goal that I’d set myself in my career and that it happened, and that my experience on Thrones turned out to be everything and more that I could have hoped for, that’s just fantastic. I thank the editing gods for that one!” He adds, “I feel really lucky and fortunate to have met and work- ed with such talented people, many of whom are now my friends. It’s been an absolute pleasure. I’d do it all again … maybe.”
Left: Vladimir Furdik. Photo courtesy of HBO. ©2019 Home Box Office. All rights reserved.; Editor Tim Porter, ACE. Photo courtesy of Tim Porter, ACE. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 23 Right: Iain Glen, Emilia Clarke. Photo by Helen Sloan/HBO. ©2019 Home Box Office. All rights reserved. The Good Place Eric Kissack is in heaven for NBC’s hit comedy drama
BY GREGOR COLLINS
ddly enough, for an editor who has majored in comedy “The show has a lot of magic going on in heaven,” says Kissack, throughout his career, Eric Kissack never saw himself who says he particularly enjoys working with the VFX team led by O working in the genre. “I was never the class clown VFX producer David Niednagel. growing up,” he says. “I always appreciated more dramatic films “I’ll be editing a scene that requires, for example, a giant … Kurosawa, Tarantino, directors like that.” magical bird that flies out of a volcano and turns into a turtle – At an early age Kissack did, though, have a suspicion that I need to put that into my cut. I will walk to David’s office, explain everything in life was, well, silly. what I need, and he’ll send me a rough version and we go back and “Girlfriends would get mad because if we got in a fight I was forth like that. It’s a super fun part of the job.” always like, ‘This is silly, why are we fighting?’” Kissack has too many favorite The Good Place episodes to From an early solo edit credit on The Daily Show, Kissack count, but one in particular stands out. has worked his way up the comedy ladder including episodes of “Michael Schur is a huge fan of TV series Lost. A lot of people sketch show The Whitest Kids U’Know, Wainy Days and Veep to have drawn similarities between that show and ours – the structure features like Horrible Bosses 2 and Daddy’s Home. of all the characters thrown together in some mysterious place, For the last couple of years he has been busy editing 17 secret hidden histories revealed in flashbacks; there’s something episodes and counting of The Good Place, created by Brooklyn mysterious going on, a deeper hidden truth. So in one episode Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation’s Michael Schur for NBC. called ‘Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By,’ the opening The series, currently in its fourth season, centers around Eleanor scene was written to resemble that of the opening scene of Lost Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), who wakes up in something called ‘The episode ‘Man of Science, Man of Faith’ that started the second Good Place,’ an afterlife designed by an eccentric named Michael season, which was set to Mama Cass’ hit song ‘Make Your Own (Ted Danson) who is eager to reward Eleanor for her righteous life. Kind of Music.’ We did our own version of that intro for our But Eleanor soon realizes that she was sent there by mistake and episode, using another Mama Cass song referenced in the must hide her morally imperfect behavior while trying to become a episode’s title. It got a ton of great feedback; Lost fans definitely more ethical person. noticed and appreciated it.” The show received positive reviews on debut and has since Kissack notes that episode was also a blast to edit because it gained critical acclaim. It has been praised for its acting, writing, contains a giant fight scene. originality, setting and tone. In addition, the first season’s twist “It’s extremely rare in network comedies to get to edit a scene ending and the show’s exploration and creative use of ethics and with stunt fighters and actors flying across the room on wires philosophy have been positively received. The recognition also and so on. It felt like being a kid in a candy store getting to put earned the series a Peabody Award earlier this year. that together. I also used an old editing trick that my co-editor
24 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above (L-R): Ted Danson, Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, Manny Jacinto, Jameela Jamil, William Jackson Harper. Photo courtesy of NBCUniversal. ©NBCUniversal Media, LLC. on The Dictator, Greg Hayden, showed me which is that if you want to make a punch seem more violent, you remove one frame of footage before the moment of impact. It’s a tiny jump cut that serves to subconsciously help audiences believe the stunt work.” Kissack had studied film at Brown University. “We studied film theory, linguistics, mixed with cultural theory – heady stuff like that. I quickly figured out that wasn’t for me. So instead of going to class I made short films. And I wanted to work in film, but I had no hookups.” He wound up editing random corporate videos around the time Apple Final Cut was first released. Then he met comedy actor/ director David Wain, who asked him to be an additional editor on Comedy Central show Stella, where he eventually got promoted to editor. Before long he was editing his first studio feature film, Role Models, with Paul Rudd. But for Kissack, film was an environment that didn’t feel completely right. “For a while I was chasing film directing projects and realized film directors need that aura of ‘I’m the man with the plan, the visionary,’ and I’m not, personally, that narcissistic. To me TV is much more about working in collaboration with the same great group of people. It’s about what other people bring, not just you.” After editing features like Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno and The Dictator, Kissack wanted a change of pace and decided to head back to TV. He snapped into hustle mode and called the current showrunner of Veep, David Mandel, who he worked with on The Dictator. “I asked him if he needed an editor. He did. So I ended up work- ing on the sixth season of Veep.” TV editors commonly seem to struggle with the same chal- lenge: keeping the episodes to time. “There is so much good content to work with that the hardest thing is having to leave some of it on the cutting room floor,” Kissack explains. “With the nature of TV and how little time we have in an episode, everything that is shot is sharp, quality content. Most cuts start at 28-30 minutes. I have to end up cutting almost a third of the episode out.” The Good Place season takes about 30-32 weeks to make. Each season has 13 episodes, shoots for 13 weeks, they edit for 13-15 weeks and then have three or four weeks to wrap everything up. “We are in a time right now where most acclaimed comedies actually straddle comedy and drama,” Kissack explains. “The Good Place strikes a similar tone. It’s a hybrid. If you don’t have the pathos that counterbalances the comedy, I don’t think it can win an audience.” Kissack recently finished Sunnyside, a pilot for NBC, and he also worked on the show, Black Monday, for Showtime. “I love editing but my passion is directing. The goal ultimately is to be a TV director but maybe not just comedy. I’d love to work with a larger canvas. It would be a dream to direct a show like Better Call Saul. At this point, though, I’m still primarily editing and my skills as a director mostly serve to make me a better editor. I'm also at the point where the people I work with are perhaps more important than the material. If the people seem cool, then I’m in. And as long as Michael [Schur] keeps creating shows, I’d like to be a part of that.”
