Interview

Editor

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?

By Kelle Long  |  September 13, 2018

Interview

Editor

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,

By Kelle Long  |  August 24, 2018

Interview

Editor

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,

By Bryan Abrams  |  March 2, 2018

Interview

Editor

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,

By  |  March 1, 2018

Interview

Editor

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.

By  |  February 6, 2018

Interview

Editor

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,

By  |  January 31, 2018

Interview

Editor

Talking With the Editor of the Cannes Palme d’Or-Winning The Square: Part II

In part 2 of our interview with Jacob Secher Schulsinger, who edited The Square (you can read part one here), this year’s winner of the top prize at Cannes, talked about some of the movie’s most provocative scenes and the changes in technology that have given him “a new range of creative possibilities.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKDPrpJEGBY

There’s a scene where a man sitting in the audience repeatedly disrupts a presentation.

By  |  October 10, 2017

Interview

Editor

Talking With the Editor of the Cannes Palme d’Or-Winning The Square

This year’s Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival was the sharp, provocative satire The Square, written and directed by Ruben Östlund. It is the story of a museum curator surrounded by ultra-modern art who creates personal and professional chaos with some impulsive decisions. In part one of a two-part interview, the film’s editor Jacob Secher Schulsinger talked about his work in shaping the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKDPrpJEGBY

How did Ruben Östlund describe the film to you?

By  |  October 10, 2017

Interview

Editor

Battle of the Sexes Editor Pamela Martin on Turning Emma Stone & Steve Carell Into Tennis Pros

When I heard that Emma Stone and Steve Carell were starring in a new movie about the legendary Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, I rolled my eyes. I’m both a filmmaker and a tennis nut. (I got rid of my cable TV, literally, for 10 years because I couldn’t stop myself from watching the Tennis Channel). I winced at the thought of the obvious cutaways and close-ups the editor would need to rely on to hide the fact that Stone and Carell,

By  |  September 19, 2017

Interview

Costume Designer Editor Sound Designer

Celebrating Reel Women: Behind the Scenes

Women are responsible for some of the most powerful, thrilling and poignant films in the canon. From Moonlight to Mad Max: Fury Road, women are making their impact felt in all aspects of the filmmaking process, and today we look at their crucial contributions in a few specific roles, including as editors, costume designers, sound editors and production designers. 

Take Blackfish, the horrifying story of whales kept in captivity,

By  |  March 20, 2017

Interview

Actor Cinematographer Composer Costume Designer Director Editor Hair/Makeup Production Designer Screenwriter Sound Designer Special/Visual Effects

Our Complete 2017 Oscars Coverage

And here it is, the complete guide to our 2017 Oscars coverage. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool.

By  |  February 24, 2017

Interview

Editor

Oscar Watch: Editor Joe Walker Masters Time and Space in Arrival

Oscar-nominated Arrival editor Joe Walker contributed his unerring instinct for the well-timed cut to his 2014 collaboration with director Denis Villeneuve in drug-trafficking thriller Sicario. "When I saw Sicario with an audience for the first time at Sundance, I nearly had a heart attack," laughs Walker, referring to film's hyper-suspenseful opening sequence. This time around, Walker's edit steered the Best Picture nominated Arrival toward a non-violent payoff brimming with existential mystery.

By  |  February 21, 2017

Interview

Editor

Moonlight‘s Editor Joi McMillon on Cutting the Story of a Lifetime

Nominated for six Golden Globes, the stunningly beautiful, brilliantly executed Moonlight was one of the best films of the year. We've spoken to composer Nicholas Brittell, breakout star Janelle Monáe and cinematographer James Laxton about how they helped bring director Barry Jenkins film to life. The story, tracking three periods of time in one young man's life—as a child, a teenager and a grown man—was based on the play by Tarell Alvin McCraney called "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue."

By  |  January 4, 2017

Interview

Editor

Oscar Watch: Editor Expertly Shreds Time in Manchester By the Sea

Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan famously spent years in the editing suite trying to achieve perfection on his previous movie Margaret. He shot the film in 2005, delivered a much debated cut in 2008 and three years later watched the picture open in two theaters. Lonergan's comeback effort Manchester by the Sea represents an astonishing return to form, widely expected to land a Best Picture Oscar nomination on the strength of Casey Affleck's moving performance as a New England man haunted by his past.

By  |  January 2, 2017

Interview

Editor

How Star Wars‘ Editor Prepared Passengers for Lift Off

Oscar-nominated editor Maryann Brandon came straight off Star Wars: The Force Awakens to prepare Passengers for lift off. A frequent J.J. Abrams collaborator — she also edited his Star Trek Into Darkness — Brandon has became Hollywood’s go-to editor for big space epics in part because she brings an exacting eye to action sequences. Her mantra: Make sure the audience understands what’s happening.

"I don’t just cut for the sake of spectacle,

By  |  December 22, 2016

Interview

Editor

How Jackie‘s Editor Helped Show First Lady in Brand New Light

When Chilean director Pablo Larrain chose to make Jackie his first film in English, he invited his frequent collaborator and fellow Chilean Sebastian Sepúlveda to edit the film. That’s little surprise, since Sepúlveda’s work is one of the reasons Larrain’s films are heralded for their distinct mix of the surreal and the politically incisive.

Sepúlveda edited Larrain’s acclaimed The Club (2015), about a secret retirement home in Chile for Catholics priests.

By  |  December 7, 2016

Interview

Editor

Tim Squyres on Editing Ang Lee’s Groundbreaking Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Tim Squyres has been director Ang Lee’s go-to film editor for years. The pair first worked together in the early 1990s when Lee was shooting his debut film, Pushing Hands. “They would have liked an editor who spoke Mandarin, but they couldn’t find one,” says Squyres, who remembers editing that feature in a closet off of a noisy production office.

Times have certainly changed since then. Squyres now performs his cinematic magic in a fully equipped,

By Julie Jacobs  |  September 15, 2016

Interview

Editor

Cutting History: Talking to the Editor of The People v. O.J. Simpson

Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson was one of the most buzzed about television series of the year. We talk to editor Adam Penn, who also works with Murphy on American Horror Story, about tackling such a high-profile story, the importance of music and humanizing these larger than life characters.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU6vHcj75y0

The People v.

By  |  June 1, 2016

Interview

Composer Editor Producer

Chatting With X-Men: Apocalypse‘s Composer, Editor & Co-Producer John Ottman

John Ottman is a very busy guy.  He was composer, editor, and co-producer of X-Men: Apocalypse, which he describes as “running the store.”  But that’s not all – he also composed the score for another film opening this month, The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling and written and directed by Shane Black.  Somehow, he managed to find a few minutes to chat about both projects.

By  |  May 24, 2016

Interview

Art Director Costume Designer Editor Hair/Makeup Production Designer Sound Designer

Mad Max: Fury Road Earns 6 Oscars, Crushing Technical Categories

It's not all that surprising that Mad Max: Fury Road did so well at the Oscars last night, winning six Oscars, the most for any film. George Miller's sand blasted chase epic was a technical marvel, reminding viewers what a thrill good, old fashioned stunts are. Although it's a mistake to consider the film solely a marvel of practical effects—there was a lot of great special effects required, they were simply more subtle than you typically get in a film of this size.

By  |  February 29, 2016