Michael Kahn on Editing
3
Michael Kahn’s Insights on Film Editing Michael Kahn has been Spielberg’s editor since Close Encounters of the Third Kind , collaborating together for over thirty years. I can only think of Scorcese and Thelma Schoonmaker as another example of an editor and director having that kind of working history. ast night he was in ! for a showing of incoln and stayed on to give a "#! to an eager a$dience. %ot living in ! myself here’s the best of twitter from that night& On Editing: Don’t edit from knowledge, edit from feeling. If you never make changes to a cut you will never get to the best cut. !!roach every gig like it’s the "rst time you have ever edited anything. Don’t bringbaggage from !revious shows. #e !ut "lm together, tell the story, give it clarity. That’s what we do. Thought !rocess is what you bring to "lm. If you see a "lm that doesn’t work, ask yourself what you would have done di$erently.
-
Upload
sayan-gupta -
Category
Documents
-
view
217 -
download
0
Transcript of Michael Kahn on Editing
7/23/2019 Michael Kahn on Editing
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/michael-kahn-on-editing 1/3
Michael Kahn’s Insights on FilmEditing
Michael Kahn has been Spielberg’s editor since Close Encounters of
the Third Kind , collaborating together for over thirty years. I can only
think of Scorcese and Thelma Schoonmaker as another example of
an editor and director having that kind of working history. ast night
he was in ! for a showing of incoln and stayed on to give a "#! to
an eager a$dience. %ot living in ! myself here’s the best of twitter
from that night&On Editing:
Don’t edit from knowledge, edit from feeling.
If you never make changes to a cut you will never get to the best cut.
!!roach every gig like it’s the "rst time you have ever edited anything.
Don’t bringbaggage from !revious shows.
#e !ut "lm together, tell the story, give it clarity. That’s what we do.
Thought !rocess is what you bring to "lm. If you see a "lm that doesn’t
work, ask yourself what you would have done di$erently.
7/23/2019 Michael Kahn on Editing
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/michael-kahn-on-editing 2/3
%nly assistants are allowed in his editing room and he allows them to sit
with him while he edits.
%ne of &ichael’s former assistants is #illiam 'oldenberg who is now
nominated against him at the %scars for both rgo and (ero Dark Thirty.Tips for Editors:
&ichael uses the theory of )’s for reaction shots. *cenes !lay best with )
reaction shots, no more, no less.
To learn about editing, see as many movies as you can, good and bad.
lways du!licate+overla! -) frames on match cuts because of eye
sensory lag.
Kee! fresh by walking away from your edit. ou’ll come back the ne/t day
and see a di$erent scene.
On Lincoln:
It took &ichael 0 *te!hen *!ielberg a while to "gure out when not to cut.
7/23/2019 Michael Kahn on Editing
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/michael-kahn-on-editing 3/3
1ust because you have a lot of coverage doesn’t mean you have to use it.
2#ith 3incoln4 They stuck with master shots because Daniel Day 3ewis
was so good.
The congress voting scene was shot at di$erent times which made itdi5cult to cut.
*te!hen *!ielberg dressed nicely during !roduction to com!lement the
6!resident7.
On Spielberg'
Kahn used to select takes himself but on Close Encounters he had
*!ielberg do it to save a lot of time.
In their )8 years together, *teven won’t watch a cut without tem! music.
I don’t do what *te!hen asks me to do, I do what I think he actuallywants.