Left top: Marc Evan Jackson, Ted Danson. Left bottom (L-R): D’Arcy Carden. Photos by Colleen Hayes/NBC. ©NBCUniversal Media, LLC.; CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 25 Editor Eric Kissack. Photo courtesy of Eric Kissack. Right top (L-R): Jameela Jamil, Kristen Bell, Manny Jacinto, William Jackson Harper. Right bottom: D’Arcy Carden, Bambadjan Bamba. Photos by Colleen Hayes/NBC. ©NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Fosse/ Verdon The miniseries is a time capsule of Broadway’s glitziest years as much as an exploration of the romantic and creative partnership of the iconic couple
BY NANCY JUNDI
here’s a scene in the third episode of Fosse/Verdon that The Fosse/Verdon team took on the formidable, yet almost exemplifies all there is to know about the iconic romantic mandatory task of playing with time and space for a story that T and creative partnership of Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) spanned five decades. and Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams). Fosse is in the middle of “Bob and his editors, notably David Bretherton and Alan editing Cabaret and makes a surprise visit to Verdon’s home. Heim, created something that came to be known as ‘Fosse time,’” “I was thinking maybe you could come to the editing room for notes Moran. “He would jump around in a non-linear fashion a few weeks,” says Bob to Gwen, “you know, and maybe you’d see often juxtaposing fantasy and reality, revealing information and some things that I don’t see. I’m feeling a little lost right now.” memories out of time, injecting deeper meaning into the reading When Gwen explains that she has her own play to concentrate on, of a musical number or a simple interaction. They helped define a Bob all but ignores this and further presses his request for her to very contemporary and stirring form of cinematic storytelling that be by his side during editorial. we see broadly emulated to this day.” Even for Bob Fosse fans the FX network’s miniseries may be Moran, who was particularly moved by Fosse, the Sam Wasson their first real experience learning about Gwen Verdon. biography upon which the series is based, notes the important role “I think that we all hoped to introduce Gwen to the uninitiated, that both Gwen and Bob’s early life traumas and passions played and to deepen everyone’s understanding of how influential she in shaping their careers, work ethic and aesthetic sense. was,” says Kate Sanford, ACE. “Both Gwen and Bob grew up in the shadow of the disappearing The New York-based editorial team consisting of Sanford; glow of vaudeville,” he says. “They found themselves, at a very Tim Streeto, ACE; Erica Freed Marker and Jonah Moran all had early age, performing in burlesque houses and clubs, far from great reverence for the material, as well as editorial hero and the luster of the showbiz dream personified in the films of Fred longtime Fosse collaborator, Alan Heim, ACE, who won the Astaire that they grew up watching and emulating. This glitzy Oscar® for Fosse’s All That Jazz in 1980. ideal became perverted – figuratively and literally – early in their “Before I read anything, I was concerned that the show would lives, both having seen too much too soon and both being taken just seem like an All That Jazz impression, which would've been a advantage of by the dream of fame. So, here we are in some disaster because that film is a masterpiece,” says Streeto. “There’s ways using Bob’s own language to examine who these characters no way any of us can ever land an astronaut on that moon again. are. We were literally reaching onto Bob’s aesthetic playbook to That fear was gone when I saw how much the series was focusing articulate our story.” on Gwen and her role in Bob’s life and work. So I hope that Gwen To keep track of the intricate timeline, Sanford had scene fans will really embrace that perspective of the story.” cards on the wall of the edit room. “They were constantly being
26 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Michelle Williams, Sam Rockwell. Photo by Pari Dukovic/FX. © 2019 FX Networks. All rights reserved. manipulated and reconsidered by me, [director/creator/writer] Tommy Kail, and the producers, Joel Fields and Steven Levenson. As we began to intercut scenes, I would duplicate cards and begin Designing the to arrange them in alternating order. “For instance, Bob and Joan talking in the bedroom as he comes Edit Bay home after meeting Gwen, then Bob and Gwen rehearsing, back to the bedroom, back to rehearsal, etc. Soon there were too many cards BY NANCY JUNDI to represent each intercut, but you would get the idea when you looked at the wall. Overall, I think most of the episodes were written in whole scenes and the experimentation with short flashbacks, fragmentation and intercutting began in post and became a major part of the editorial process. Once we began to find the structure and rhythm of the piece, the experimentation continued right up until locking picture.” Moran says the challenge was finding the right voice for the flashback language. “Our producers emphasized that there were real differences in how Gwen and Bob experienced their pasts. Bob carries his with him every day; it lives right next to him, which is why you see the camera deliberately drift off Bob into his memories – especially in episode 1, where he’s shaping Cabaret with the experiences of his past. For Gwen, there’s much more of a wall protecting her from the pain of those memories. So, her memories Production designer Alex Digerlando led the are more intentionally jarring and fragmented. This was something creation of the edit bays that feature in several that Tommy, Steven and Joel were very clear about. It’s a very episodes of Fosse/Verdon. interesting distinction that says a lot about the differences in these “Every scene in the edit room had to meet several characters, but also, how each were, in a way, living out lives shaped goals” he says. “For audiences who might not under- by trauma and ambition.” stand how films were edited before computers, we Moran sings Michelle Williams’ praises in having captured had to show how the sausage was made, so to speak. Verdon’s cool and graceful outward presentation, even at home. We had to make sure all this great gear was placed “Only rarely do you see cracks in that veneer, of the real trauma in such a way that we would be able to see it, but underneath that claws at her. We found that sharp quick cuts, like at the same time, a lot of what is happening in the shards and fragments of memory were working well to portray this, scenes doesn’t actually have anything to do with but the fully-articulated flashback scenes that played out of time the editing so much as the emotional interactions could feel out of place if they were too literal.” between characters. We had to be thinking about the Freed Marker shared that across the four editors and eight blocking of that, too, while making sure the gear also episodes, they felt the magnitude of inspiration and collaboration. didn't get in the way.” “We created only one Avid project for the entire series. While Episode 3 opens with Bob Fosse dancing this obviously made it easy from a technical perspective, one of into the Cabaret edit suite through a colorful the unexpected highlights from a creative perspective was sort of array of backup dancers, choreographed against “Willkommen,” one of the show’s most notable songs. After a quick back and forth with his editor, David Bretherton, we follow Fosse into the four- hour first assembly screening. While Cabaret went on to win eight Academy Awards®, including best editing for Bretherton, who also won an Eddie, Fosse/Verdon sends Fosse out of the theater and back into the once-colorful hallway, which is now dark and gloomy, physically pulling him into a black hole through trim bins and film canisters. “You have to think about things more precisely for a musical number than you do for more straightforward action,” says DiGerlando. “It’s more like planning for a stunt. All the dressing has to be placed according to the choreography. Originally,
Left (L-R): Editors Kate Sanford, ACE, Jonah Moran, Erica Freed Marker, Tim Streeto, ACE. Photo by Lesley Robson-Foster. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 27 Right: Fosse/Verdon edit suite set. Photo courtesy of Alex DiGerlando. © 2019 FX Networks. All rights reserved. to subliminally send the message that all of the material from the series was available for use in any episode. As a result, I found myself constantly looking through earlier episodes for inspiration as I was cutting both 5 and 8.” Freed Marker edited the finale. “For the final Gwen/Bob sequence in episode 8, we had the assistant editors pull and organize all of the Gwen-and-Bob scenes in exact reverse chronological order. Since the series itself is told out of order, experiencing these interactions in chronological context for the first time – even as the footage itself was being experienced for the second time – imbued every interaction between them with new significance. In terms of advancing meaningfully through time, especially with the finale episode, the text and placement of the chyrons was also we thought we would build the edit room hallway very carefully considered and changed significantly with every cut. to achieve that falling gag, but it proved too costly Since so many years are covered in the finale, and tracking each and time consuming. Also, we just didn’t have milestone and the characters' journeys relative to those milestones enough space on the stage with all the other sets we was so important, we auditioned a lot of text before agreeing were building so we ended up doing both the edit on what felt right.” suite and the hallway on location at Bayley Seton Fosse/Verdon is also designed as a time capsule of Broadway’s Hospital in Staten Island. glitziest years, a labor of love for so many of contemporary theater’s “The falling effect was a combination of canting most powerful and brilliant voices. It was a deeply personal the camera, pulling a harnessed Sam Rockwell with biography from Nicole Fosse, the daughter of Gwen and Bob. a cable down the hallway and rigging set dressing It was an incredible spotlight on her mother who was so much to slide with him as he went. We added the rolling more than Bob Fosse’s muse. Freed Marker says it best: “Across the film cans and other items with visual effects so they departments, it truly seemed like all of the most talented people in could whip by dangerously near him without having New York had been tapped to offer their individual gifts.” to worry they’d injure our actor.” To amass the wealth of 1970’s gear, the team searched high and low for equipment. “Research told us that Cabaret was cut on two Moviolas,” notes DiGerlando, “but we took license and added the KEM because it presents better for filming. We didn’t feel it was too much of a leap because we did know Fosse’s movies from Lenny onward were cut on KEM. The KEM and one Moviola came from a props house while Blythe Quinlan, one of our assistant art directors, mentioned that her husband had a Moviola on display in their house as decoration, so we rented hers, too! “Christie’s in L.A. had a lot of the smaller items that we used to fill the shelves, like grease pencils, cores, leader, etc. Many of the reels and canisters and film shipping crates were found on eBay. Because we see some film actually being cut on-screen, we had to have our versions of the ‘Mein Herr’ and ‘Two Ladies’ dance numbers printed on film so we could run it through the KEM for picture. The trims filling the bins were a print of 18 Again! starring George Burns, which we also purchased on eBay.” It’s with great thanks to Alan Heim, ACE, Jeffrey Wolf, ACE, and the late Norman Hollyn, ACE, for providing the wealth of personal experience in the halls and rooms of those old edit suites from which DiGerlando was able to draw on so many precise details.
