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Blog August 12, 2011 ERIN AT EDIT FEST LA
by Erin Casper, 2011 Fellow About a week ago I attended the Los Angeles version of Edit Fest, hosted by American Cinema Editors. As with the New York Edit Fest, the weekend-long event consisted of panels, networking events and Avid demonstrations geared toward anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of the editor’s craft. Or, as ACE President Randy Roberts phrased it at the beginning of Friday night’s opening panel: “When we started Edit Fest, we thought our audience would be students, but we’ve found that editors attend because they want to know what other editors do and how they do it.” This couldn’t be more true, especially in light of my own goals. On Friday night’s panel, “Editors as Storytellers,” the feature editor panelists started off with an engaging discussion about their approach to editing, “Collaboration,” “subtext,” and “compressed schedule” were some of the ideas discussed in detail. The panelists dove deep into these ideas by showing examples of their work. One central approach that came up several times was to make sure to anchor the scene in the character’s point of view and cut for performance. I found myself relating to this because of the vérité doc work I’ve done. These tenets will be good to keep in mind the next time I’m watching dailies for the first time on a project. Farrel Levy (Dirty Dancing, Primal Fear) also talked about saving a performance by subtracting dialogue and using reactions. This was useful to me as well, and reminded me of how I also occasionally work with stories and characters in a reductive manner. Martin Nicholson (Game of Thrones, Norman Rockwell: An American Portrait) furthered the discussion by relating advice he gives his students, which is to borrow the basic questions actors ask themselves in every scene: What is the place? Where am I coming from? What do I want? and What are my goals? On Saturday, the second and final day of Edit Fest, I went to the “Assistant Editor – The Soul of the Cutting Room” panel which focused on the relationship between assistant editors and editors, and included practical advice on networking and advancing in your career. Moderator Lori Coleman (Covert Affairs, In Plain Sight) humorously advised the audience on everything we needed to know while navigating the working world: Work hard, be nice, join the union, check your personality, educate yourself, and bring donuts. Later in the day, there was a moving tribute to the late editor, Sally Menke (Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds), moderated by author Bobbie O’Steen (Author of The Invisible Cut and Cut to the Chase). Over the course of 90 minutes, Bobbie reminisced with three of Sally’s former assistants—Suzy Elmiger, Tatiana Riegal and Joan Sobel—on Sally’s life and work. They shared stories about Sally’s love of editing (Suzy: Sally liked to work from home and always had interesting people around); her work ethic and rituals (Tatiana: She’d take off all her rings at the start of her day), and her celebrated collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino (Bobby: He called her his co-writer.). The panel was especially meaningful since I grew up watching Sally’s films and was enormously influenced by her work (Scenes from Pulp Fiction were frequently quoted by my brothers and me throughout childhood). Listening to Suzy, Tatiana and Joan illustrate how Sally wove tension, humor and inventive cutting into some of my favorite films was like watching a magician carefully explain their secrets behind close-up magic. I had a great weekend (it was my first visit to LA), and attending Edit Fest was a perfect way to uncover the LA working world through the panels, demonstrations and one-on-one connections I made with the panelists and attendees. July 2011 ERIN AT EDIT FEST NY
by Erin Casper, 2011 Fellow Early last month, I headed to ACE Edit Fest NY for a packed weekend of panels, presentations, and networking with award-winning film and television editors. The first night’s panel, “The Lean Forward Moment,” was a mix of four narrative and doc feature editors presenting their favorite sequences and sharing the lessons and inspired moments that impacted them as film lovers and editors. This gentle toeing of the water soon opened the floodgates for questions tweeted from the audience—editors with varying levels of experience, assistants, producers and industry movers and shakers—to the panel’s moderator, Norman Hollyn. From there we quickly got down to business, gaining insights on everything from best practices for job interviews--Anne McCabe’s approach (Adventureland, Nurse Jackie) is to at least make the director or producer laugh, so as to be memorable—to sage advice from legendary doc editor Larry Silk (Wild Man Blues, Pumping Iron), who talked about the painful choices editors make in order to carve out the universe of a story. The real pen-to-paper moment came the next day on the Pixar panel with editor Ken Schretzmann (Cars, Toy Story 3) as he gave us an inside look on his editing process. Not only does Ken spend years editing a film (he’s edited three in twelve years), but the editing also takes place throughout all stages of animation before the film is “shot” with virtual cameras. It was a lot to wrap my mind around, since I come from the opposite end of the spectrum, where the documentary director shoots hundreds of hours of footage before the story is penned. I especially admired the way that Ken didn’t seem too phased by the daunting amount of changes and notes pouring into the editing room from numerous other departments. It turns out Ken’s process proved as mystifying to me as several other attendees I chatted with after the panel. Oddly enough, it was as if we found ourselves in the shoes of the non-editors we’d encountered in our own lives—the folks who assume an editor just cuts out all the bad parts. And here we were, fellow editors, marveling together at Ken’s work, having previously assumed all the animation done at Pixar requires no editing, or at least extraction of the bad parts. Overall, it was a great weekend at Edit Fest. The biggest thing I take away from events like this—besides the chance to meet with editors who’ve crafted some of my favorite films in recent years—is an appreciation for hearing about the hidden struggle that other editors engage in to fully realize the film’s story. I look forward to learning more about these things from my West Coast counterparts at Edit Fest LA in August. May 5, 2011 ERIN AT IFFBoston
