If producing is a primary school teacher herding a bunch of excited five year olds to actually do some work, editors are the primary school teach after hours, cleaning up and making sure the work improves. Editing may not seem like an important role from the outside but everything you see on screen, every emotion you are feeling and how the film flows is down to the editors working their magic. As a director, I have to concede that there are parts of my short film that work astonishingly well because my editor had made it happen. They hone in the crazy amount of footage in order to make the story click.
“I was a huge fan of Wes” says Piling talking about what attracted him to The Grand Budapest Hotel. He sits first in a semi-circled line as an audience fills the small room and massive lights beam down at him. The British editor who has also worked on One Day and An Education was simply thrilled when he was asked to work with Wes Anderson for the first time. “You’re always guaranteed quality when it comes to his work.”
On his immediate left is Valerio. Whilst he hasn’t a film up for nomination in either the BAFTA’s or the Oscars, he definitely has some weighty projects behind him such as Gladiator and Hannibal Rising. More specifically, he is here to talk to us about Philomena; “The script was fantastic and the life experiences are so important. Plus, Judi Dench was attached to the project and her performances are always on point. It was something I was immediately interested in doing.
Similarly to Bonelli, William Goldenberg was attracted to The Imitation Game because of Benedict Cumberbatch. “I enjoyed the screenplay. But the promise of Benedict Cumberbatch really hooked me in, that was just perfect casting.” Goldenberg, who had worked on Zero Dark Thirty and Argo was afraid of being type cast. “I’ve seen it happen with other editors who get attached to a genre. There was one guy who’d do comedies and then the directors he was working with either died or retired. Then there was no work for him I try to stretch myself over genre so I don’t pigeon hole myself. Though I guess you could call me “tension guy.”’
He’s talking about the turnaround from filming to Sundance as everyone involved really wanted to showcase it at the prominent American film festival. “Whiplash was such a tight schedule. It was a 19 day shoot,” he says to an audience who murmurs and gasps in shock, “Yeah, I know! We had to hit the ground running. And he’d call me like “here’s the footage - go.” And you had to work with that.”
Talking about directors and how hands on they are in the editing progress, Goldenberg really hammers home how you have to change for each project. “You have to adapt to everything. There are people you never see, people you always see. But I’m there to make their movie. It’s his, or hers visions.”
Although this may be a case and all the editors agree, Valerio mentions that it’s important you spend your own time with the films and performances. “You have to make your own judgement. Be prepared and start your own mental editing throughout the process. However, all the while, be aware that it serves the story.”
“You have to really love the material too before you go into a project” stresses Piling. Editing is one of the key components to filmmaking so the attention to detail and what works for a film is really important. Editing means hours in a studio going over the same scenes done repeatedly just to get something right. “There could be six hours of rushes (the shots) and that could make you lose the will to live, especially when it’s a beast of material, you really have to like the director and the story.”
Though they may have a set schedule of key scenes the director wants, sometimes it’s up to the editor to decide what is right or what works. Despite this, Piling says that Wes Anderson is very astute with what he wants. “It was such a good script to begin with. Wes has his own brand of comedy and I responded because it was this classic double act with Gustave and Zero with a lot of physical humour. Wes had to get the minutia elements right for a better comedic pitch.”
Speaking of this, it becomes apparent that the quality of films are putting pressure on the film to be near perfect on the first cut. Cross enthuses “people and technology are getting better, they need a fast turnaround so we are keen on getting the first cut as close to the final cut as possible.”
Of course, when it comes to a film, editors have to get rid of a lot of scenes from the script which may anger the writer. In fact, it should be stressed right now that the final draft of a script may not look like the finished film product. With this in mind, it is keen for a good really good relationship with the writer. Banilli, Cross and Pilling were lucky as the people who wrote the script were at the centre of filmmaking. “It helped having Steve Coogan acting” says Valerio, “not only is he an incredible physical performer but he helped guide what he initially wanted to have with the script and what it should say.”
Goldenberg was the only editor here whose script writer wasn’t involved in any other element of filmmaking. However, that’s not to say the Academy Award nominated 28 year old (we’re jeaous) wasn’t on sets and in the editing room to help out wherever he could. “First of all, Graham Moore’s script was just so good. It felt urgent to make and it’s a personal story. He managed to go through all these time periods so greatly that it made for a great editing experience.”
But he stresses that a lot of the final product came from Cumberbatch and both the script, direction and editing had to give room for the actor to breathe with his undeniable talent. “It’s all Cumberbatch. He gives it so much depth and you can’t take your eyes of him. He is simply extraordinary.”
On his other projects, Goldenberg is clearly in awe of some of the talents he’s had to work with. “Similar with Jessica Chastain,” he mentions, an actress who also achieved an Oscar nod for her lead role, “She puts so much depth into Zero Dark Thirty. That film is a different element of tension – that lack of knowing and they require different styles of editing. You really need to feel the danger in that film.”
Finally, before the gentlemen leave to enjoy their successes, they talk about past films and what project they would have loved to work on. Tom Cross mentions The Breakfast Club. “Everyone involved with that project just make it such a fun yet poignant film.”
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