28 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Production designer Alex DiGerlando. Photo by Jessica Niskar. Right top: Michelle Williams, Sam Rockwell. Photo by Craig Blankenhorn. Right bottom (L-R): Kelli Barrett, Michelle Williams, Sam Rockwell. Photo by Michael Parmelee. © 2019 FX Networks. All rights reserved. THE DEGREES OF 6CREATIVE CONNECTION ClearView Flex is bringing together the key players in visual storytelling production through remote real-time collaboration
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BY SCOTT LEHANE
orena Bobbitt became a household name in 1993 after she The documentary combines archival footage, one-on-one infamously cut off her husband’s penis and threw it out a interviews, recreations or reenactments and highly-cinematic L car window as she was driving away from the scene of the bridges that link scenes and offer the audience an opportunity to incident. Doctors were able to reattach it later, and her husband, process what they’ve just seen. John Wayne Bobbitt, went on to star in two porn films. As the The process began with present-day interviews with Lorena salacious details trickled out, the subsequent trial became fodder and John Wayne Bobbitt. “Then we would pull out the material for late-night comedians. The story become a national joke, but that we thought best related to each of our episodes,” Das relates. lost in all of the punchlines and bad puns was the story of a woman “We each had different parts of the story. I had the last episode, who had suffered years of emotional and physical abuse as well as so I had the period of time from her court verdict, going forward rape leading up to that fateful night. to what happened after her trial, and then what John was doing Now, Amazon Prime Video’s four-part documentary series, at the time and his descent contrasted with Lorena’s attempt to Lorena, directed by Joshua Rofe, offers a more sober retelling of pull herself out of it. events in light of the #metoo movement. “We worked with those interviews trying to understand what The series is edited by Poppy Das, ACE (Robin Williams: Come their stories were, and trying to figure out, which part of the story Inside My Mind), Morgan Hanner (Studio 54), Azin Samari (Love, goes in which episode and so forth,” she explains. “And then it Marilyn; Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie) and Allan Duso (What became really clear, in order to tell this, we needed to get other Haunts Us; American Masters; Janis: Little Girl Blue). witnesses. We needed to really drill down and really tell the story Das got involved in the project in February 2018 and worked like it happened.” on it for almost a year until its release earlier this year. While the editors all worked separately in their own suites, The editor explained that she had attended a screening of “we’d always come together, and screen together and then figure Rofe’s first film, Lost for Life (2013), and got to know the director. out how to improve things or change things. We didn’t look at the But when he first approached her about doing a documentary on show as individual stories.” Lorena Bobbitt, “I really wasn’t sure what the take on the project Das explains that the editorial team would meet at lunch every was. I was like, Lorena, huh? I wonder why they’re doing that? day to talk about what they had found and what they needed “And then when I spoke to him, it became very clear what to tell the story. he was trying to do with the story,” she added. “I found it really “A lot of how the process worked was us having these conver- intriguing and an interesting task. What is the historical perspective sations at lunch, and then going back and working on our materials of why women are treated in this particular way?” more, and then working with our archivist to find specific bits, and
30 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Lorena Bobbitt. ©Amazon Studios. building the story out from the interviews to make it a little bit richer and bigger and get other voices and demonstrate the things that we were saying.” Das reports that they had a couple of researchers and associate producers “who are really good at tracking people down and getting people to corroborate stories or telling stories that no one really found the first time through.” After all of the original interviews were shot, the team went to work trying to find the appropriate archival material and raw footage. The editorial process involved a lot of mixing and matching of archival footage formats with current-day interviews. “Our assistants, who were great, had to deal with most of that,” she says. “It was really an undertaking to marry everything together and to finish it. That was a long process.” The editorial team had three assistant editors – Rachelle them or say, ‘Oh my God, I hadn’t thought about that!’ So, he was Hoppel, Jonathan Petermann and Steph Zenee Perez. “They did very collaborative.” everything. Sometimes they were doing research, sometimes “It wasn’t just top down. It was really a discussion, a dialogue trying to help find archival stuff, doing all the assist tasks, that we all had together. What are we making? What are we talking making sure that they were managing the media, making sure that about? What is the experience we want people to have? And then everything worked well – and the producers got what they needed how can we more effectively shape that experience?” and wanted. They were great and they were part of every step.” “I really loved our collaborative process,” she adds. “It was Editing on Avid, they found ScriptSync particularly useful for great that we treated it like one story as opposed to where the managing volumes of archival footage and interviews. “When director only works with an editor one-on-one, and you don't you want to be able to call things up and get at them quickly, know what’s happening with the other episodes. It just made sense ScriptSync is just great that way.” to work more collaboratively this way.” She explains that while the director was there every day Das explains that she was going for an observational style, that reviewing material, “he really gave us a lot of freedom to come up was a little bit dispassionate and a little bit removed. The editors with things on our own. And then he would weigh in or reshape wanted to let people make up their own minds and just show them what they might have missed. They tried not to cut into court testimony, and let it play out, “to let you experience what it was like for someone in her position, at her age. And at that time, you see her breaking down. We didn’t have to comment on it because it’s enough. It’s painful. You get it. You understand it.” On the other hand, there was a lot of contrasting of how things were reported at the time. Das says that she wanted people to see how Lorena Bobbitt’s horror had been turned into a joke. “When you hear newscasters or newspaper articles making obvious puns and jokes, and yet right next to that you see somebody really breaking down and trying to explain to you what happened, you start to question things, which I think is really important.” The project’s biggest challenge then was to give the story context to compel people to take another look. “Everyone thinks they know the story,” she says. “Even I, when I heard about it, said, ‘Why are you making this? Don’t we know everything?’ But then I had forgotten that she was abused, or I don’t even know if I remembered it.” Das hopes viewers take away the idea that they shouldn’t believe everything they read. “Now, as I look back, it just seems crazy to me,” she says. “Why was it only told from one perspective? People surmise now that it was just because men didn’t want to hear the other side. Because most editors were men, or most newspaper commentators just wanted to talk about the penis because it was so outrageous. And so, it was interesting to me, that the person whose wounds you couldn’t see, didn’t get the sympathy.”
Left top: John Wayne Bobbitt. Left Bottom; Lorena Bobbitt with attorneys James Lowe and Lisa Kemler. ©Amazon Studios. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 31 Right: Editors Rachelle Hopple and Poppy Das. Photo courtesy of Hopple and Das. Killing Eve Gary Dollner, ACE, describes lacing the stylish cat-and-cat thriller with humor.
BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON
eductively brilliant spy drama Killing Eve has already “I started playing around with various themes musically to try landed BAFTA® glory for writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and spice up cuts. It was clear that genre pieces were not the right S best supporting actress Fiona Shaw and best actress for way to go. The watch word was ‘counterintuitive’ – to try to pick Jodie Comer as well as an Eddie win for Gary Dollner, ACE. up on the humor flowing throughout the script.” Waller Bridge was also nominated for best drama writing at the A couple of Serge Gainsbourg songs set the tone when the 2018 Emmys along with Lead Actress Sandra Oh and the second characters are in France. Music in other episodes ranges from season continues to earn critical acclaim. really dark German electro for scenes in a Berlin nightclub to Produced by Sid Gentle Films for the BBC commercial Russian folk songs which became Villanelle’s theme. division of BBC America, the thriller packs a feminist punch. For an early scene set in the Parisian home of Villanelle, Waller-Bridge’s adaptation of Luke Jennings’ Codename Dollner selected ‘Contact’ a track sung by Brigitte Bardot and Villanelle novellas portrays Eve Polastri (Oh), a desk-bound M15 produced by composer and musician David Holmes. officer, who hunts down talented psychopathic assassin Villanelle “I’m a big fan of David Holmes and I’ve always wanted to (Comer), during the course of which both women become use this track so I tried it and it just felt right. It just played into obsessed with each other. that counterintuitive tone that we had talked about in prep, it went The template for both seasons was laid down by Gary Dollner, against genre and also just felt cool.” ACE, in the first and second episode of series one. Bradbeer liked it too and with music supervisor Catherine Dollner had cut the first series of Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, Grieves, producers Lee Morris, Sally Woodward Gentle and the acclaimed comedy on which Harry Bradbeer was a director. Waller-Bridge, set up a Skype meeting with Holmes to discuss “We all got on well so when Phoebe was developing Killing Eve writing the series’ score. she was keen to gather the same team around her.” “He took it and ran with it,” says Dollner. “We sent him full Familiar with the writer’s material, Dollner was nonetheless episodes of the show to experiment with and he started feeding us smiling within the first few pages of reading the Killing Eve script. loads of different tracks with strands and pads for us to work with.” “It was so playful. I could see Phoebe’s mark all across it. What Holmes and co-composer Keefus Ciancia went through a back really appealed was telling this dark story laced with humor.” catalog of tracks made a decade earlier under the collective name Dollner was assigned to work on the first block of two episodes of “Unloved,” featuring vocals from Jade Vincent. of the eight-part series, “Nice Face” and “I’ll Deal with Him “We wanted a strong female voice to fit the tone of our female- Later,” both directed by Bradbeer. While the crew was on location led drama and Unloved fit the bill,” Dollner says. So successful in places such as Tuscany and Bulgaria, the editor was based in is the pairing that Holmes won a BAFTA TV Craft Award for his Soho and flying solo. soundtrack to Killing Eve. “Rushes would come in and I’d send out cuts on a Friday “Nice Face” ends with an assassination by hairpin of a Mafia and talk to Harry during the week feeding back any comments,” boss at his Tuscany home. “One of the tracks David sent was Dollner says. “When I sent the assembly cuts out everyone seemed called “I Could Tell You But I’d Have to Kill.” I thought that was happy with how it was going.” too on the nose but I tried it and it worked brilliantly. Somehow Music is a strong element in the show’s style and Dollner had a it lightened what was a very dark and gratuitous act. It lightened considerable part to play in the soundtrack’s creation. Villanelle’s enjoyment of the kill.”
