Читать книгу The Making of a Motion Picture Editor - Thomas A. Ohanian - Страница 14

Partial Credits: The Equalizer 2, American Assassin, The Huntsman: Winter's War, Snow White and the Huntsman, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Training Day, Thirteen Days, Titanic, True Lies, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Abyss, Spaceballs, Jagged Edge.

Imagine being a visual effects editor on The Empire Strikes Back building complicated layers in an optical printer. And then the ability to shape performances of CGI characters as a cut scene evolves. That shows the breadth of experience that Conrad has. He just has this ability to get every bit of kinetic energy that the footage has and highlight it.

TO: Conrad, you are an Academy Award, Eddie, and Golden Satellite Award recipient. How did you get your start in the motion picture industry?

CB: I had an early interest in film, which was born out of an interest in theater. When we were kids, we were always endeavoring to get a part in a play and to see plays. And we put on plays at the ripe old age of seven years! One day I was visiting my grandfather, who was an artist and a painter. He had cameras that he used to take reference photos for his paintings. So that really began an interest in photography. And eventually the light bulb went on in terms of the connection between theater, photography, and cinema.

TO: Were you also going to a lot of films?

CB: Yes, this all manifested itself as my mother was taking me to see films by Ray Harryhausen and the early Hammer films. And then somewhere around age eleven I did a lot of odd jobs and saved up forty bucks and bought an 8mm film camera. I wanted the single frame capability so that I could emulate the stop-frame animation of Ray Harryhausen. And eventually through my teens, I was making films with my friends and eventually graduated to 16mm. And in the ‘60’s I was being bombarded with these great films that were coming out.

TO: Which films come to mind?

CB: Darling by John Schlesinger. Morgan! (Karel Reisz). Far from the Madding Crowd by Schlesinger. This Sporting Life by Lindsay Anderson. And all of a sudden, my tastes changed and I gave up my interest in visual effects and I was very much interested in cinematography and not in editing.

TO: When did editing come onto your radar screen?

CB: In the late ‘60’s when I saw Bullit. Not as a career, but as an appreciation of the contribution of the editor. So I went to Pasadena City College but I got drafted and ended up in the Navy. I wound up in Washington, making films for the Office of Information. We had a small, 8-10-person group and we made documentaries.

TO: It sounds like a great training ground.

CB: I was able to experience all the technology and equipment of filmmaking. We had Steenbecks and Arriflexes and it became my film school.

TO: Before your first picture editing credit, you worked on many groundbreaking films in the area of visual effects as a visual effects editor and editorial supervisor. Films such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “The Empire Strikes Back”, and “Ghostbusters”.

CB: After the Navy, I spent five years working in high-end commercials for clients like United Airlines and Budweiser. And in those days, commercial editorial was all film. And, frequently, the commercials had a lot of complicated effects work, all of which were composited on optical printers. But, after five years, I wanted to move on.

TO: But you had all the visual effects compositing experience.

CB: Right, and one day I got a call from someone who asked me if I knew anyone who knew about optical printing and visual effects. And I said, ‘Me’, without knowing what it was for. I ended up working at Industrial Light and Magic when John Dykstra was running things. This was right after they had done the first Star Wars and they were doing Battlestar Gallatica for television. And that was really my transition to features. And while I was there, an old friend—Dennis Muren—who I had known since I was a teenager—was working there as was Richard Edlund. They said they were moving up north to establish ILM in the Bay Area and were going to do The Empire Strikes Back. And they asked me if I would run the editorial department.

TO: And ILM grew very rapidly.

CB: The company was very successful and then Raiders of the Lost Ark came along and I worked on that. Then Poltergeist and then E.T., and I had a minor hand in all of them. Then, when George Lucas decided to do the last of the Star Wars films, I asked if I could move into live action as an assistant and they agreed, which was wonderful. And that really was my initial break. And my desire at that time had really grown into wanting to be an editor. Marcia Lucas was editing as well, and she was quite amazing. She was very influential and helped my appreciation of what one can do with the craft. It wasn’t just about assembling what you saw—it’s sometimes completely reengineering a scene. That was quite enlightening and made me want to do more. I was fortunate to meet Sean Barton, who was Richard Marquand’s editor, and that’s how I wound up on Jagged Edge.

TO: Jagged Edge did very well at the box office. I love that John Barry score.

CB: I did too. I was Sean’s assistant on Jedi and he called me. I was just finishing Ghostbusters and I was first hired as an assistant editor. But, really, I only cut a few scenes and Sean cut that movie with Richard. However, it allowed me to share a credit with a friend and it catapulted me into being able to do a film on my own. And the apprentice was Billy Goldenberg who then went on to do a lot of work with Michael Kahn. It was a great transition for me into the editing world.

