Editors
Interviews - Editors
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“Given Enough Time and Space, Any Difficult Scene Can Be Solved”: Editors Jean Tsien and Aldo Velasco on Free Chol Soo Lee
With Free Chol Soo Lee, directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi examine the life and legacy of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of committing a murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown at the age of 20 due to the false testimony of white tourists. When journalist K.W. Lee took an interest in Lee’s case, it spearheaded a wave of nation-wide pan-Asian activism. Editors Jean Tsien and Aldo Velasco and co-editor Anita Yu discuss how their understanding of their subject grew over time and how they ultimately decided to zero in on the film’s narrative trajectory. Filmmaker: How and why […]
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“I Was Interested in Enhancing Spontaneous Observational Moments That Had a Strong Sense of Truth Behind the Avatar Embodiments”: Editor Joe Hunting on We Met in Virtual Reality
Joe Hunting directed, shot, edited and produced We Met in Virtual Reality, a documentary shot within virtual reality that follows a number of couples who met in VR while in lockdown during the COVID pandemic. Below, Hunting discusses what his subjects taught him about the VR space and how he edited the film to try to make audiences forget they were in VR. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Hunting: It was valuable for me to review and […]
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“What Does ‘Quiet’ Sound Like When You’re Trying to Express the Correct Emotion?”: Editor Michael Block on Watcher
Watcher is a psychological thriller that follows Julia, an American woman who moves to Romania when her husband receives a work opportunity. After seeing a neighbor watching her, Julia begins to think she is being stalked by the serial killer known as “The Spider” that is currently on the loose. Editor Michael Block explained how he led the audience to experience events the same way as its protagonist, the creative compositing in the film, and the different kinds of quiet in the sound design. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were […]
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“One Way to Create a Natural Flow in Sequences Is to Be Very Mindful of Eye Trace”: Editor Chris Witt on 892
Based on a true story, 892 depicts a veteran who struggles to reintegrate into civilian life and, after having his dignity whittled down by financial precarity and a society unreceptive to his needs, he decides to hold up a bank. Below, editor Chris Witt discusses how he subtly adjusted the movie’s pace, drew on Greek tragedy to make the final act as moving as possible, and shaping Michael Kenneth Williams’ final performance. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]
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“At the Root of This Rivalry Is a Historical Conflict Between Mexican Nationals and Mexican-Americans”: Editor Luis Alvarez y Alvarez on La Guerra Civil
Julio César Chávez and Oscar de la Hoya were once two of the biggest names in boxing, and their 1996 bout dubbed “Ultimate Glory” was a flashpoint for the divide between Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals. Mixing archival footage with interviews of the boxers themselves, <i>La Guerra Civil</i> examines the bout, the rivalry and its cultural dimension. Editor Luis Alvarez y Alvarez discusses his memories of the fight and how the filmmakers were able to recapture and illuminate one of the defining sports moments of the 1990s. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? […]
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“We Wanted to Target an Audience Not Necessarily Interested in the Royal Family”: Editors Jinx Godfrey and Daniel Lapira on The Princess
From the beginning, director Ed Perkins knew he wanted to tell Princess Diana’s story without any retrospective interviews and instead rely purely on archival material. That’s a rich archive, consisting of thousands of hours of footage, meaning the editors would need to choose among countless potential approaches or narrative threads. Below, editors Jinx Godfrey and Daniel Lapira discuss what drew them to the film and how they managed to whittle thousands of hours of footage into a 104-minute feature film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
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“I Came Out of This Process With a Refreshed Perspective on Mortality”: Editors Erin Casper & Jocelyne Chaput on Fire of Love
Two of the best known volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft—are arguably as well known for having died in an expedition on Japan’s Mount Unzen, but Fire of Love, a documentary by Sara Dosa that makes use of the footage shot by the couple, turns away from the easy tragic narrative to instead shine a light on the love they shared for their work as well as for each other. Editors Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput explain how they put together a film from footage that was often difficult to parse and why they took inspiration from the French New Wave. […]
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Deep Cuts: Licorice Pizza Editor Andy Jurgensen
Paul Thomas Anderson’s films can all be described as “episodic” in various ways—some more explicitly than others. Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Inherent Vice are divided into subplots and adventures, but even more austere character portraits (There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread) have a “and that’s when this happened…” bent. But Licorice Pizza, which follows the tumultuous flirtation between 15-year-old actor/entrepreneur Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and wayward 20-something Alana Kane (Alana Haim) against the backdrop of early-1970s San Fernando Valley, is the first to adopt a memory-based style, in which various sequences flow into each other like a series […]
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“He’d Kill You If He Got the Chance…”: Editor Walter Murch on Coppola’s The Conversation, the Nodal Concept of Montage and Our Modern Surveillance State
“If I really thought of the consequences all the time, I certainly wouldn’t have been in the business…” — Frank Terpil, Confessions of a Dangerous Man “Everybody has a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” — Pete Hamill There’s perhaps no greater contribution to the latter-day postmodern suspense genre than Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. An exhaustive study of a lone artisan drawn into a web of deceit and treachery, it has long been held as both a prescient cinematic landmark and a seminal Ur-text. And yet fifty years after its premiere, the film is still an […]
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“Ultimately, the Solution Isn’t There Until the Pressure Has Been Lifted”: Youngstown Director Pete Ohs on Microbudget Filmmaking and the Benefit of Being One’s Own Crew
As pre-production was ramping up on his first narrative feature, the pressure to find the perfect shooting location was weighing on Pete Ohs. While he and co-director Andrea Sisson eventually shot the film several hours outside LA — Everything Beautiful is Far Away stars Julia Garner and Joseph Cross, and was released by The Orchard in 2017 — Ohs theorized that knowing his shoot location before coming up with his next story idea would relieve some pressure from the narrative filmmaking process and, in turn, win back invaluable time for creative exploration. The result is Youngstown, Ohs’ sophomore feature which […]
