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Shooting in the Comfort Zone
Editor Jeff Betancourt on the importance of building strong relationships
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| Don Cheadle and Ryan Gosling star in The United States of Leland. |
Every editor's career path is different. For some, it takes years of apprenticing and assisting to get a first big break. For others, it's about who you know-or being in the right place at the right time. For editor Jeff Betancourt, it all started with a phone call. Still a student when he was hired to cut his first film, Miguel Arteta's Star Maps, Betancourt has gone on to make quite a name for himself in the indie film world. He worked again with Arteta on both Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl, and he's worked on such high profile projects as Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss and Matthew Ryan Hoge's upcoming The United States of Leland, starring Ryan Gosling, Jena Malone, Don Cheadle and Kevin Spacey.
From the cutting room of his latest project, the comedy Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, Betancourt spoke with MM about his launch into the industry, building relationships and why it's always better to go into battle with someone you feel comfortable with.
Jennifer Wood (MM): How did you first get into editing?
Jeff Betancourt (JB): I went to USC's graduate film school and while I was there I fell in love with the process of editing. It was the one thing that I really couldn't do that well when I first started; everything else sort of came naturally. A lot of my professors would say "Jeff, that film you did was really good, but the editing just wasn't quite there." Once that stuck in my brain, I wanted to really figure out what editing was about and what it takes to make a film work.
MM: How did you land your first feature?
JB: I directed a short film in school with an actress named Annette Murphy, who was in the first film that I edited, Miguel Arteta's Star Maps. At the time Miguel didn't have an editor-he was sort of between editors. They weren't able to pay much of anything, so he couldn't retain an editor for very long. He happened to be looking for someone and Annette gave me a call. I was just about to graduate and she thought it would be a great first thing to do, and I agreed.
So I cut Star Maps for Miguel and it was an amazing experience all around. It was a great learning process, to see what could be done in the editing room-how you could make a film so much better. Miguel will even admit this, too it: they re-shot like a third of that film and we really worked on restructuring it. We worked on taking a film that he had a lot of problems with and making something that he felt very happy with-elevating it a lot in the process of editing and just trying to make everything really work together. And then it went to Sundance and all of a sudden I had a career where a few months before I had nothing!
MM: Was that the film that taught you the most about the possibilities of editing-and how important a process it is to the final product?
JB: Definitely. It showed that you really get out of it what you put in. Miguel was very inspiring in how he was striving to always work harder-and that's what I bring to other projects. With Miguel, we're constantly pushing each other. We realize that it's always difficult to let go of a project because you realize how much you can accomplish if you just keep working at the material. You can really make something great out of something that might just be good. But if you apply that extra effort to it. Star Maps taught me so much about that.
MM: You've worked with Miguel on three films now-Star Maps, Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl. When you're working with the same director on multiple projects, how do you keep things fresh-and make sure that you're challenging yourself in some way with each subsequent film?
JB: I think it all goes back to the script. I guess the scripts, on the surface, could seem very similar, but Miguel and I have always been attracted to the same projects. In a lot of ways, as opposed to looking at it as potentially being "stale," we look at it as if we're going into battle-and you always want someone you are very comfortable with going into battle with you.
Also, we've gone apart and learned a lot. I've cut other films and Miguel has worked on scripts and developed other projects, and we've both been able to bring all of those experiences to the table. So, in a lot of ways, when we get back together, it's about 50 percent familiarity and comfort and the 50 percent 'Wow, where have you been? What have you been learning?' There are ideas we never would have thought of six months ago, but now that we're together again we can learn and try all these new things that we've learned.
MM: How do you generally choose these other projects?
JB: It's really in reading the script. I've been fortunate in that the jobs that I am able to take are films where you just read the script and say 'I want to see this movie.' Or 'I want to be a part of this.' It's kind of an intangible thing, but you really do feel that way. You read a lot of scripts and think 'It's an okay movie, but it's not necessarily the kind of thing that I want to go and see.' But when you come across those projects where you just know that it's a movie you want to see, you just kind of go from there.
MM: How did you get involved with The United States of Leland?
JB: It's actually kind of a funny story. My agent, Hilarie Roope, has a partner who tends to rep bigger clients; Hillary tends to rep more independent film people and he tends to rep bigger studio people. And I think the producers of The United States of Leland had sent the script to the other agent hoping to get some bigger name talent going in there. Hilarie's assistant saw the script come across the desk and said "You know, this is the kind of project that Jeff should really be going up for." So they sent my resume in and the director happened to be a big fan of Chuck & Buck and so really, off of that, called me in.
You know, a lot of people ask me "Is it really necessary to have an agent?" and you're always going back and forth. But in this case, she was really great. That whole pool of talent that was there really was helpful to me when I was when of those names that was selected.
MM: Do you think that you will tend to continue working within the realm of independent films, or would you eventually like to try your hand at a big-budget, studio project?
JB: I don't really have any problem with a big budget project. Again, it really goes back to the script. Miguel and I always have this same conversation because the independent film world has been great, but there are certain monetary constraints. And every once in a while a project will come along where you say 'This really does need a bigger budget.'
Also, in independent film, you're always sort of cutting corners. And a lot of times it's the assistant editors who really struggle and who are making a sacrifice to work on a film where they're not getting paid that much. So it's nice to be able to pay everyone up and down the line.
I like going back and forth between [independent and studio films]-I've kind of seen that as my dream. To cut that big budget film so that I can then cut a couple of smaller films and then go back and do a bigger one again.
MM: In addition to editing, as a student, you also wrote and directed a number of short films. How does having an overall knowledge of the moviemaking process help you as an editor in your day-to-day work?
JB: A lot of it helps with communication, especially nowadays with the AVID. You're able to do so much in the editing system. It used to seem-whether it was the sound work or the visual effects-everything used to be very separate when you were cutting on a flatbed. But now you have the ability to do more and more. And more and more people are having the expectation that the cut of a film is going to be more polished-it's going to have sound, color correction and all these things that go with the traditional arc of the film, not just what used to be traditional "cutting." So my knowledge of these aspects becomes more important.
Even in terms of talking with a director, if the director has a question for me about performance or how the performances are cutting together, just having the language and the ability to talk to them about those sorts of subjects is great.
MM: Are you looking to bring this experience into the feature film market as a director yourself?
JB: Eventually I would like to direct something. I think it's coming across that right script at the right time.
Editing has been an amazing learning experience. I've learned so much from all the directors I've worked with that you just constantly feel yourself building up this pool of knowledge. And I do think that at some point it will be great to sort of express what I've learned. But right now I've been offered so many great projects that editing seems to be going exactly the way I want it to go.
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