TO: When I went to see Training Day, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Denzel Washington is just scary.

CB: Training Day was one of my favorite experiences as an editor. Denzel was so shot out of order that it wasn’t until very late in the game that I had enough material to begin to connect scenes. I liked the script, I liked Antoine Fuqua, the director very much, but I didn’t know if it was gelling. When I connected the scenes, I ran out my cutting room and across the patio at Warner Bros. to my assistant’s room. And I said, ‘This is actually a really good movie!’ And there was a real joy and excitement about that one to me.

TO: What were some of the challenges on the film?

CB: Editorially, the performances were a challenge because I had a huge amount of material. And there were so many choices to make. Denzel was experimenting wildly from take to take. There were variations physically, emotionally, and there were hours of material with these actors who spend a lot of time being towed in their car. So, you had the ebb and flow of performances and it was a real challenge. I’m quite possibly more proud of that movie than almost anything else I’ve worked on. I know I had a big contribution in making it work as a film.

TO: It did very well with audiences.

CB: Yes, but its success was a bit of a surprise. We tested it at screenings and it never tested all that high.

TO: Really?

CB: Yes, no matter what reengineering we attempted. And Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who was running the studio at the time said, ‘You know, I like this movie. I don’t care what the numbers are. Let’s release it.’

TO: You made the transition from film to digital editing on The Getaway.

CB: A lot of my friends in the commercial world were using the Avid on a daily basis. I was interviewing for The Getaway and the studio had an accelerated post schedule. They suggested using Montage, with the multiple tape decks. And I said, no, either I’m going to edit this on film or I’m going to edit it digitally. So I gave Roger a demonstration and he loved the idea.

TO: And then after The Getaway you went on to True Lies.

CB: And I never went back to film. I introduced Avid to Jim Cameron on True Lies and he was dubious but then decided yes—because he’s intrigued by technology—and came to appreciate what it could do for him.

TO: You’ve done a lot of films where there have been multiple editors. How do you approach that?

CB: Both The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day were edited on film. I still very much like T2. Jim has a wonderful ability to shoot beautiful material and write very compelling pieces that are great movies. What I most appreciate about him is that he does so much homework. He is not winging it when he’s out there and hoping it’s going to come together. He has researched, written, determined approaches and is also fascinated by the technology. Jim shoots a lot of material but, unlike a lot of people, he shoots a lot of really good material.

TO: And both The Abyss and Terminator 2 had tremendous visual effects. Can you recall your reactions when you first saw what was being developed?

CB: Astounding! (Both laugh) And ironically, it was my old friend Dennis Muren who was the visual effects supervisor. The water tentacle in The Abyss was mind blowing. The first time I saw the test it was—Oh My God—staggering. But this is Jim and honestly he is the guy who pushes all this—witness Avatar, Titanic, True Lies, and Terminator 2.

TO: True Lies is great because of the balance between action and humor.

CB: He’s very good at the balance between story and character and incredible action sequences. His films are always events and they’re always wonderfully thought out and that’s what’s great about working with him. One of my favorite moments in The Abyss is a scene that Joel Goodman edited. And I thought he did an absolutely brilliant job. And it is the scene between Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ed Harris where she is essentially drowning. It was so well put together and the choices were staggeringly good.

TO: It is so suspenseful and so hard to watch.

CB: It’s beautifully done. In Terminator 2, I have a fondness for what we called ‘The Canal Chase’, when the bad terminator pursues the boy and Arnold rescues him. I cut that scene and it was all on KEMs and Moviolas and I’m quite proud of that scene.

TO: It’s great.

CB: It’s very satisfying. Now, on True Lies, one of the most complicated sequences I ever worked on was the Harrier sequence when Arnold is trying to rescue his daughter. And that took me weeks and weeks because of the amount of footage, the techniques that were used that Jim devised, and how to blend them seamlessly. It was very challenging so I’m proud of that one area. On Titanic, the concept was that Jim was going to edit the film himself. And he just got too busy. So, I went over to his house and he showed me some footage from his dive to the actual Titanic, which was used for all the R.O.V. exploration. And it was magnificent and stunning material and it was just jaw dropping. It was way beyond your expectation. And that doesn’t happen very often.

TO: Did you realize how successful the film was going to be?

CB: I started getting dailies and immersing myself in the film, but I had no idea how impactful the film was going to be.

TO: What did you start with?

