Filmmaker Allan Holzman, a feature and documentary director and editor, came to KU April 1 to show his film “Invisible Art/Visible Artists” and talk to the Introduction to Film class. Known for his masterful work as an editor, Holzman is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Cinema Editors and created and produced the Invisible Art/Visible Artists event every year in Hollywood since 2001, where the Oscar-nominated editors from each year give a panel discussion about their craft.
The documentary highlights editors from these panels from 2001-2010, such as Martin Scorsese’s editor Thelma Schoonmaker and Quentin Tarantino’s former editor Sally Menke. Each one selects a clip from their film that is shown as they talk about their process of putting the scene together, giving deep insight into the challenges of shaping a film in the editing room and showcasing just how important editors are in making a movie work.
“I created this event, and I wanted it to be about the art of editing, not the psychological ramifications of the movies that they were doing,” Holzman said. “What their process is and how they went about looking at the dailies, or how they could maintain a perspective over time, and what their relationship was with the directors.”
Some of the editors talk more about creating specific rhythms, taking certain viewpoints, showing the delicate skill involved. Alternatively, the editors of “Avatar” discuss the difficulties of trying to form a movie out of people in bodysuits on a soundstage and how they saw the film come together and evolve as the visual effects were completed.
“A comparison can be drawn between animators and editors, the same way animators bring things to life, editors bring a movie to life,” Holzman said.
The editors of “United 93” evidence how directors with different styles can totally change the editing process, as Paul Greengrass shot his film very improvised, verité style, creating inconsistencies and lack of continuity. With less formal structure for the footage, the art of the editor and his or her role in telling the story becomes more apparent.
Introduction to Film student Steve Schadeberg said he found learning about how editors achieve fluidity fascinating.
“They decide which [angles] should be used and how to cut it into the film and make it flow right and hit that emotion that is wanted by the director and to the audience,” Schadeberg said. “They help take those pieces and put the puzzle together.”
In his Film Aesthetics class, professor Robert Hurst teaches his students the impact of editing.
“Editing is really the thing, that’s what makes movies, movies, is not just the motion, but the juxtaposition of images,” Hurst said. “How powerful editing is in shaping a story, or whatever your message is, that’s actually a stroke of genius.
“The editing room is where you figure if you have a story or not, if it makes sense,” Hurst said. “And that’s the thing about an editor is, the editor has to know, they have to watch it with the audience’s eye, which is not easy.”
Having began his career working on cheap little B-movies, Holzman attested that “There’s a talent to making something outta nothing.” His advice to students in not only editing but also storytelling was to make it revolve around the key scene.
“Find the heart of the movie, find the scene that speaks most about the movie then structure everything else around that.”
The Kip & Brin project in Basic Video Production teaches students to film as a group, then edit on their own.
Juli Pitzer, graduate teaching assistant for Basic Video Production: “The idea of Kip & Brin is that it’s generic dialogue between two characters, so it could be any situation, any setting. Essentially it was a project that was designed so students could work with dialogue, work with in-class shooting, and then really have an editing experience.
“So they can work with specific software, and learn techniques of cutting, continuity editing, jump cuts, everything that would go into the editing process. The second purpose is that they would see how important it is to shoot coverage and footage, maintaining continuity during a set shoot.
“So you kind of learn the relationship between the production, and the editor, and shooting for the editor.”
“Steve Shadeberg, Basic Video Production student: “Not only was it my first production, but I’ve never edited anything before, so I had to teach myself.
“So at first I was like, ‘Wow,’ I was really intimidated, I was like ‘How am I gonna do this?’ But after doing it more and more and learning, it became fascinating to me and I had a lot of fun.
“So I learned how, in a way manipulate things even, like sounds and how you can put things in and take things out. How you can take even a bad shot, and edit it, and make it a good shot.”
For Kansas City Film, this is Alex Lamb.
Alex Lamb Movie Man 