Eye on the Prize
Page 3 of 6
Editing
By Debra Kaufman
Editing is an art that, when done well, is invisible to the viewer, enabling the director’s vision to shine through unimpeded. Though 2002 has seen numerous films that caught the critic’s eye and the public’s attention, Hollywood film editors are loathe to make a call on which 2002 films will be singled out for honors in Best Editing in a year many say no obvious contenders leap off the screen.
Yet a strong director’s vision is conveyed clearly in several films this year, making them potential Oscar® nominees even if the films in question required no extra-special editing feats. Road to Perdition is one. Director Sam Mendes, cinematographer Conrad Hall, ASC and a stellar cast including Tom Hanks and Paul Newman filmed on location in Chicago and surrounding towns. The result made an indelible impression on audiences’ hearts and minds. Collaborating with Mendes for the first time was editor Jill Bilcock, who earned a nomination last year for her editing work on Moulin Rouge!, an Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors, both American and Australian Film Institute Awards and a BAFTA nomination.
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| The Emperor's Club |
Hoffman came to Los Angeles to screen the first cut. “We knew right there that we had a real gem and we needed to chisel away at it,” said Rosenstock. “The movie could have been an intellectual, elitist movie, but its heart won out. We made it into something ordinary people could grab hold of.”
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| 8 Mile |
Steven Spielberg has relied on Michael Kahn to cut his films for the last 27 years, making Kahn a potential candidate for Best Editing for both Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, two very different films. For Minority Report, Kahn reported the film featured 480 CG shots produced by half a dozen visual effects studios — and that they did not use a visual effects coordinator. “We coordinated it all ourselves,” he said. “Conceptually the movie was complex. We had a lot of coverage and a lot of freeform editing.”
Catch Me If You Can was a much more light-hearted experience: “It had a sense of humor to it, although it’s a true and serious story,” he said. “It was fun to edit.” This film shot in over 100 locations, resulting in a lot of coverage, but Kahn described the process of arriving at the best possible images as an enjoyable task.
“Steven and I feel more than we talk,” he said. “The feeling is at a maximum. The talking is at a minimum. He looks at me and knows how I feel about something and vice versa. It really shortcuts a lot of time.” Spielberg is a traditionalist when it comes to editing, which means that Kahn and his editing team work with moviola and Kem — but it’s all still about making those crucial decisions in the dark.
“George Lucas and Steven would both say a picture isn’t a picture until it’s edited,” Kahn concluded. “You sit alone in the room and make decisions… And it goes from two people alone in a room to showing it to the world.”
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