Best in Show

[Jude]

If you were to recommend a film as the "Best In Show" for editing, what would it be?

(My agenda, of course, being to get a list of well made films to study as an editor.. )

All formats/genres/languages/weirdness levels welcome.

[Davade]

I think my favourite will be The Usual Suspect and American Beauty. I just like the way the story is told, ie, the structure of the film.

It just keeps you glued to the screen for more.

[Jude]

Cool - thanks guys - I'll look out for those.

One of my faves is the montage doco Koyaanisqatsi - a film with no characters, no voiceover, no 'plot' - in fact, it's pretty much made entirely out of fantastic vistas and thoughtful editing. Made by a monk, with a soundtrack by Phillip Glass - I reckon its a must-see.

Any other takers?

[shilby]

I particularly enjoyed the episode "Hush" in the 4th series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In this episode the villain de jour removes everyones voice and nearly the entire story is completed without dialogue. Considering the genre and demographic, story telling without spoken script - a challenge indeed.

WaZ.

[Jude]

Ahh - I'm a big buffy fan - and I know the episode you mean. How cool was that - I mean, the word per minute count of your average sitcom is huge - its a feat to get through one with no words.

I actually also really liked the musical episode too, which I thought would be completely cringeworthy, but was really cleverly written to be a hinge episode in the whole series.

God, I sound like a new-age trekkie lol.

[michellelord]

Hush was a great episode;
now for my buffy spill... i loved the show!

i definately preferred the earlier seasons.. i loved the pop culture references and just humor that it brought; great script writers.

my other favourite episodes is season 2 or 3, where willlow and zander were vamps. And spike was sooooo cool then!

[Matthew]

And now Ladies and Gentlemen ... the Oscar for Coolest Editing in a TV Series goes to ... Buffy?

[malpeli]

A truly remarkable film to watch purely for editing technique has to be Oliver Stone's "JFK". The court room scene is electrifying. A must see for editphiles.

"Treason never prospers. Why? Because if it prospers no one dares to call it treason"

[Jude]

Thanks Malpeli

I've actually got the day off today and I haven't seen that one or "Out of Sight" so I think I might make a quick visit to the video store.

Hot chocolate ... nice rainy day ... coupla good movies ... major bliss. :)

[E_Tedeschi]

My shortlist has got to include JFK - without a doubt. One of the most exceptionally cut films I've ever seen. Most Oliver Stone films are brilliantly edited, even though he tends to use a handful of different editors. Check out Any Given Sunday and U-Turn.

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet - in my humble opinion, Jill Bilcock ASE is possibly the best editor ever to come out of this country. The first few minutes of Romeo and Juliet gives me goosebumps every time. If you're compiling a list of films to watch to study editing, pick up some of her work - Moulin Rouge (the Tango scene is awesome), Road to Perdition. Very different styles from film to film, yet fantastic every time.

And I couldn't get down off my soap box without mentioning Thelma Schoonmaker - Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino. Or Walter Murch - Apocalypse Now.

Very hard to pick a favourite. I could go on, but I'll stop myself!!

I'd love to hear from other editors as to whose work they respect and admire, as opposed to just restricting the discussion to scenes...? I find myself going back time and time again to Jill and Thelma when I need some inspiration. They are a benchmark for the art in my mind.

e.

[Jude]

Well I only got to see JFK but I'm very glad I did - I found myself holding my breath in the courtroom scenes - the pace was perfect and the forwards-backwards-sideways olay info made for fantastic layering. Thanks for the pointer guys!

Please don't stop yourself, E - I'm sure that anyone who wants to learn will be more than happy to come across a list of great films (and editors) to study.

[E_Tedeschi]

Well, Jude - since you asked....!

Looking over my last post, I'm surprised I didn't mention another of my favourite films - Seven, edited by Richard Francis-Bruce, another aussie kicking butt in the US. Most David Fincher films feature superb cutting - Fight Club, Panic Room (Jim Haygood).

Ken Sallows ASE is responsible for the great work in Chopper and Gettin' Square, and is another aussie editor to check out.

I find it interesting to see the change (or lack of it) in some of the editors that began their careers cutting film, and are now using NLE. The opening to Romeo and Juliet or Moulin Rouge would have been quite impossible to cut by traditional means, I'm sure.

Anyhow, I'm rambling again - a great place for filmographies on these people is www.imdb.com. I find it indispensible for this kind of stuff.

While you're there, check out the work of Suresh Ayyar (The Interview) as well.

And one last person/film worth a mention. Aussie film Blurred - perhaps not everyone's kind of film, but interesting to watch how it has been cut. Lots of split screens. It was cut by a friend of mine Tony Mestres - keep an eye out for him.

e.

[PhilippaR]

YAY!, (sorry to all the rest of you) but Jude, Shilby & Michelle, I have to add my voice to the Buffy chorus (pun intended).

My favourite episodes editing-wise (I have other faves for different reasons) are of course, the aforementioned "Hush", "The Body" (dead Joyce) and "Selfless" (Buffy needs to kill Anya). The writing and the structure of those particular eps are top notch anyway (actually 85% of the eps are IMHO), but I think the editing is the icing on the cake. I love the pacing, the skilled juggling of the drama and the humour (ok, so not so many jokes in "The Body" but it does have an absolutely riveting inertia) and particularly the transitions to and from flashbacks. No whizz pan, no dissolve, no wobbly screen melt, just one perfectly timed cut. Ahh, it just warms my heart :-).

At the risk of trainspotting, there's one cut in "Selfless" (now this is going to sound extra weird to all you non-Buffy fans, but go with me on this) from Anya's song (flashback to musical time-period) back to the present where she is impaled on Buffy's sword. It's really simple - the sharp cut out of the crescendo of the music to the silence and stillness and shock of that shot just gets me *every* time. Mmm, chocolate covered edity-goodness. I'm a fan of stillness. Very big with the stillness.

So, now having outed myself as a Buffy fan in a professional (even international) forum I'll leave you with the wise words of one Willow Rosenberg...

“I’m not ashamed. It’s the computer age. Nerds are in… they’re still in, right?”

[rachelw]

eh, nerds schmerds. I too am a nerd. And I am so hip.

My favourite films for editing -

Raging Bull - this is a great, great film and one of the ones that still gives me goosebumps

In The Mood For Love - the work is so beautifully timed, it's got something very wistful and beautiful about it

Fallen Angels - there's some great moments captured between an experimental cinematograper and an experimental editor that create an entirely raw and vital work

I can't really think of too many films that i watch over and over just for the editing - there's a few sequences that I do watch a lot but at the moment i have been focusing on Anime, as I'm doing a masters in animation at uts...

so who's wearing the big nerdy-pants now?? You buffy luvvers have been soooo left in the dust. Ichi-ban nerd-o over here.

[Emma]

As another obsessed Buffy fan - I wanna throw in another episode - RESTLESS - the season four finale. I actually wrote an essay on it at university on the editing and what it did for the dream sequences.

So many clever episodes - just another one.

[paul_b]

Don’t know if this is the right forum to post this but..I can recommend a great documentary on editing "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing on the 2 disk version of ’Bullitt’ staring Steve McQueen. It’s a great place to start looking for those elusive ’best in show’ ribbons.