Last month Barney Pilling won the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature, Comedy or Musical, on the strength of his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight Pictures). He also earned his first career Best Editing Oscar nomination for the Wes Anderson-directed film. The Grand Budapest Hotel earned a total of nine Academy Award noms, the others being for Best Picture, Best Director, Original Screenplay (screenplay by Anderson; story by Anderson and Hugo Guinness), Cinematography (Robert Yeoman, ASC), Production Design (production designer Adam Stockhausen, set decorator Anna Pinnock), Original Score (composer Alexandre Desplat), Costume Design (Milena Canonero), and Makeup and Hairstyling (Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier).
The Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the 1930s’ escapades of Gustave H., a legendary, eccentric concierge at a famous hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The two are compatriots on a wild ride that’s part murder mystery, action adventure thriller and mostly quirky whimsical comedy.
Among other accolades, Pilling also earned his first BAFTA Film Award nomination for his cutting of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Earlier in his career, he landed BAFTA TV Award nominations for Best Editing, Fiction/Entertainment, on the basis of Spooks (shared with editor Paul Knight) in 2004 and Life on Mars in 2007. Pilling’s filmography also includes Quartet, which marked Dustin Hoffman’s feature directorial debut, the Mark Romanek-helmed Never Let Me Go (starring Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield), filmmaker Lone Scherfig’s An Education (starring Mulligan) and One Day (starring Anne Hathaway), and director Bharat Nalluri’s Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (starring Amy Adams and Frances McDormand).
As for the lauded The Grand Budapest Hotel, winning his first Eddie, receiving his first nominations in the Oscar and BAFTA Film Award competitions, and working with Anderson for the first time make for some pretty heady stuff–all of which Pilling reflects on in this week’s Chat Room.
Regarding life after The Grand Budapest Hotel, Pilling at press time was working on the Sarah Gavron-directed Suffragette starring Meryl Streep, Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter. The film tells the story of the early feminist movement in the U.K. during the late 19th and early 20th century. The movement faced great brutality but ultimately led to more than 8 million British women gaining the right to vote in 1918.
SHOOT: How did you connect with Wes Anderson and get the opportunity to work with him for the first time on The Grand Budapest Hotel?
Pilling: Five years ago I cut a film for director Mark Romanek, Never Let Me Go for Fox Searchlight. Wes and Mark know each other. Wes was making a film in Europe and asked Mark about editors there. It was purely on recommendation that Wes reached out to me. Wes and I had a brief Skype conversation and hit it off.
Wes is a very different director for me. I’ve worked on seven features prior to The Grand Budapest Hotel and his approach is quite different. He’s dedicated and driven like a lot of people in this industry. But he has so much worked out in advance–the camera movies, the rhythm of the scenes. It’s hard wired into the script he’s written in the first place.
SHOOT: In terms of preparation, we’ve heard that Anderson creates animatics as sort of a roadmap for the film. He first did this on the stop-motion animation feature Fantastic Mr Fox and then carried the practice over to his live-action films, first Moonrise Kingdom and then The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Pilling: Yes, after animatics provided a detailed roadmap for Fantastic Mr. Fox, the skills and advantages he got from that experience were then applied to his next films. This makes for an economical use of the camera with everything shot being usable and relevant, which is just wonderful for an editor.
SHOOT: What does all the recognition you’ve received for The Grand Budapest Hotel, particularly the ACE Eddie win and the Oscar nomination, mean to you personally and professionally?
Pilling: The very first TV show I edited–for the British series As If–was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award. Then nothing in terms of editing awards for nearly 15 years–until now with The Grand Budapest Hotel. You have to put these things into perspective, always striving to do the best work. Any editor wouldn’t be nominated for any award unless the source material was of the highest caliber. I’m very aware of that and humbled by the fact that the Academy and others have recognized the contributions I’ve made to the film as an editor. But also look at the camerawork of Bob Yeoman, the production design, the costumes and so on–if all these things weren’t brilliant as a team effort, individual recognition would not be possible. To be one of the nominees for the Oscar, the Eddies, the BAFTA Film Award is quite an honor. I’ve seen some fantastic films this year–the nominated editors and directors have done some wonderful work, and to be part of that group is amazing.
SHOOT: The Grand Budapest Hotel was shot on 35mm film, correct? It appears that most of the movies you have edited were shot on film.
Pilling: Seven of the eight feature films I’ve edited were shot on film. The Grand Budapest Hotel was shot on 35mm film, with the RED camera used on some select scenes. I’m glad to work with film and love the film medium. But I’m also experienced and prepared to work more in digital which appears to be the direction where much of the industry is headed. Film is a format I love and I will mourn its passing, if it comes to that.
SHOOT: What’s next? We heard you were editing Suffragette.
Pilling: Yes. Suffragette was shot on 16mm film with a little bit of [ARRI] ALEXA digital camera shooting for evening scenes. [Cinematographer is Eduard Grau] The film’s director is Sarah Gavron and the script was written by Abi Morgan. It’s been a great experience.