CB: The first scene I was assigned was the ‘Poop Deck Sequence’, which sounded rather benign when I signed up. Well, the poop deck sequence involved the final moments of Rose running to the end of the ship as it’s going down. And she and Jack are clinging to life along with a handful of others as the ship is descending for its final plunge. It was technically very complicated because there were multiple techniques employed and multiple camera crews had shot material. Jim had done the principal photography and stunt work and then there were miniature units, things that had to be composited, and things you had to imagine. And the challenge was to marry all these different techniques and make it seamless.

TO: How much was length an issue in the cutting room?

CB: At one point, Jim and Richard (Harris) and I were discussing the length and I suggested the David Lean approach of putting in an intermission. But Jim felt that there was no way to break it up and he was right.

TO: If you had done that, where was it going to be?

CB: It would have been somewhere near spotting the iceberg. But it wasn’t necessary. Even though it’s a very long film, it’s compelling enough.

TO: Let’s talk about Oscar night.

CB: You don’t want to think about being nominated and you try to dismiss it. And when I heard my name called at the Academy Awards, it was exhilarating. You sort of float to the stage hoping that you don’t blow the acceptance speech!

TO: Are there films that you edited that, for whatever reason, didn’t do as well as they should have and that you feel the reader should revisit?

CB: One of my personal favorites is Jennifer Eight and another is Seraphim Falls. And they both have flaws but the experiences were great.

TO: When you edited Rise of the Planet of the Apes, what was unique to you as a new experience?

CB: That was a new challenge for me and it keeps you going and I learned a great deal on that film. Andy Serkis flat out did a wonderful job. It was his performance that we were trying to harness. I was, initially, stymied because I wondered how in the world I was going to make editorial selections based on the performance. Here is an actor, in a gray suit, with all sorts of reference markers on him, being captured by various cameras. And he is interacting with actors.

TO: So what specifically was challenging about that?

CB: One of the difficulties is that the interaction with Andy Serkis and Freida Pinto, James Franco, and John Lithgow was that they, as actors, responded best performance wise in the shots where Andy Serkis was present. Very often we had to utilize what we call clean plates, where we would shoot the scene again without Andy Serkis in it. And the actors would try to emulate the performance and the physicality of the previous takes that Andy was in. And I found that incredibly difficult to harness his performance and integrate and structure the scenes. And remember, at this point, you’re still watching a cut that has actors interacting with people in gray motion capture suits.

TO: Right, the ape characters aren’t there yet.

CB: Yes, and it was hard for the studio to experience the emotionality that we had gotten used to in the cutting room. Act two was virtually without dialogue. So there were vast passages where we had motion capture actors pretending to be apes. Is the scene working? Is the second act working? It was enormously challenging and I credit the director, Rupert Wyatt, who was able to endure a year of shooting and a year of post-production and being able to overcome the challenges of limited visual information.

TO: Other than the intensive use of motion capture, was this like working on a normal feature?

CB: No, it was, for me, like working on an animated film.

TO: What do you mean?

CB: We had the ability to change not only the performance but also the physicality of how a character would get from A to B in a shot or in a scene. We could alter time and space.

TO: This is an important point you’re making. Because you could also alter the performances of the apes.

CB: Yes, and that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to do that! And it was incredibly educational and challenging. It’s yet another tool in the arsenal.

TO: You’re rewriting yet again.

CB: Yes, exactly. And we did a lot of rewriting.

TO: That’s pretty amazing. What have you learned along the way?

CB: The thing that I didn’t realize initially was what an amazing impact editorial has on a film. How you can truly have a significant impact on reactions and how people perceive the film. Just through the manipulation of imagery, sound, and music. But I think the biggest thing for me was you can significantly alter peoples’ perceptions.

TO: Are there any films that come to mind where you really admire how they were put together as well as other editors whose work you admire?

CB: Films that specifically hit me were Day of the Jackal, Fred Zinnemann’s film, edited by Ralph Kemplen. That film to me is a masterpiece. You know what the outcome is going to be because Charles de Gaulle did not die. And yet, the tension is unbelievably great. The rawness, the documentary quality of it all, the performances, it’s a beautiful piece of work. In the Name of the Father, Gerry Hambling’s editing work. Everything I ever saw Gerry Hambling do was so strong. A film that I think is absolutely wonderful and it is all about editing is Duel, edited by Frank Morriss—good God, it’s beautiful. And I liked Charley Varrick. And I was also influenced by Dede Allen’s work in the ‘60’s. Jim Clark for Darling and The Killing Fields.

TO: If you weren’t editing what would you be doing?

CB: Cinematography still holds that fascination. I’m not sure. Medical? Airline Pilot? (Both laugh)