TIFF 2019: Harriet Editor Wyatt Smith on Capturing a True American Hero
Based on the iconic life of freedom fighter Harriet Tubman, Kasi Lemmons’ Harriet reveals the story of this American legend’s escape from slavery and her incredible courage after in her quest to free other slaves. Starring a phenomenal Cynthia Erivo in the title role, Harriet looks at a 10-year chapter in Tubman’s extraordinary life and is structured around three distinct phases. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival...
Best of Summer 2019: Ready or Not’s Editor on Cutting This Devilish Delight
*As summer draws to a close, we’re looking back at some of our favorite interviews and stories.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet’s Ready or Not has been getting rave reviews. They’ve taken a simple childhood game and turned it on its head, to devilishly delightful results.
Samara Weaving plays Grace, a young woman enjoying her wedding day. She joins her husband Alex (Mark O’Brien), whose wealthy family built their empire on board games...
Best of Summer 2019: Editor Spencer Averick on Cutting When They See Us
*As summer draws to a close, we’re looking back at some of our favorite interviews and stories.
Netflix rarely releases viewer numbers, but on June 12th, the streaming service tweeted that Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us has been its most-watched content in the US since the show’s premiere on May 31st. In the UK, When They See Us has been running second only to Black Mirror...
How Ready or Not’s Editor Amped up the Emotional Stakes
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet’s Ready or Not has been getting rave reviews. They’ve taken a simple childhood game and turned it on its head, to devilishly delightful results.
Samara Weaving plays Grace, a young woman enjoying her wedding day. She joins her husband Alex (Mark O’Brien), whose wealthy family built their empire on board games. Grace must take part in a tradition for newcomers: playing a family game. Drawing from a deck of cards,...
How I Am Mother‘s Editor Cut Netflix’s Chilling Sci-Fi Thriller
Humankind has all but gone extinct, but Mother (Rose Byrne) is on the case. The fact that Mother is a dulcet-voiced robot shouldn’t alarm you—at least, not yet. Her mission is to repopulate the earth, and she begins her work with a little girl (whom she simply calls daughter) who is all but perfect. Daughter grows up (played as a teenager by Clara Rugaard) loving Mother, learning from her, dutifully studying for her tests and essentially excelling at everything Mother throws at her...
Spencer Averick on Finding Truth & Humanity in the Edit of When They See Us
Netflix rarely releases viewer numbers, but on June 12th, the streaming service tweeted that Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us has been its most-watched content in the US since the show’s premiere on May 31st. In the UK, When They See Us has been running second only to Black Mirror. But audiences hardly need to turn to Black Mirror’s fictional, dystopian worlds to watch the miscarriage of justice play out on the small screen...
How Avengers: Endgame‘s Editor Handled Time Traveling Twists & Turns
SPOILER ALERT: This story reveals plot points seen in Avengers: Endgame and other Marvel films.
Even before Avengers: Infinity War was completed editors Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt were already working on what they were calling Avengers 4 in April of last year. The project, shrouded in secrecy, was to be a culmination of 10+ years and 22 films in the making cleverly dubbed Avengers: Endgame.
During its first three weeks at the box office,...
The Bespoke Technology That Made Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Possible
Sugar puffs or frosties? Yell at dad or pour tea all over a keyboard? By now, the audience choices and subsequent on-screen fallout possibilities in Netflix’s first interactive film for adults, Bandersnatch, have been well documented across the web. Home-made flow charts painstakingly illustrate the complexity of 19-year-old video game creator Stefan’s journey as he tries to develop an interactive computer game in 1984, navigating relationships with his irritating father, new boss, and brilliant but off-the-wall colleague,...
Oscar Watch: Black Panther Co-Editor Michael Shawver on the key to Cutting Fight Scenes
Editor Michael Shawver goes way back with writer/director Ryan Coogler. In fact, he edited Coogler’s first two films, his 2013 breakout film Fruitvale Station, and his deft resurrection of the Rocky franchise with 2015’s Creed. His work on Creed turned out to be the perfect training for his next Coogler project; the epic, game-changing Black Panther.
Shawver’s gut—and keen eye—led him to feel very connected to the hand-to-hand combat scenes that took place at Warrior Falls...
Oscar Watch: How NASA Footage Inspired the First Man Editor’s Style
The moon landing was welcomed as a shared triumph in American history, but no one had more at stake than the men who traveled there. The mission’s success was as much a feat of will as of science. First Man captures the danger and courage of pioneering space travel in both broad historic and intensely microscopic ways. Editor Tom Cross was inspired by the movie’s ambition of telling a famous story from a human perspective.
“It allowed us to delve into this first-person subjective type of storytelling where you feel like you are climbing into the space capsule or you feel like it is your hands on the rung of the ladder as you climb down and step on the moon,” Cross described...
