By Robert Goldrich

This prequel to SHOOT’s annual The Road To Oscar series of feature stories focuses on the art of editing and four of its notable practitioners: Joe Walker, ACE, Steven Rosenblum, ACE, Jake Roberts, and Julie Monroe.

All four are in the awards season conversation: Walker for Arrival (Paramount Pictures); Rosenblum for The Birth of a Nation (Fox Searchlight); Roberts for Hell or High Water (CBS Films) and Monroe for Loving (Focus Features).

Walker and Rosenblum have Oscar pedigrees. The latter has three career Academy Award nominations for Best Achievement in Film Editing while Walker has one.
Here are insights from all four editors on their work currently in the Oscar running—and the directors with whom they collaborated on those films.

Joe Walker
Editor Joe Walker feels blessed professionally, getting the opportunity to collaborate in recent years with two of the era’s most talented auteur filmmakers, Steve McQueen and Denis Villeneuve. Walker has cut three McQueen films—Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave, the latter earning a Best Editing Oscar nomination and winning the Best Picture Academy Award in 2014. And now Walker is working on his third film with Villeneuve, the much anticipated Blade Runner sequel which at press time was in the throes of production. Walker first cut Sicario (2015) for Villeneuve, followed by Arrival, a science fiction drama that’s slated for release next month and which is already generating critical acclaim, deemed as being a worthy Oscar contender across several categories.

Based on “Story of Your Life,” a short story by Ted Chiang, Arrival depicts alien beings who bring spacecrafts to Earth, hovering slightly above terra firma at sites throughout the globe. A team is assembled—which includes linguist Louise Banks (portrayed by Amy Adams), mathematician Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and U.S. Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker)—to investigate and communicate with the other worldly lifeforms. Is their visit to our planet a prelude to a global/galactic war? Or does it signal an opportunity for peace and unprecedented scientific and societal progress based on technologies and knowledge from a civilization more advanced than ours?

Walker observed, “We’ve been starved for really intelligent science fiction for some time. This story touches your heart but is not afraid to delve into science in a non-Hollywood way. To have Denis’ trust to cut this film was amazing. I’m glad we had done Sicario together previously. From that you build not just a trust but an environment, a safe place, to experiment. Sometimes an experiment can fail but you keep trying to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers in order to do justice to the story. Arrival posed brilliant challenges editorially—CGI aliens, exploring the whole backstory of Amy Adams’ character while advancing the overall story and trying to make the most use of Bradford Young’s great photography. That’s another area in which I feel fortunate—getting the chance to work with Bradford’s imagery in-between cutting the photography of Roger Deakins on Sicario and Blade Runner.”

Editing the CG alien beings was an ongoing process, continued Walker. “That was still coming together at the very end of our schedule. It was like constantly keeping clay moist and working it. We had a more elongated edit than Sicario which by comparison felt more straightforward. In Arrival we feathered varied elements into the story, building to a climax at the end. It makes for a strong, satisfying conclusion, a film that we hope people will think about for ages.”

Walker said his team provided stellar support, noting that he promoted 1st assistant editor Javier Marcheselli to VFX editor and 2nd assistant Mary Lukasiewicz to 1st assistant on Arrival. Walker said that Marcheselli did “the most amazing temps” on Sicario, helping to bring about the pivotal tunnel sequence creating kaleidoscopic points of view. For Arrival, Walker added that Marcheselli has not only an expertise in effects but also an approach which is like editing in “a petri dish in which we can grow things and throw more into the mix as we go.” Lukasiewicz meanwhile facilitated workflow on Arrival, helping Walker to liaison in an optimum fashion with other teams contributing to the film, including the visual effect ensemble.

Underscoring how he, Marcheselli and Lukasiewicz complement one another, Walker noted that one day an ADR session got canceled on Sicario. “We could have slipped off and taken a break but instead I proposed a little challenge, doing an intentionally awkward cut of some Oscar ceremony footage. We had some fun with it. Mary did a great cut, extending reactions and the awkwardness of the situation. Javier rotoed people out and the background spun like a kaleidoscope. My cut centered on music. As it turns out my approach was sound-based, Javier’s was visual, and Mary’s was a combination of the two. We all bring something different to the team.”

“Arrival shows how much my team has grown,” continued Walker, alluding to others beyond Marcheselli and Lukasiewicz. “I remember Shame was me and one assistant throughout the whole film. Slowly my team has expanded ever since. On Blade Runner the team gets bigger still since we are dealing with hundreds of more effects shots that we had even in Arrival.”