32 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Sandra Oh. Photo courtesy of BBC America. ©2019 AMC Networks Inc. Dollner is an expert at cutting for comedy having worked on shows including I’m Alan Partridge, The Thick of It, David Brent: Life on the Road and Veep. “I’ve been told by many directors and particularly those with a drama background that making comedy is harder,” Dollner says. “You still need to hit all the dramatic beats in the same way in a comedy, you’ve got character develop- ment and various plot strands to develop but you’ve got to make it funny as well.” At one point in the episode Villanelle ‘plays dead’ in order to play a joke on her minder/mentor, Konstantin (Kim Bodnia). “We’ve seen her powdering her face to make it paler and arranging furniture in preparation for the surprise so it’s quite inclusive, the audience is in on it and the joke is played on Kim’s character but the audience can empathize with him as well.” A distinctive element to the show’s look is its use of graphics in a big bold typeface to introduce different locations. Says Dollner, “Harry had the idea of putting cards in for locations and said why not go really big. It looked fun and it stuck.” Perhaps the show’s signature cut is one that cuts quite hard into the next scene. It’s a technique Dollner says he learned from working with British satirist Chris Morris on his cult series, Brass Eye. “We were doing a spoof 1970s news report and he said I needed to clip the end of words, to intentionally make a bad edit. In the 1970s, news was shot on film and turnaround time was tight so words were occasionally trimmed in reports. We did it for look of Villanelle in her beautiful clothes, the whole dynamic comic impact of course but I used this stylistic device to punch of mimicry that goes on between her and the little girl, and the up the launch into certain scenes. You really notice the cut which three way between them with her server. It was very delicate. goes against everything you are supposed to do which is to cut We had to get it just right for the balance to work which took seamlessly. Instead of giving the audience a nice smooth ride a bit of noodling around. When I’ve watched it back in various the intent is to jolt them out of the narrative, and energy to cut it screenings, the moment when Villanelle knocks ice cream into propels you. It’s saying to the audience, ‘Right we know you’ve the kid’s lap always get a laugh because it’s a huge relief for the had enough of that information for now, let’s get on with the show.’ audience. Now we’re on our way – we like the character and want Plus, it’s just fun to be playful.” to follow her journey.” Opening scenes are often challenging. They have to grab The opening scene ends with the huge bold title card, ‘Killing the viewer and pull them into the story. For a TV drama, that’s Eve,’ and goes straight into a shot of Eve in bed. It’s introduced especially hard since you’re asking the audience to potentially using one of those crash cuts which Dollner has spoken of and commit to following the characters over several hours. accompanied by a scream of pain. This, it quickly transpires, is “There’s so much pressure and weight on any first episode of only because Eve has been asleep on her hands. It’s another rug- any series but the opening scene here had no dialogue so the normal pulled-from-under-feet moment. things you get to play around with in words was not available. “This scene was a rewrite because originally there was a Harry covered it really beautifully. What was so important to this different scene which featured a birthday celebration for office opening scene was to introduce so many elements including the colleague Bill Pargrave (David Haig) in a karaoke in Soho which explains Eve waking up with a hangover. But it was felt that this bumped a little against Eve’s character. She is not the type really to go out and party so introducing her for the first time this would be untypical. Phoebe reworked that scene to be quite playful.” While Dollner edited the first two episodes, Xavier Russell came in to work on the second block. He came into the edit to get a fix on the vibe and tone of the show. Editors on season 1 and/ or season 2 also included Dan Crinnion, Colin Fair, Al Morrow, Helen Chapman and Liana Del Giudice. Incidentally, the series attracted the attention of actor Daniel Craig who asked Waller-Bridge to lend her writing talent to the currently-in-production James Bond film. A third season of Killing Eve is also underway.
Left (L-R): Editor Gary Dollner, ACE. Photo courtesy of Gary Dollner, ACE; Jodie Comer. Right top: Jodie Comer, Kim Bodnia. CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 33 Right bottom: Fiona Shaw and Sandra Oh. Photos courtesy of BBC America. ©2019 AMC Networks Inc. ACE ANNUAL MEETING Lea Yardum receives Heritage Award; New members presented plaques
ea Yardum, who has been ACE’s publicist for more than two decades, was recognized L with the Heritage Award for contributions to the organization. ACE President Stephen Rivkin, ACE, presented the award to Yardum before hundreds of members during their annual meeting, held June 4 at The Garland in North Hollywood. Also during the event, new members received their plaques and Rivkin updated attendees on ACE initiatives. “Lea Yardum has fought tirelessly to elevate the awareness of editing through the media and has played a pivotal role in helping ACE to grow as an organization,” he said, presenting the Heritage Award. He added that ACE Executive Director Jenni McCormick considers Yardum “ACE’s personal rock star.” Accepting the honor, Yardum said she was thrilled to receive an award “for doing something you love for persons and artists that you love.” She thanked the board for their collaboration, adding how lucky the members are to have their support. She especially thanked Rivkin and past presidents Mark Goldblatt, ACE; Tina Hirsch, ACE; and Alan Heim, ACE. She called McCormick her “soul sister.” During the evening, Hirsch and Bonnie Koehler, ACE, announced the newest ACE members, and those that were in attendance received their plaques. This round of new members included
34 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photos by Linda Treydte and Peter Zakhary/Tilt Photography.
Lee Haxall, ACE; Gabriel Fleming, ACE; Amy Linton, ACE; Ben Lester, ACE; Chris McCaleb, ACE; Daniel Nussbaum, ACE; Daniel Valverde, ACE; Darren Hallihan, ACE; Dirk Westervelt, ACE; Elisabet Ronaldsdottir, ACE; Isaac Hagy, ACE; James Ryan, ACE; James Wilcox, ACE; Jeff Buchanan, ACE; and Jeff Gilbert, ACE. It also included Jeff Granzow, ACE; Jeff Malmberg, ACE; Jennifer Barbot, ACE; Kenneth LaMere, ACE; Kyle Reiter, ACE; Len Ciccotello, ACE; Luyen Vu, ACE; Mark Hartzell, ACE; Martin Singer, ACE; Matthew Philip Smith, ACE; Michelle Tesoro, ACE; Pamela Ziegenhagen- Shefland, ACE; Patrick J. Don Vito, ACE; Peter B. Ellis, ACE; Richard Sanchez, ACE; Robert Fisher Jr., ACE; Rosanne Tan (Colello), ACE; Ting Yu, ACE; Vashi Nedomansky, ACE; and Yvette Amirian, ACE. Rivkin noted that in total this past year, ACE has added a record 57 new members plus nine associates. During the meeting, he also emphasized the importance of passing the torch to the next generation of editors. Citing the ACE Intern- ship Program and Diversity Program, he said, “I think it’s fantastic and all the ACE members that contribute to these programs – I salute you.” Several former interns joined him at the podium to thank their mentors, including Qingya ‘Emma’ Li, Luke Palter and Katelyn Wright. Past intern Tyler Nelson read a statement from Irene Chun who was unable to attend. Rivkin updated members on several initiatives and issues during the evening. For instance, he reported that ACE continues to fight those production companies of unscripted programs that don’t honor the ‘ACE’ acronym in credits. Also, he reminded members of the adjusted 2020 Eddie Awards schedule, reflecting changes to the overall Hollywood awards season schedule. He also reported that membership requirements had been revamped, and that the ACE Board is finalizing details for a new International Affiliate membership. ACE Past President and current Vice President Alan Heim received a standing ovation for his many years of service, when Rivkin announced that Heim chose not to run for reelection. He saluted Heim’s contributions of more than 20 years on the board to “build ACE into what it is today.” Meeting sponsor Avid provided Media Com- poser demonstrations and raffled two editing systems during the evening. Avid’s Michael Krulik welcomed members and thanked them as Avid cel- ebrates the Media Composer’s 30th anniversary.
