Recent festival hit Splinter, a movie about a parasite that turns its victims into blood-lusting hosts, is a perfect example of how editing affects audiences’ reactions. Editor David Michael Maurer, an Emmy-nominated master of his craft, took an inventive approach when collaborating with director Toby Wilkins. Just days before Splinter took home six awards (Best Editing and Best Picture among them) at Screamfest, MovieMaker spoke with Maurer about his process and what inspires him to do what he does so well.

Editor Geoffrey Richman’s credits include some of the most respected documentaries of the past few years, including SiCKO, God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys in Sudan and Murderball.

"Finish a first cut as fast as possible" and other lessons from the editor of SiCKO, If I Didn't Care and May the Best Man Win.

For Chad Beck, the choice to become an editor was an easy one to make. Since his beginnings as a student at the New York-based Edit Center, Beck has taken to the art with a clarity that only comes from true passion.

With a recent Oscar nomination for Children of Men and his latest film, Gael García Bernal's Déficit, playing major festivals like Toronto and Cannes, French-born editor Alex Rodgriguez has become a vital part of the new wave of Latin American cinema.

From Citizen Kane to American Beauty, the history of cinema is filled with examples of "cinematic storytelling" - films that use the full complement of moviemaking tools to tell theis stories.

Story comes first. And last.

From bringing the world's last pregnant woman to safety in a post-apocalyptic London to sniffing out a rat in Boston's Irish mob, this year's collection of Oscar-nominated editors were faced with a host of tough obstacles. But no editor had as difficult a challenge as Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson and Christopher Rouse, the trio of editors who were tasked with the delicate duty of cutting Paul Greengrass' United 93.

One piece of advice I give to people of both sexes in this business is don't let anyone abuse you-life is too short.

Beginning her career as an apprentice sound editor on Reds, Mary Sweeney began her now more than 15-year editing and producing collaboration with David Lynch on 1986's Blue Velvet. With their latest film, Mulholland Drive, in theaters across the country, Sweeney talks about her relationship with one of the world's most original directors and the struggles of being a woman in a man's industry.

Editor/Sound Designer Walter Murch has worked with some of the film industry's most talented directors and stood alongside each one as an equal collaborator. With eight Oscar nominations to his credit and three wins, he has proven himself a true master of his craft. Here, he talks with MM about about the digital revolution, the challenges of a dual career and how his Apocalypse experience defined his life as an editor.

When you're the editor, you're not the director. You didn't conceive or shoot the film. When the footage for a scene arrives, try to forget every notion you had about what the scene was supposed to be like and take all your cues from the film that was actually shot. There will be time later to try to push the scene in some other direction, but it's important for me to not have a plan, and to simply find the scene in the footage.

If Tim Squyres' name is not immediately recognizable, most of the features he's edited in the past decade are: Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are four of Squyres' collaborations with director Ang Lee.

Decisiveness. Confidence. Being able to set your ego aside, because an editor doesn't always get stroked a lot. Most things you hear are criticisms. So you need to have a thick skin and not take things personally. That's a crucial thing for an editor to learn.

Film editors Mike Hill and Dan Hanley have a lot to celebrate
these days, including the fact that their baby, A Beautiful
Mind, just won the Best Picture Oscar. This prolific duo
of veteran cutters just marked their 20-year anniversary as
partners in the cutting room, almost exclusively for director
Ron Howard.

Choosing projects is kind of harrowing because editing a feature is a huge time commitment (six months to a year). I try to take on projects with people that I like spending time with and whom I feel can help me learn or grow. It has to be something that's going to stretch my boundaries as an editor and as a person.

Containing a virtual who's who of the New York independent
film community on his resume, editor Steve Hamilton has worked
with Michael Almereyda (The Rocking Horse Winner),
Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility) and Bart Freundlich
(The Myth of Fingerprints). Since 1990, his most frequent
collaborations have been with Hal Hartley. Hamilton
is also the founder of Spin Cycle Post, and pioneered the
use of AVID technology for post-production on low budget features.
He currently runs his own digital editing facility, Mad Mad
Judy, in New York City.

It takes a lot of devotion and love to make a film, and it is hard work. It just becomes more fun if you love what you're working on and you enjoy the people you're spending those long hours with.