Villeneuve’s vision, though, takes the lead, said Walker, noting that Arrival is “an art film smuggled into a Hollywood film tin. It’s an inspiring big budget art film. I’m so delighted with the reviews. Denis is a master of suspense, mystery and tension. Both Steve [McQueen] and Denis share that bond—being experts at creating these very tense films, placing you on a roller coaster ride that you can’t stop. Sicario was like that with an opening sequence that was a brilliant piece of planning, making for an engaging, long, tense experience.”

McQueen and Villeneuve have another dynamic in common. “They both have a fantastic way of fanning the creative flames. They will you on when they see you are in a good direction, and their feedback is so valuable.”

Steven Rosenblum
With The Birth of a Nation, which marks the feature directorial debut of Nate Parker who stars in the film as slave rebellion leader Nat Turner, some project that editor Steven Rosenblum could be in line for his fourth Oscar nomination. The first three were for the Edward Zwick-directed Glory in 1990, the Mel Gibson-helmed Braveheart in 1996, and the Zwick-directed Blood Diamond in 2007. Rosenblum has also been lauded for his TV work as reflected in an Emmy win for his cutting of the “First Day/Last Day” episode of thirtysomething in 1989. Rosenblum additionally won ACE Eddie Awards for thirtysomething as well as the features Glory and Braveheart.

Rosenblum recalled his agent calling him about a budget-challenged film titled The Birth of a Nation. When the editor heard it was about Turner, his immediate reaction was “tell them I’m interested. I want to do it.” He went on to explain why the project struck such a responsive chord. “I’m a long-time history student and am interested in that story. I know that story. It’s an important story.” 

The next night Rosenblum got a phone call from Parker who also wrote the screenplay. “I talked to Nate for a good hour about the story, how he was doing it, life in general. Right then and there I told him I’d love to edit the film though my schedule was a little tight—I was cutting Blood Father for Mel Gibson at the time and was lined up to next work on The Promise [directed by Terry George]. In between the two, I could put in 12 weeks for Nate and get in a really good cut. That’s what I did. Joe Hutshing came in for a few weeks to edit as well.” 

Rosenblum offered a piece of advice to first-time director Parker. “This wasn’t the first time I had ever done a film with someone directing himself in a big movie,” noted Rosenblum. “I told Nate to be the star of the movie. Don’t short yourself as an actor. A director instinctively wants to make sure everyone else is taken care of. But give your performance the takes needed to be successful.”

In the big picture, Rosenblum assessed that what Parker did “was amazing—an epic, powerful period piece working with a limited budget and limited time.”

Regarding how he collaborated with Parker, Rosenblum noted that he was given “the freedom to do my cut. After he saw my cut, we’d talk about relevant issues—how for example essentially privileged people see the world as compared to the non-privileged. We talked about race a lot, perceptions about it. One example comes to mind. We had a good industry screening of the movie for professionals when I realized I didn’t invite hardly any African-Americans to the screening. He said, ‘Of course you didn’t,’ underscoring how we’re raised, the inherent latent attitudes we carry around and how we have to fight to change them. In that same vein, there’s a dinner table scene in the movie in which the land owner is trying to re-establish the farm as a place of prominence in the community. Nate said it was probably his fault that he didn’t communicate to me that he wanted to see what the servants were doing in the scene. Duh, of course that should be the perspective, I thought. But that didn’t occur to me at first. So I recut the scene to show the servants. Everything played off of them instead of what I originally thought. When you think you’re color blind, that can be a double-edged sword. Most of the time the color you see is white. That was a major life lesson for me.” 

Still Rosenblum has learned many lessons well as evidenced by his winning in 2011 the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal which is awarded annually to an alumnus of either the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory or the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women, who best embodies the qualities of the late director: talent, taste, dedication and commitment to quality filmmaking. Established by Schaffner’s widow, Jean, in 1991, the Alumni Medal celebrates the recipient’s extraordinary creative talents and artistic achievements.

The AFI played a pivotal role in Rosenblum’s career. It was at the AFI Conservatory that he met Zwick, cutting his student film. They became good friends but didn’t work together immediately as professionals. Rosenblum had to serve a five-year union apprenticeship. He was an assistant when Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz embarked on their first TV show, thirtysomething. “Ed asked me to edit it. The studio said I hadn’t edited anything. Ed insisted and I was on my way. Everything built from there. Glory was the next project.”