36 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photos by Linda Treydte and Peter Zakhary/Tilt Photography. ISO 12647-7 Digital Control Strip 2009 3% A 100 60 100 70 30 100 60 100 70 30 100 60 100 70 30 100 40 40 100 40 100 40 70 40 70 40 40 40 70 40 40 70 40 70 40 40 3 10 25 50 75 90 100
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NOTES: SHOW MRSM-S2 CLIENT AMAZON PUB ACE MAGAZINE • (FILE NAME SHOULD INCLUDE NAME OF ADVERTISER AND BLEED: 8.75" x 11.25" TRIM: 8.5" x 11" LIVE: 8" x 10.5" ISSUE RUN DATE) • 300 DPI and Maximum ink density: 300 total. 310.310.8679 SIZE FULL PG BLD ISSUE 08.15.19 JOB #: From that moment on, her mission was clear. She continues, “That’s the moment when it clicked to me what my job was and Lea Yardum really ignited my passion for it. It can be a hard thing to explain to people so if you can make it easily digestible and relatable, then you avoid being repetitive or paying lip service. If you see it, you really understand. It is art. And it can be done well or poorly. That’s why everyone can’t be an editor. I’ve always seen my job as illuminating for the average person what editing is. Not for other editors. I’m thinking, oh that agent or that executive is going to love to read about this and get it. Plus, the people were really nice and it was a lot of fun.” Over the years, the relationship and the job have evolved and grown stronger. Even though Yardum has plenty of clients and was the awards-season expert for Paramount Pictures for a time, she has always made ACE one of her top priorities. “ACE is singularly the best partner you can have as a publicist. The membership will send me reviews where the editing is often [mistakenly] credited to the director [e.g. timing, tone, montage]. I’ll then reach out to the journalists to discuss their piece. Many journalists have written me back and said thank you for pointing that out. One of the most gratifying things I do is help out ACE with placing an obituary. I appreciate the opportunities to work with families to get their loved ones the recognition they deserve during such a difficult ACE Heritage Award Honoree time. I call obit editors and advocate to the Academy that our BY WALTER FERNANDEZ JR. editors are included in the Oscars® In Memoriam or the Emmys® In Memoriam. We don’t always win but I’m always thinking of a ea Yardum has been a reliable constant for American way to do that. I call film festivals to see if they would consider an Cinema Editors for over two decades. Her beginnings with editing award,” explains Yardum. L legendary publicist Murray Weissman cemented her metier “My relationship with Jenni McCormick is also one of the in entertainment and she’s been on an upward trajectory ever main reasons why I love working with ACE so much. Jenni is just since. Last June, ACE presented her with a Heritage Award for her as active as I am. She has great instincts. Her knowledge stretches tireless work in keeping editing on the Hollywood radar and being back so far and she’s like an encyclopedia of information on what’s just an all-around amazing ally of the honorary society. in their archives and what we have available to us. I consider her a “I immediately took to the account,” recalls Yardum. “The ACE good friend,” relates Yardum. Eddie Awards were one of our clients. When I ended up leaving Yardum made headlines herself in the spring of 2018 when Murray to start my own thing, ACE decided to stay with me she and colleague Gena Wilder left Paramount to start their own because I had been their account rep. It was one of my favorites.” company, Perception PR. Headquartered in Burbank, Perception Yardum admits, “While it was very interesting to me, I didn’t PR also has a New York satellite office where partner Julie Tustin know that much about editing at the time. I didn’t understand the takes lead on local clients like Late Night with Seth Meyers. storytelling aspect of it. Back then, ACE had a PR committee, A year on, the three women have amassed a very impressive and which they are now reviving, and Janet Ashikaga, ACE, was growing roster of clients and staff. on that committee. I asked her, ‘I want to be able to share with “Twenty years ago, there were probably three journalists journalists what editing means in a really easy way – sort of an that were interested in editing without having to beg,” confides elevator pitch.’ Janet said, ‘The best way to tell you is to show Yardum. “Now there are over five times those who regularly you.’ She invited me into the editing room and she showed me cover ACE-related or editing-related news. It may not seem what she does. It was an aha moment. I realized in that moment, huge but that’s a big growth. I attribute that to the work that the technology was a secondary tool that you use to get there, ACE and Perception have done together. Some successes that which seems so obvious now. If you’ve never been to film school really stand out include being an answer on Jeopardy!, having or been in an editing room, it feels like this giant machine that you the Eddie nominees and winners published in the Los Angeles push buttons on. I can learn how to push buttons, but Janet showed Times, and having the Invisible Art/Visible Artists event spot- me it was about the nuance of storytelling. Not so much about lighted on CBS Sunday Morning one year. We’re still changing what you cut, but when you cut or why you hold on something. the perception that an editor’s job falls into technology rather The tone shifts with the slightest change. That was a huge moment than filmmaking or storytelling. It’s not easy for a non- for me. Nobody can really teach you how to do that. That’s the profit organization to keep a publicist on board for over 20 years. difference between learning how to type or being a writer.” I feel lucky every day of my life.”
38 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photo courtesy of Lea Yardum. ISO 12647-7 Digital Control Strip 2009 3% A 100 60 100 70 30 100 60 100 70 30 100 60 100 70 30 100 40 40 100 40 100 40 70 40 70 40 40 40 70 40 40 70 40 70 40 40 3 10 25 50 75 90 100
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NOTES: SHOW MRSM-S2 CLIENT AMAZON PUB ACE MAGAZINE • (FILE NAME SHOULD INCLUDE NAME OF ADVERTISER AND BLEED: 8.75" x 11.25" TRIM: 8.5" x 11" LIVE: 8" x 10.5" ISSUE RUN DATE) • 300 DPI and Maximum ink density: 300 total. 310.310.8679 SIZE FULL PG BLD ISSUE 08.15.19 JOB #: ACE TechFest Debuts in L.A.
BY HARRY B. MILLER III, ACE
f you want to be dazzled/blown away by the developments in Continuum Complete). AJA featured the Io 4K Plus for ingesting editing technology, you need to go to the next ACE TechFest. media and connecting your NLE to a display. Master the Workflow I It is nerd heaven. And it is a glimpse into the not-distant future. had a booth for assistant editor classes. The Motion Picture Editors The debut ACE TechFest was held June 8 on a brilliant Guild had a display. Special mention goes to G-Technology, sunny day at Universal Studios. Those cool summer days are the which sponsored lunch for the event and Filmtools was onsite and perfect ones to spend inside, as we editors do, for four hours seeing handed out hard drives to raffle winners. the best editing software and lots of other fun stuff. It was an Adobe showed the latest version of Premiere Pro to two event filled with interesting equipment, software and fascinating audiences of about 80 attendees each. Although Mike Kanfer, presentations. And, if desired, a foot massage. Adobe’s Manager of Strategic Development, said that the latest Jason Ballantine, ACE, wrote, “TechFest was terrific! It was release was mostly for performance gains rather than features, the so convenient to visit all vendors of interest in one easy to access demo featured a lot of terrific new features. point. The seminars were very informative and your generously He also pointed out that Adobe has a facility in Santa Monica provided food and drink trucks [were] yummy.” where they offer free training to ACE members. Yes: free. There is The main hall was filled with all the participating vendors. also a direct email for ACE members to ask questions. The email is There were the three main editing platforms (Avid’s Media Com- available from the ACE office. There are online tutorials available at poser, Adobe’s Premiere Pro, Blackmagic Design’s Resolve), four adobe.ly/cuttingrooms. Finally, within the Premiere Pro application media sharing/review companies (Evercast, Wipster, Sohonet’s is a ‘Provide Feedback’ selection in the Help menu. This is an Adobe Clearview Flex, Shift.io/Screeners), and several health-and-wellness feedback page, where new features can be suggested and voted on. providers (hence, the foot massage possibility). Sort of fitting into Two presenters, Karl Soule and Matt Christensen, then showed that last category was Optimize Yourself from Zack Arnold, ACE, some of the newest features in Premiere Pro: ‘pancake’ style featuring products for a healthier work environment including chairs editorial where two timelines can be displayed at once, including and standing desks. the source timeline for editing from one sequence into another; Also, Universal Studios had a sign-in sheet for those who the ability to make sub-sequences of a main sequence; a new View wanted to tour the studio’s post facilities; Mary Poplin of Boris menu to allow for on-screen rulers and grids for working with FX demonstrated their latest software (Sapphire, mocha Pro, titles and graphics.
40 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Scenes from ACE TechFest. Photos by Peter Zakhary. Next, they demonstrated how editors can share projects, with Resolve includes a secure chat feature, so people on the network the ability to lock bins. For the first time editors on Premiere can easily communicate. can work on the same project at the same time. This has been an One very cool aspect of Resolve is proxies of the full-resolution essential need on episodic or feature projects which have multiple media can be easily managed in the background. editors and assistants. Cut sequences can be quickly output and posted to media- Also in the mix were Adobe Sensei, their version of artificial sharing site frame.io. There, the cut can be viewed, annotated, intelligence and machine learning, and new color, graphics and drawn on and then posted back into the editing timeline for fixes. sound panels or workspaces. Although Resolve operates in one window, it can work with The most impressive new feature is a bin view called Freeform. two monitors and bins can be opened as independent windows. Each bin with clips can be displayed in a list, thumbnail or this new Freeform view. Not only can clips be arranged in any position on the screen within a bin, but each clip can be separate sizes (four in all). In addition, there is a hover-scrub feature available, and if clips are stacked, hovering over the stack can reveal the underlying clips. And each layout can be saved and recalled. This is a fantastic and unique innovation.
