Last Wednesday was a rather unique day of editing for me. Michael Ondaatje came over to my house to watch a new edit of my film and give me notes. While having an internationally renowned author pay a visit to my humble basement abode is cause for celebration on any day, I was particularly elated because Michael's book The Conversations has had a huge impact on me as an editor and filmmaker.
I had met Michael a number of times over the years and after seeing him regularly while a part of the Talent Lab at TIFF 05 I felt like I should see if he'd be willing to offer some feedback on This Beautiful City. Sure enough, he watched the film and was very enthusiastic. I continued working away and then a month later he came over to watch the new edit.
I first read the Conversations in 2002 while editing my short film Pink...I had been a big fan of the Coppola film The Conversation and was intrigued by the idea of reading a book about the editor of the film. The Conversations is essentially a series of conversations between Michael and editor/sound designer/filmmaker Walter Murch. The topics of conversation, however, run the gamut of art, life, science, music, passion, as well as the art of editing and anecdotal tales about the making of some of the most celebrated films of the 20th century (Godfather, Apocalypse Now, etc).
The book became an inspiring beacon that encouraged and challenged me to aspire to the magnificent possibilities of art and cinema. This book, alongside Walter's book on editing In The Blink of an Eye, became my film school while editing that short film.
When it came time to begin editing my first feature, I thought it would be fun to reread the book that influenced me so greatly when cutting my first short (as editor). Once again, I was amazed at how inspiring and compelling the book was. I was largely working on my own so it became an invisible editing partner with whom I could embark on meaningful and tangential conversations that simply kept my editorial mind fresh and invigorated.
So having a conversation with Michael in my living room about my film that was heavily influenced by conversations he had with Walter Murch about his films...was a rather unique experience. It suddenly felt like I had come full circle (albeit a rather small circle since I'm on ly at the beginning of my filmmaking career...more like an English roundabout than a world tour). After he left, I dove back into the edit suite (basically my living room except with the monitor point towards my desk instead of my armchair) and emerged with a new and improved version influenced in part by a host of keen observations and suggestions.
I have found that one of the most critical parts of editing is knowing which feedback to accept, and which to to go. Everyone has an opinion and everyone is influences by a myriad of sources...and often people's suggestions are far less helpful than the clues that they offer into how they responded to the film emotionally (ie they suggest cutting a scene, but really this is just a clue...the problem is that they feel disconnected from a character and bored but that can be fixed by extending the scene that happened 5 minutes beforehand). It is very similar to the way I feel that half of photography is simply knowing which photographs to select and which to discard.
Michael's comments, however, were concise, effective, and quite effortless to employ. Yay Michael!
(NOTE: Since photography is becoming a consistent part of this blog, I wanted to take a photo of Michael watching my film. But I chickened out. It's not like me to be shy, and I'm sure he would have said yes, but I don't know him very well and....so I just took a snapshot of the book cover instead...hopefully this will inspire someone, somewhere to buy it).
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