After working a number of production positions, including
assistant to the producer, script supervisor, and assistant
location manager, Dody Dorn found the place that suited
her best was in the cutting room. She received an Oscar nomination
earlier in the year for her work on Christopher Nolan's Memento
and she's teamed up with him again for the crime-thriller
Insomnia, in theaters now.

Always fight for what you believe in.

After serving as the post-production intern on Oliver Stone's
JFK, editor Saar Klein's resume has grown to include
collaborations with some of the film industry's most celebrated
directors, including Terrence Malick on The Thin Red Line
and Cameron Crowe on Almost Famous. Most recently,
Klein teamed up with director Doug Liman to cut the eagerly
awaited The Bourne Identity, at theaters now.

We all started working together when we first got out of film school, and I've worked with many of the same people ever since. It's not so much about climbing over the wall to get into the film business; you just get a group of people and walk through the front gate together. And that makes it a lot easier than going one by one.

Performance-driven films suit One Hour Photo Editor

AVID] really does allow you to try a lot of different things and to experiment. However, I'm glad I have the discipline of film, where you work on a scene until it works. It's like practicing an instrument: you do it again and again until it works. It's not about slapping it together. Unfortunately, too many films are cut that way today.

Some people plan and scheme for years about how to
forge a career in the film business. For a lucky few, it's
almost a divine accident. Such is the case with editor Carol
Littleton, who has collaborated with high-profile
directors like Jonathan Demme, Robert Benton and Lawrence
Kasdan during her long career. Her latest picture, Demme's
The Truth About Charlie, cut in the French New Wave style,
gave her a new kind of freedom she says she'll take with her
in the future.

More than anyone, Dede taught me about structure and performance. It was like learning how to ride a bike. I was constantly falling off before. But now I could hold my balance and sail down the street… wheeee!

Attribute her success to tenacity and talent all you
want-but Claire Simpson will tell you it's
really all about luck! Just five years after getting her start
assisting legendary editor Dede Allen on 1981's Reds Simpson
was reciting her own Oscar acceptance speech for her work
on Oliver Stone's Platoon. With a filmography consisting
of more than a dozen films, including two further projects
with Stone (Salvador and Wall Street) and collaborations
with directors Robert Towne, Neil LaBute, Ridley Scott and
Tony Scott, Simpson has carved out a career that would make
most editors envious.

I'm always so impressed when I'm working with him in looping sessions with actors. Even if he can't get a certain reading, he'll never go up and tell the actor how to do it. He'll just move on rather than tell the actor how to do it, because he feels that that's a real violation.

The three-time Oscar
nominee (and winner for Raging Bull) Thelma
Schoonmaker gives us the lowdown on life in the trenches
with America's reigning master and their latest collaboration,
Gangs of New York.

One thing I learned in my very short career as an assistant was that there aren't too many editors prepared to give up the big chair without a fight, so you've got to make your own luck.

Scoring the gig as editor of the most highly touted cinema
musical in years didn't come easily to Martin Walsh, but it
was a cakewalk compared with the editing itself. In a film
with this much constant motion, the months of laboring through
the labyrinth of editorial decisions was literally mindboggling.
But with his first Oscar nomination to show for it, Walsh
now knows that it was all worthwhile.

Robert Duvall played both Adolph Eichmann and Stalin, yet he found in their characters a sense of humanity and created performances that weren't cliches.

Unlike Robert Duvall, his close collaborator, editor Stephen
Mack's career in feature films has not been what one would
call a prolific one. "I hope Assassination Tango
will receive some well deserved attention and that I'll be
recognized as a major feature film editor who happens to have
only a couple of credits in 33 years," Mack jokes about
his latest project, a film starring, written, produced and
directed by Duvall.

The one piece of advice that I would impart to anybody who is looking to be an editor or any other aspect of this business is always remember that making movies is about investigating all possibilities. You should always be open to different options. If you get focused into making something one way, you may not make the best film.

Though he's best-known as a frequent collaborator of Spike Lee, both as editor and producer, Samuel Pollard isn't afraid of wearing the hat of writer or director, either-or putting his money where his mouth is.