The ability to work on these three aspects at once was impres- sive. It does point to the slight misunderstanding some vendors have about what ACE editors do. It isn’t generally important for our editing rooms to have color and VFX working on the same timeline at the same time. Having Fairlight, the audio workspace, able to work on a sequence at the same time would be more valuable, but isn’t a current feature. Next to present was Michael Krulik, who demonstrated Avid Media Composer 2019.6. Based on feedback from editors and new users, the whole workspace is now modular. Basically there’s a bin container, composer and timeline windows in one overall ‘host panel.’ There is no longer a project window. The whole interface is much more colorful. There now are only two ‘skins,’ dark and light. Dark mode is much in line with the macOS dark mode. Controls on the color of the interface have been reduced, but there still is customization possible. Avid’s goal, according to Krulik, is to keep all the features of Media Composer, but modernize the look and feel. Next to present was Blackmagic. Resolve is the free (for projects no larger than HD or 1920) software primarily known for color grading, that also has editing, sound editing, and visual- effects workspaces. Senior director of marketing Paul Saccone led the presentation as three gentlemen operated three networked workstations running Resolve. The first was editing, the second was color grading, and the third was creating visual effects in their Fusion FX workspace. All with the same media, updating the same editing timeline. Saccone narrated and switched screens as an edit was in process, while it was being color corrected on the second workstation, and VFX were created and added to the timeline on the third. As it was a shared-media environment, the timeline could be updated as different clips were modified and readied.
Left top: Adobe's Mike Kanfer introduces their TechFest presentation. Photo by Peter Zakhary. Left bottom: Adobe’s Freeform screen. Right top: Blackmagic’s CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 41 Paul Saccone demonstrates the flow between three workstations. Photos by Harry B. Miller III, ACE. Right bottom: Avid’s Michael Krulik (center) demonstrates Media Composer’s more colorful, modular interface. Photo by Peter Zakhary. Following page: Chris Cooke, ACE. Photo by Harry B. Miller III, ACE. Some innovations to this version of Media Composer include hardware necessary), extreme low latency between workstations a bin map that shows the layout of clips in a bin that may not (it’s fast), increased efficiency, and the ability to record the edit be large enough to show all clips, an Inspector tool that gives session to use as a reference while making changes later. metadata on any highlighted clip or sequence, and the ability to Barton shared that as a new single father, working close to home work in and export in full-quality 32-bit float. (That last feature is to be near family was more important than ever to him. “It will well above my pay grade of understanding. You’ll have to look it improve the quality of our work, as well as the quality of our lives.” up on your own.) As this was the debut TechFest, ACE Executive Director Jenni Krulik also showed several neat tips and tricks, which he McCormick asks members to provide feedback about what they’d always includes when demonstrating Media Composer. It now can want to see for future TechFests. have 64 tracks of video (the crowd groaned); clips in a timeline It was a fantastic day, learning about all the features of the can now be selected by their common colors, copied, then placed current editing systems, and other new software and hardware. in a new sequence in sync; and both video and audio clips in a And it was a good day for a foot massage. timeline can be muted. The final presentation of the morning session was for Evercast, presented by Roger Barton, ACE, who is currently editing a Netflix movie for Michael Bay. This is a remote video sharing/ collaboration system. From his editing room in Los Angeles, Barton can have an interactive editing session with a director anywhere in the world, provided there is a “robust” internet connection. He first used this system on Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where he said he had more face time with a director because of this system than on any movie he’d edited before. Evercast described features for security (two-factor authenti- cation, no files are uploaded or sent), ease of use (no proprietary evercast.us
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STREAM ANYTHING Editorial | VFX | Music Composition | Sound Spotting | Table Reads Live Shot Cameras | Quicktime Files EditFest London Lee Smith, ACE, keynotes the celebration of film editing
stellar cast of editing talent headlined by Lee Smith, ACE, Smith has also collaborated with director Sam Mendes on shared tips, knowledge and experiences during a sold-out projects including the in-production period drama 1917. “He will A EditFest London. abandon a scene in the middle of shooting if he intuitively feels Presented by ACE, the July 29 event at the British Film it’s not working. Doing that requires conviction and the budget Institute on London’s South Bank featured a keynote conversation to back it up.” by Smith and panels on episodic dramas, reality programs and Audience test screenings are the scariest part of the process, feature films. he said. “You can’t make any excuses. If the audience doesn’t There are few editors who have enjoyed a greater run of understand it then you have a problem. But they can’t tell you critically-acclaimed hits as Smith – who during his conversation how to fix your film. The studio will come up with a blueprint for shared clips from his longtime collaboration with Christopher repairing your movie. It is never right. Nolan, including Inception, Interstellar, The Dark Knight, and “For example, the third act could be pitch perfect but maybe his Oscar®- and Eddie-winning Dunkirk. He also screened a you’ve brought the weight of a slack second act coming into the clip from Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of third act. There will be lots of people running around in a panic the World, as well as the opening sequence to Sam Mendes’ wanting reshoots but you have to take a pause and be confident Spectre which was designed to look like a single uninterrupted enough to look again.” take with subliminal edits. Smith added, “You don’t work any less hard on an also-ran “My father was an optical-effects supervisor, my uncle ran a movie than on a cinematic masterpiece. You gain experience on small optical lab, my aunt was a neg cutter and my brother an every film but if the DNA of a film is simply not there then there’s animator so I guess I didn’t have a choice,” the Australian-born nothing much you can do.” editor said of his early career. How A-list editors managed to get their big break is of peren- Smith described Weir as a “very organic” filmmaker. “Some nial interest to aspiring editors and assistants, and this was covered directors rely on storyboards and arrive on set with a very in the feature panel. Turns out you typically need to endure accurate plan of what they will shoot. Peter just responds to what frustration and multiple bad jobs before seizing the moment when he sees on the set and will change tack on the day when he realizes it comes along. You also need a lucky break. something is not working.” For Tom Cross, ACE, that was meeting director Damien Chazelle. Nolan, by contrast, “has precision knowledge of how he is “We found we liked a lot of the same movies and then made a short going to shoot. The edit is built into how he shoots. He knows version of his script for Whiplash which did well enough to secure what he wants and gets what he wants. He’s a force of nature.” finance for a feature,” Cross related. “The new financiers didn’t
44 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Above: Scenes from EditFest London. Photos by Peter Zakhary. want any crew from the short film apart from Damien but [producer] Couper Samuelson wanted me to do it and assured them that he had a more prominent editor in the wings in case there was any problem.” Cross went on to win an Eddie and Oscar for the film. Jeremiah O’Driscoll cheerfully related how he “planned to be the world’s oldest assistant but got foiled in that plan.” Like Cross, he found it a struggle to be trusted to edit solo even by Arthur Schmidt, ACE, for whom O’Driscoll assisted over 11 years. “It was Bob Zemeckis who turned to me on Contact and asked me to cut the opening audio montage,” he said. “Later, when Artie couldn’t work on The Polar Express, I thought Bob would go hire an A-lister like Michael Kahn (ACE) but he asked me. I’ve stuck with Zemeckis ever since.” He added, “You really have to suffer or put yourself in at the deep end or basically lie like I did to get yourself in the door.” Paul Machliss, ACE, also had to climb the ladder to the top. “I was a runner at a facility in Melbourne when Sony UK asked if I would do some demos for them of equipment at trade shows. Aged 23, I turned up at Heathrow with a suitcase knowing no one and that it would be my fault if it all went wrong.” A decade later with experience editing comedy shows he met director Edgar Wright, for whom he most recently cut Baby Driver. Machliss described their current project, Last Night in Soho, as “Edgar’s love letter to a place which is rapidly disappearing.” He told the audience, “Luck is when timing meets preparation and when that moment occurs, if you are ready, you can grab it.” Virginia Katz, ACE, candidly admitted her route to the cutting room was via her father, editor Sidney Katz, ACE, but faced a different kind of struggle. seven days a week, 18 hours a day, I ended up literally living in the “Dede Allen [ACE] aside there were very few women editors, edit bay for two months. Since I had access to the Avid all night, but I learned from some of those rare and strong women about I went ahead and cut some scenes without telling anyone. Steve being a woman in this business. I’ve also been fortunate in ended up recommending me to Bryan Singer for X-Men 2.” assisting editors who give you a chance to gain experience. I give Graham underlined, “You can assist as much as you want but it my assistants scenes to cut since really the only way you can make is essential that you cut.” it as an editor is by getting your hands dirty.” In a conversation moderated by CinemaEditor’s international Elliot Graham, ACE, (Milk) says he pestered Mark Goldblatt, editor, Adrian Pennington, another panel of editors spoke on the ACE, with letters and phone calls until he agreed to meet for a topic TV drama and agreed that television and series content has coffee. “Out of that, by circuitous route, I ended up assisting for reached a Golden Age with more and more talent from the feature director Steve Norrington who was cutting The Last Minute at world taking part. James Cameron’s Lightstorm. Since the film required me to work “We have an Oscar [nominated] director,” said Pia Di Ciaula, ACE, of working with Stephen Daldry on The Crown, which she called “a perfect example of treating a series like a feature film.” She also showed a clip from A Very English Scandal – another such example as it was directed by Oscar-nominated Stephen Frears and stars Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw. “I had brilliant performances,” she said, adding that the editing challenge was “keeping the viewer informed of time” with flashbacks. Tony Kearns, editor on Netflix’s interactive drama, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, agreed that a growing number of A-listers are getting involved with the rising number and range of new content outlets. He welcomes services such as Jeffrey Katzenberg’s new short- form mobile content platform, Quibi, with its 10-minute format, saying of these new models that they will work “as long as the story is compelling and fits the format.”
