First cut: conversations with film editors 9780520911741, 9780520075887

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First Cut

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Photo credits: Paul Barnes courtesy of Robert Miller, Geof Bartz courtesy of Will McIntyre, Donn Cambern

courtesy of Uri Katoni, John J. Dunning courtesy of . MGM, Alam Heim courtesy of Sanford Rackow, Paul Hirsch courtesy of Irving Sherman, Sheldon Kahn courtesy of Bruce McBroom, Harold F. Kress and Carl Kress courtesy of Gabriella Oldham, Sidney Levin courtesy of Lisa Sloan, Carol Littleton courtesy of John Bailey, Evan Lottman courtesy of Peter Weitzner, Barry Malkin courtesy of Debra Bard, Emily Paine courtesy of Jennifer Lewis, Ted Winterburn courtesy of Katherine Love, Merle Worth courtesy of Wynette Yao

| University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California ! University of California Press

London, England | Copyright © 1992 by The Regents of the University of California First Paperback Printing 1995 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Oldham, Gabriella. First cut: conversations with film editors / Gabriella Oldham.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-520-07588-7

1. Motion pictures—Editing. 2. Motion pic-

TR899.043 1992 : ) 778.5'35—dc20 91 —47713 ture editors. I. Title.

CIP

10 09 08 , 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 :

| Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). @

For Nick, I wish he were here.

, He would have loved this one.

BLANK PAGE |

, Contents Acknowledgments __ ix

Introduction 1

, Sheldon Kahn 13 | 1. Being an Editor

2. Becoming an Editor Emily Paine = 29 3. Distilling the Documentary

Tom Haneke 41

4. Film as All the Arts

7 Carol Littleton 61 | 5. Flashback, Flashforward Harold F. Kress and Carl Kress 79 6. The Essential Film

: Geof Bartz 101

7. Telling Stories | Tom Rolf 119

8. Sparking Life, Shaping People | Paul Barnes = 131

9. Touching the Heart

| Anne V. Coates 151

, vii

| Bill Pankow 171 10. Maximizing the Moment

viil Contents | 11. “Percussive” Editing

Paul Hirsch 185

12. Keeping the Beat

Donn Cambern 199 |

, 13. Seeing the Invisible , Evan Lottman 219 14. Remaining Versatile , Peter C. Frank 235

, 15. “Good Stuff” Never Changes John D. Dunning = 253

16.TedSubliminal Truths Winterburn 269 17. The Inner Voice

, Sidney Levin 289 18. Drawing the Emotional Line

Merle Worth 305

| 19. The Supreme Collaboration Barry Malkin 323

| 20. Diplomatic Takes - Rudi Fehr 341 21. Creating a Legacy

Richard Marks 359

22. “Locking” Up

Alan Heim 375

Appendix: Awards and Nominations 397

References 403 Index 405

Acknowledgments

Mimi Arsham, Alan Berliner, Lisa Day, Holly Fisher, Lora Hays, Richard

Halsey, Michael Kahn, Kay Rose, Larry Silk, and Peter Zinner, film editors whose interviews could not appear in this book for lack of space. | Rocky Schwarz, for his trivia every time I start another project and for not minding my “junk piles.” Betty Engel, for when the (micro)chips were down. Miranda Botchway, Alma Gray, LaVonna Wilson, musketeers of

the WPC. Carrol Grady and Zoraida Grady, for “multiple” assistance.

| Tim Couillard, those roses meant so much. For asking and listening: Yvonne Barnes, Kurt Brokaw, Steve Brown, Hope Jensen Leichter, Ted Papoutsakis, Sr. Carol Perry. Ernest Callenbach, the best editor of the literary kind, and all at the Press who contributed to production. Fabiana, perhaps you ll be an editor one day. Whatever you do, keep

laughing. , believing. | |

My mother, it never seems easy, but it always gets done. Thanks for |

ix

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