by Erin Casper, 2011 Fellow On May 1st, my boyfriend Adam and I headed up to Sommerville, Massachusetts to spend the day at Independent Film Festival Boston. Thanks to Adam Roffman and the generous staff at IFFB, I was given a Chrome Pass to enjoy the festival, and we were more than happy to leave our hectic work schedules behind and spend the day at the cinema. The films we had time to see (there were so many more films playing later in the week, but were at the mercy of work!) were playing in the Sommerville Theater back-to-back and we wasted no time jumping in. All told, we took in three films with some time to grab snacks and mingle with local filmmakers in the lobby before retreating back into the theater. We saw Bobby Fischer Against the World (more on that in a minute), followed by Raising Renee, the story of famed artist Beverly McIver’s emotional journey to fulfill her promise to care for her mentally disabled older sister following the death of their mother. Then we saw the indie sci-fi drama Another Earth, just before a late dinner and trip back to New York. As I’ve traveled for the Fellowship, one thing that’s happened is that several of Karen’s friends—and she made them everywhere she went—have taken the time to meet and get to know me. At IFFB, Lucia Small—Karen’s close friend and director on My Father, the Genius—generously spent the day with Adam and me and introduced us to many of the Boston colleagues she and Karen have in common. We also saw Bobby Fischer together—Karen’s last film—which was an intense and cathartic experience. While Adam and I had a great day of watching films at IFFB—we’re already plotting our return next year—getting to know Lucia and her friends and colleagues made the trip truly special. Hearing great stories about Karen and getting acquainted with the Boston community showed me the deep impact Karen had on her friends. Traveling home from IFFB, it started to sink in that the Fellowship has helped me not only feel connected to Karen in another realm outside of her work, but also facilitate new relationships of my own. March 20, 2011 ERIN AT THE SXSW FILM FESTIVAL by Erin Casper, 2011 Fellow 
Leah Marino (Editor and KSFEF Board Member) at Erin Casper SXSW Awards Ceremony, March 15, 2011
Back in March, two incredible things happened: I traveled to the world premiere of my first feature doc as editor, Our School, at the One World Film Festival in Prague, and shortly after that, I was recognized as the first recipient of the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship at the SXSW Film Festival Awards Ceremony. To make things even more exciting, these events took place back-to-back, with enough downtime to run back home to Brooklyn and swap out latitude appropriate clothing between flights. I love SXSW, and there are a number of people that made the week special - the festival’s producer Janet Pierson in particular for the very handy film badge. Thanks Janet! Here are a few highlights from the week: • Hitting it off with endearingly awesome Leah Marino at a party shortly after my arrival. Leah’s a fellow editor, KSFEF board member, and dear friend of Karen’s. She was attending the ceremony to talk about the fellowship and introduce me as the first recipient. She also sweetly introduced me to her friends in the Austin film community and talked me down from my fear of public speaking when we planned for the awards ceremony the next night. • The realization (and subsequent relief) that everyone else making speeches at the awards ceremony was nervous and was keeping it short. Leah and I were allotted six minutes, but it was obvious that taking that long would drag down the pace of the ceremony. Our editor brains kicked into gear and we made last minute cuts in our speeches. Clearly, the job of an editor never ends. • Bellyflopping onto my bed after the ceremony. I did my best to reply to congratulatory messages on my phone with one hand while eating quickly-melting ice cream with the other. The onslaught of remaining jetlag and sugar overload took over, and the evening gently ground to a halt, mid-Facebook update (never to be completed). • Torchy’s Tacos. I was told that this was one of Karen’s favorite places to eat. I can see why. Dear New York: Please take note of this and get back to me when you get your act together taco-wise. • Enjoying a gluttony of film and music with my boyfriend, Adam: Cindy Meehl’s affecting portrait of Buck Brannaman in Buck; Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop; a surprise screening of the 1981 film Dragonslayer (Hosted by Harry Knowles with a surprise visit from Guillermo del Toro! My fellow nerds in attendance freaked), the 2011 Dragonslayer (which won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize); Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW (we had to leave early to go catch a showcase of narrative shorts); and the absurdly funny Natural Selection (which swept the narrative awards, including the Grand Jury Prize). I managed to squeeze in a little bit of the music festival in there, with the biggest highlight being Charles Bradley killing it at Stubb’s. Think James Brown incarnate. |