Left: Lee Smith, ACE, Carolyn Giardina. Right top (L-R): Tom Cross, ACE, Elliot Graham, ACE, Virginia Katz, ACE, Paul Machliss, ACE, Jeremiah O’Driscoll, CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 45 Siân Fever. Right bottom (L-R): Tony Kearns, Terilyn A. Shropshire, ACE, Gary Dollner, ACE, Cheryl Potter, Pia Di Ciaula, ACE, Adrian Pennington. Photos by Peter Zakhary. “It will make binge-watching a shorter experience; we won’t Rounding out the panel was Gary Dollner, ACE, who showed be up until 6am,” he quipped. the opening of BBC-produced series Killing Eve, which begins Of the potential of interactive content such as Bandersnatch, as Villanelle (Jodie Comer) locks eyes with and imitates a child he said, “I don't think it will replace anything. I think it will be an in an ice cream parlor. He related that the challenge was intro- adjunct.” He advised of working on interactive content, “You need to ducing a new series in a scene with no dialogue. “The scene was understand coding. … [Audiences] are not viewers; they are users. about mimicry, which is a big part of what she does, she observes And you have to be super organized. It’s a really different experience. and regurgitates.” It’s technical; it’s daunting; it's a tremendous experience.” Also during the day, Job ter Burg, ACE, NCE (Elle) moderated Terilyn Shropshire, ACE, described her work on Ava DuVernay’s a panel on “Cutting for Truth and Finding the Story.” When They See Us, the Netflix drama about the Central Park Editor Anna Price shared a clip from The Trial of Ratko Five. “When I read the script, the interrogation scene was a linear Mladic, which examines the trial of a general convicted of war structure,” she explains, noting that when she and DuVernay got to crimes during the Bosnian War. The challenge, she related, was the edit, it was decided to crosscut between the different boys and to “make the political personal. … to get across the historical their individual interrogations. “You needed to understand that the information about the war in the trial of this one person … boys didn’t know one another … and you see the detectives using also to get the emotional story of the lawyers trying to convict coerced testimony to implicate the others.” this person, and the victims.” She admitted, “It was a very difficult There were three editors cutting different episodes of the film to organize.” four-part miniseries and collaborating. They were Shropshire, Will Gilbey showed his work on After the Screaming Stops, Spencer Averick, ACE; and Michelle Tesoro, ACE. “When we which follows the band, Bros. He described how the clip involved pared [an individual episode] down, we had to make sure it wasn’t steadily building an argument between the band’s Matt Goss and something that would be needed later in the story,” she explained. Luke Goss. “They didn’t have cut approval,” he added. “It was extremely helpful to have that collaboration. Our footage Also featured was Three Identical Strangers, the story of was cross-pollinating.” triplets that were adopted by separate families and learn that each Editor Cheryl Potter showed an action scene from Amazon series other existed at age 19. Editor Michael Harte, ACE, explained that Hanna, on which she worked with director Anders Engstrom. That he wanted to make the film feel like the eras during which they challenge, she explained, “was setting up that title character Hanna happened. Elements included archival footage and music. In his (Esme Creed-Miles) is in danger and the geography of the action.” clip, he showed the wedding of one of the brothers, Eddy, to his wife Brenda. Harte related that he and director Tim Wardle wrote a letter to Billy Joel asking permission to use “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” Joel’s ‘70s classic whose lyrics tell the story of a ‘Brenda and Eddy.’ The Bachelorette’s Sharon Rennert, ACE, shared a tearful scene during which a contestant tells the bachelorette that he is bowing out. “We are mostly on her face; it’s the discovery of her realizing what’s happening to her,” Rennert explained, calling the cut “deceptively simple” while saying she “cut from the gut and followed her instincts … less is more, and it was addition through subtraction.” Platinum sponsor Blackmagic Design kicked off the day by hosting a presentation by Patrick Hall, head of post and editor at Liverpool-based LA Productions, who talked about the company’s toolset that includes Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve. “We have been using Resolve for finishing for the last three years,” he said, noting that projects have included 10-episode prison drama Clink for U.K. Channel 5, which required a fast turnaround. The series was delivered within 20 weeks – two weeks per episode. “In terms of Resolve, the beauty was it’s incredibly fast,” he said, describing a collaborative and creative workflow. The day concluded with a reception. ACE would like to thank EditFest London sponsors, including platinum sponsor Blackmagic; gold sponsors Avid, Adobe, Ignite Strategic Communications and Motion Picture Editors Guild; silver sponsors Evercast and FotoKem; media partners Editjockeys, Master the Workflow, Optimize Yourself and Televisual; and trade partners BECTU and theroughassembly.com.
46 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Top (L-R): Anna Price, Michael Harte, ACE, Will Gilbey, Sharon Rennert, ACE, Job ter Burg, ACE. Bottom: Patrick Hall. Photos by Peter Zakhary. WE THANK OUR SPONSORS FOR THEIR SUPPORT!