Oscar Watch: Black Panther‘s Co-Editor on the Key Scene She Influenced
A rich African inspired heritage and fierce women warriors proved this year that fresh perspectives are long overdue on screen. Black Panther came out swinging and took a major swipe at barriers to cinematic representation. The immensely talented team dreamed up a world that was not only thrilling and gorgeous but also put new faces at the forefront of the superhero genre. Not only were there more black actors on screen than any other Marvel film,...
Oscar Watch: The Favourite‘s Editor on Cutting the Year’s Most Deliciously Devilish Film
Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite is a delicious piece of filmmaking. Gorgeous to look at, actors having the times of their lives, and that special brand of merry malice that Lanthimos is uniquely capable of is all on the menu here. Set in the 18th-century, The Favourite revolves around Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and rival courtiers Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone) who vie for her attention, love, and patronage...
On the Basis of Sex: Editing the Origin Story of a Real-Life Hero
Every great hero begins somewhere. Before saving the planet, superheroes often channel their gift from the gods, survive the bite or a spider, or mutate after alien radiation exposure. The hero of On the Basis of Sex, however, began her journey of toppling titans and freeing the people in a place far more ordinary. A courtroom.
“When [director] Mimi [Leder] approached me initially about the project, I also had expectations this is going to be this grand biopic of Justice Ginsburg’s life and how she got to where she is,” editor Michelle Tesoro recalled...
How the Crazy Rich Asians Editor Helps Us Navigate the World of Singapore’s Elite
Crazy Rich Asians hinges on dynamics. The complicated web of relationships will either catch true love or tangle the unsuspecting couple. Rachel (Constance Wu) gets off to a rocky start with her boyfriend’s mother (Michelle Yeoh), but there are even more delicate power struggles within the family. In the elite Singapore circles of Crazy Rich Asians, a look, a gesture, or even a flower can be a symbol of judgment. What someone says isn’t always what they mean...
TIFF 2018: The Time-Altering Superpower of the Widows Editor
Oscar-nominated editor Joe Walker has spent a lot of time thinking about time. Our perception of time may change over the course of our lives, but in truth, it’s always experienced forwards. One thing happens after another and there is no way (yet) to go back. In Walker’s movies, however, time is a tool he can use to manipulate a story. When does a character know something? Is there a secret in the past that explains the present? Does time exist as we know it at all?...
How The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s Emmy-Nominated Editor Gave Midge her Sparkling Start
Timing is everything, or so the saying goes, in comedy. This is just one of the lessons the truly marvelous Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) learns on her journey to develop a stand-up set when her personal life hits turbulent times. That timing is particularly brisk on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The show was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, known for writing the breakneck dialogue of Gilmore Girls. The new Amazon series is sharp, witty, and well calculated to convey the ups and downs of taking chances and striking out in a male-dominated profession...
I, Tonya‘s Oscar-Nominated Editor Tatiana S. Riegel on What Makes a Scene Work and Why
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, while publishing new interviews throughout the week. I, Tonya Editor Tatiana S. Riegel is nominated alongside Paul Machliss & Jonathan Amos (Baby Driver), Lee Smith (Dunkirk), Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water) and Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri).
One could make a case that the most competitive category in the upcoming Oscars isn’t for best picture or best director,...
Baby Driver‘s Oscar-Nominated Editor Paul Machliss on Marrying Music to Mayhem
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, while publishing new interviews throughout the week. Paul Machliss is nominated in the Film Editing category, alongside his co-editor Jonathan Amos. They join fellow nominees Lee Smith (Dunkirk), Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya), Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water) and Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri).
Of all the masterly edited films of 2017,...
I, Tonya‘s Oscar-Nominated Editor Tatiana S. Riegel on What Makes a Scene Work and Why
One could make a case that the most competitive category in the upcoming Oscars isn’t for best picture or best director, but for film editing. Your nominees represent a fantastic cross section of genres and styles—Baby Driver‘s insanely perfect music-to-mayhem editing; the gorgeously cut, perspective-swapping World War II epic Dunkirk; the feverish revenge drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; and the perfectly paced, dreamy and dread filled The Shape of Water...
Baby Driver‘s Oscar Nominated Editor Paul Machliss on Marrying Music to Mayhem
Of all the masterly edited films of 2017, it would be hard to argue any were quite as revolutionary as Baby Driver. Edgar Wright’s music-charged heist flick was so flawlessly designed and edited it seemed almost as if the songs on the soundtrack had been recorded specifically for the scenes they amplified. In our interview with supervising sound editor Julian Slater, we learned, among other things, that the brilliantly matched music-and-turbo-charged-getaways were so complicated, they had to use five different cars to sync the sounds between Baby’s (Ansel Elgort) red Subaru to the music,...
