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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
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| Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. |
Choose work you like.
If I’m lucky enough to choose, and I am at the moment, I’m going to choose what I like. That just sort of makes sense.
If you don’t want to be an assistant, you don’t want to be an editor.
If you don’t like assistant editing, you’re not going to like editing. Because every bit of assistant editing—which I happened to like a lot when I did it—is still there when you’re a film editor.
Watch the actors’ eyes.
Everything about film editing takes place in the actors’ eyes. As long as an actor gives you eyes that you can work with, you never have to cut until he tells you to—until he blinks or turns away.
Be aware of transitions.
An actor’s transitions are the most important thing to me. I cut to see how actors make transitions. So when there’s dialogue going on, for me, the important thing is who’s making the transition, not necessarily who’s making the statement.
It’s all about music.
When you’re editing film, it’s all about music. I’m not saying use music. But editing to me is just music and an interpretation of music—and I’m not even musical!
Editing can’t be learned.
I’m not really sure you can learn editing from someone, but you can certainly see someone who does it in a very interesting way.
There are no rules, unfortunately.
I wish there were rules. If there were rules, I could say to my assistants—who I want to go out into the world and cut: these are the rules! But it changes from picture to picture.
Filmography for Steve
Rosenblum
The Last Samurai (2003)
The Four Feathers (2002)
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
X-Men (2000)
The Siege (1998)
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Courage Under Fire (1996)
Braveheart (1995)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Jack the Bear (1993)
Glory (1989)
Steele Justice (1987)
Wild Thing (1987)
Extreme Prejudice (1987)
The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
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Kodak at Cannes
Since 1987 Kodak has been the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, sponsoring the Camera d’Or prize that is awarded yearly to the best feature film by a first-time director. The tradition continues in 2008 when, for the fifth consecutive year, the festival will also hand out the Kodak Discovery Prize for Best Short Film.
“Cannes draws a huge number of filmmakers from all over the world every year, which gives Kodak a great opportunity to host our customers and show them how committed we are to the industry and to motion picture innovation,” says Kim Snyder, Kodak’s president and general manager of the Entertainment Imaging Division.
Posted 05.8.08 | News/Commentary | No comments yet...
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