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the sound of Town on Trial, starring John Released in 1979, the picture redefined Mills, for director John Guillermin. both horror and science-fiction storytelling, Over the next few years he gained ex- entered cinema folklore and led to multiple perience assisting in the sound department sequels including David Fincher’s Alien 3 in on features including Stanley Donen’s 1992 which Rawlings was widely credited Cary Grant- and Ingrid Bergman-starring as saving in the edit. Indiscreet (1958) and 1961 comedy Petticoat With Scott again on Blade Runner, Pirates. His first lead role as a sound Rawlings had to work away from the Warner editor was on 1962’s prison-set comedy, Bros. lot and was credited only as super- The Pot Carriers. vising editor because he did not belong to an Arguably, Rawlings’ big break was dub- American film union. Rawlings was never bing sound for Bryan Forbes’ The L-Shaped happy with the film’s voice-over narration Room in 1962. This critically-acclaimed hit or happy ending which were required by was the forerunner of British independ- the studio and were removed along with ent ‘kitchen-sink’ dramas like Saturday reinstatement of unicorn footage to signify Night and Sunday Morning which tackled Deckard’s dreams in the Director’s Cut controversial social issues (in this case release in 1992. pregnancy out of wedlock). He co-devised with director Colin Rawlings’ first partnership with director Welland, the slow-motion opening and Michael Winner was The Jokers in 1967 closing sequences of British sprinters run- starring Michael Crawford and Oliver ning barefoot along a beach to Vangelis’ Reed. Together they made 11 pictures, with score on Chariots of Fire and helped Terry Rawlings, ACE Rawlings responsible for sound editing on revive the James Bond franchise with 1933 - 2019 The Mechanic and Chato’s Land, two hard Pierce Brosnan’s debut as the spy in hitting American-set action films starring GoldenEye (1995). erry Rawlings, ACE – whose collab- Charles Bronson. Other features of note which he edited orations with director Ridley Scott His sound editing work in this period included Legend, starring Tom Cruise, also T include classics Alien (1979) and also included Bedazzled, starring comedy for Scott; action films The Saint (1997), Blade Runner (1982) – died on April 23. duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore also for U.S. Marshals (1998), Entrapment (1999) He was 85. Donen; Isadora (1968) for Karel Reisz, and The Core (2003); the 1990 comedy, With a career spanning from 1955 to the 1974 Robert Redford-starring version Bullseye! (1990), starring Roger Moore 2005, he earned BAFTA® nominations for of The Great Gatsby and several pictures and Michael Caine; and musicals Yentl both Alien and Blade Runner. He was also for director Ken Russell including Women (1983) starring Barbra Streisand and The well-known for editing Chariots of Fire in Love (1969), The Music Lovers (1971), Phantom of the Opera (2004) for director (1981), for which he was nominated for The Devils (1971) and Lisztomania (the Joel Schumacher, which was Rawlings both an Academy Award® and BAFTA. first Dolby stereo feature film, 1975). last major credit. Rawlings was born and educated in He was also music editor on Russell’s Always modest about his significant north London and entered the printing trade screen version of The Who’s rock opera, achievements and talent, he received a upon leaving school. Between 1951 and Tommy (1975). total of five BAFTA award nominations – 1953 he was a radar operator in the RAF as After Winner trusted Rawlings to com- three for film editing and two sound – part of post-War national military service. plete the picture edit of supernatural horror as well as its 2014 Special Award, and was After leaving the forces he joined Rank The Sentinel (1977), when the original honored with the ACE Career Achievement Screen Services at Pinewood Studios editor dropped out, his career took a major Award in 2006. in 1955 as an assistant librarian despite change of direction into full film editing. In 1960, Rawlings married Louise professing to have no ambition to get into That year he had already worked Kirsop, a secretary at Elstree Studios. the film industry. The work did however with Ridley Scott on sound editing his He is survived by his wife and their three gain him a union card and his career feature debut, The Duellists, and the direc- sons, David, Robert and Simon. progressed when he was asked to assist on tor invited Rawlings back to edit Alien. –Adrian Pennington
48 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Photo courtesy of the Rawlings family. 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
AVAILABLE ONLY AT CuttingItInHollywood.com FEATURING STORIES & EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH SOME OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS: John Axelrad, ACE Nena Erb, ACE Michael Kahn, ACE Jim Page, ACE Zene Baker, ACE Billy Fox, ACE Paul Karasick Chris Peppe Josh Beal Barbara Gerard Ivan Ladizinsky Julius Ramsay Norman Buckley, ACE Joseph M. Gonzalez Mary Jo Markey, ACE David Rogers, ACE Betsy Comstock Lise Johnson Tyler Nelson Ron Rosen Todd Desrosiers Mark Jones Tony Nigro
INTRODUCTION BY THREE-TIME ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MICHAEL KAHN, ACE
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arry Malkin, ACE – a frequent colla- directed by Wim Wenders. Malkin also borator with Francis Ford Coppola edited Coppola’s Rumble Fish, The Rain- Bwho was Oscar®-nominated for maker, Gardens of Stone and Peggy Sue The Godfather Part III and The Cotton Got Married. Club – passed away on April 4 after a long Additional editing credits include Big for illness. He was at his home in New York Penny Marshall, The Freshman for Andrew with his wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Bergman, Four Friends for Arthur Penn and Sacha. He was 80. Last Embrace for Jonathan Demme. Malkin was born in New York on Oct. 26, On May 1, nearly 100 friends, family 1938. He grew up in Queens where he was and former colleagues gathered for a acquainted with Coppola when they were celebration of Malkin’s life, which began teenagers. After graduating from Adelphi with a poignant speech by Coppola, who University he sought a career based on his shared stories from his and Malkin’s love of films. This began in 1962 when he childhood in Queens, regaling guests became an apprentice to Dede Allen, ACE, with untold stories about the playground on Elia Kazan’s America America. While antics of two 14 year olds playing hoops in working there he met Aram Avakian, who the neighborhood. hired him as his assistant while edited Said Coppola, “I think the evening after Robert Rossen’s Lilith. Malkin’s first full our preview of Godfather II, the over 120 editing credit was in television on The Patty changes I made on a finished movie were Duke Show, and he also edited Avakian’s executed through the night by Barry Malkin, Cops and Robbers. without code numbers, [and] was the most Barry Malkin, ACE Through Avakian, Barry became reac- amazing demonstration of editorial skill quainted with Coppola who then hired that I have ever seen. Film going from room 1938 - 2019 him to edit The Rain People. He went on to room on the floor and into synchronizer to collaborate with Coppola on 11 films machines since there were no code numbers including The Godfather: Part II, for on the mixed mag track, was actually which he earned a BAFTA® nomination. impossible, but Barry did it.” He went on to earn Oscar nominations He added, “Barry was a brilliant man for The Godfather Part III, which he edited of integrity with a tireless work ethic. along with Walter Murch, ACE, and Lisa He was a boyhood friend who became my Fruchtman, ACE, and The Cotton Club, most trusted collaborator.” which he edited with Robert Q. Lovett, ACE. Dorian Harris, ACE, remembered Malkin Malkin also edited TV miniseries The as, “…an ever-curious world traveler, vora- Godfather Saga, for which he structured the cious reader, passionate jazz enthusiast and first two films into the correct chronological true-blue Yankees fan.” order and included scenes that were not in In lieu of flowers donations may be the original films. made in Malkin’s name to the Southern On Apocalypse Now Malkin became Poverty Law Center or The Neediest Cases an additional editor and was supervising Fund-NY Times. editor when Coppola produced Hammett, –Jack Tucker, ACE
50 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Barry Malkin, ACE, photo courtesy of the Malkin family.
BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON
1995 | Director David Fincher | Editor Richard Francis-Bruce, ACE
There’s no escaping the grim fascination of this neo-noir crime thriller nor the horrific inevitability of its conclusion. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are detectives Mills and Somerset on the trail of a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as a motif in his murders. The film is largely set in a claustrophobic, dark and perpetually-raining hellish vision of New York City (though the city is never named). For the denouement, serial killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) is driven in custody and handcuffs by the detectives away from the city into a wide-open sun-parched industrial landscape.
“It was always meant to be a daytime or early evening scene,” explains Richard Francis-Bruce, ACE. “When a journalist asked [director David Fincher] whether he chose that location with its electrical pylons as an homage to North by Northwest, he said, ‘No, I just thought it was a great location.’ Funnily enough, the first scene we shot with Brad, which is the second scene in the film when he is waiting for Somerset to turn up, it was raining hard but they liked the look of it so much they shot everything else with rain machines. They just wanted the end of the film to be different.”
In the distance a van approaches the trio and the tension racks up. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for, when all will be revealed, and yet it is not that moment,” says Francis-Bruce, who was Oscar® nominated. “The van and the driver are a false ‘gotcha.’ It’s built with fast cuts as the van gets closer and screeches to a halt when Somerset fires his gun. You know Doe has a master plan. But it’s not the van. Could it be what’s in the van? As Somerset considers the box, we hope the audience thinks that there’s a bomb. The intent is to build layers of suspense and peel them back one by one.”
52 CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 Se7en photos and title © Warner Bros. Entertainment. The principal photography on the ground was shot at a time when the vegetation was very green and lush. The POV from the helicopter was done weeks later when the ground was parched. The earlier material was color timed to match the later shots. “This was the last film I cut on film so the ability to do multiple versions wasn’t there. That was a bit of a blessing since I was able to spend time cutting the principal story and when we got the aerial footage I could work out where to drop it in fairly easily. If I’d had all the material at once the scene would have been a lot more difficult to build.”
He says, “Suspense works better slowly. We lengthened the scene, strung it out by cutting up the dialogue between the two stories – one with Mills and Doe and one with Somerset. Once Somerset stands up there are three cuts of the box before he decides to run. He is just stunned and doesn’t know what to do.”
The audience feels just as stunned as Somerset because of Freeman’s reaction on opening the box. “The script had Somerset saying, ‘Oh dear Christ’ to be played over the radio on a shot of the SWAT team’s helicopter. But Morgan’s reaction to opening the box was just so disturbing it communicated everything. It was the first take. After that he couldn’t get it quite right.” The realization is only driven home to the audience on John Doe’s words: “…her pretty head.” “It hits you like thunder clap.”
Fincher had no intention of displaying what was in the box but the scene exacted such a visceral reaction when shown to New Line Cinema execs that the studio started to get nervous. “One idea was to substitute the head of Mills’ pet dog but that was never shot. People imagine they see a lot more gore than they do. Some tell me they’re convinced they’ve seen a head in the box. “If you look very closely though there is one shot of the open box with a piece of hair. It’s very slight. Was it really there?”
CINEMAEDITOR QTR 3 / 2019 / VOL 69 53 PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE 5555 MELROSE AVENUE PAID MARX BROTHERS BUILDING, ROOM 108 LOS ANGELES, CA LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90038 PERMIT NO. 3344
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CINEMA EDITOR MAGAZINE ACE , COVER 4 ISSUE: TV ISSUE EMMY FINAL VOTING ISSUE NETFLIX: OZARK PUB DATE: 08/15/19 TRIM: 8.5” X 8.25” BLEED: 8.75” X 8.5”