Jake Roberts
Jake Roberts has enjoyed a fruitful collaborative relationship with director David Mackenzie, editing five of his films: The Last Great Wilderness (2002), Perfect Sense (2011), Tonight You’re Mine (2011), Starred Up (2013) and this year’s Hell or High Water, a drama set in West Texas and centered on a pair of bank-robbing brothers (Toby portrayed by Chris Pine and Tanner by Ben Foster) and the two Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges as Marcus and Gil Birmingham as Alberto) pursuing them. Toby and Tanner team to rob branch after branch of the bank that is foreclosing on their family land. Their robberies are a means to combat a systematically rigged financial game stacked against them. Meanwhile Marcus is looking for one last triumph on the eve of his retirement; he and Birmingham are constantly trading barbs, which do little to conceal what is a deep-rooted friendship. The character-driven story generates empathy as well as sympathy for the couples on both sides of the law—though in no way making excuses for the brothers’ crimes. 

“We had just finished Starred Up and David sent me this script [by Taylor Sheridan who penned Sicario],” recalled Roberts. “I was expecting it to be something more U.K.-based and involving themes more similar to what we had done previously. Instead it was a breath of fresh air. For someone who grew up with American cinema, it was a chance to play with Americana, sunbaked terrain a world away from Glasgow where both David and I lived at the time. It was a wonderful opportunity to tell a story with great characters. I felt a very strong voice coming off the page and knew David would do something interesting with it.”

As an editor, Roberts observed that Hell or High Water was a balancing act in some respects. “The energy between the two brothers is very different than the energy between Jeff [Bridges] and Gil [Birmingham]. We had to mesh those scenes. We had shot Chris [Pine] and Ben [Foster] before Jeff even arrived. In a sense half of the movie was in the can before we started the other half.” 

The other balance Roberts had to attain was between drama and comedy. “In the edit you have to make those elements jell together. The humor couldn’t feel like it was interfering with the serious moments. 

Roberts was a trainee at an edit facility when he first met Mackenzie who was making shorts and music videos. “David was in his early 30s. I was in my early 20s,” recalled Roberts. “He asked me to step in to edit for him on a trial basis for a week.” That eventually led to Roberts cutting a short and then a low budget feature for Mackenzie some 15 or so years ago. The two then went their separate ways but eventually came together again for the 2011 release Perfect Sense followed by three more features. “When we reunited, we started to develop a shorthand. I now know his tastes and instincts, what performances he will be drawn to. Editing is very much about taste in general. You have to share a lot of tastes. Equally there are places where you differ. Between us we come up with what’s right for any particular scene or moment. There has to be a lot of common ground. Ninety percent of the time we agree. When we don’t, there’s a mutual respect and a thought-provoking conversation to work things out.”

Julie Monroe
Loving is the third Jeff Nichols-directed feature Julie Monroe has edited. Their first collaboration was on the acclaimed Mud (2012), and it was a bit of a transition for both of them. “Mud was the first time Jeff hadn’t cut a film of his own himself,” related Monroe. “He had cut Shotgun Stories (2007) and Take Shelter (2011). I remember him telling me ‘it might be frustrating to have you do what I see, Please forgive me for that.’ We wound up feeling each other out a little bit, figuring out the dance and how he could get comfortable letting go so that I could grab a piece of performance and put it together. We got more comfortable with each other as we got into the film. We’d sit back on the couch, talk and then try things together. He got away from needing to physically touch the editing equipment. Later on Midnight Special, which was a complicated story, we spent the most time just sitting in the room together, exploring options.”

For Loving—which tells the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving (portrayed respectively by Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton) whose interracial marriage got them jailed and exiled from Virginia in 1958—Monroe said, “the opening scene of Richard’s marriage proposal to Mildred kind of set the tone for the couple’s relationship. Once we finished that section, the rest just sort of came together, letting Joel and Ruth do amazing things with their eyes and bodies, wonderful interactions. Just letting them be and not being worried about a scene being too long. We let the scenes be long to get the most out of their amazing performances.”

Nichols in turn was also enthused over Monroe’s performance. He told SHOOT that he and the editor “have a really nice shorthand together. I was particularly meticulous on Loving, maybe the most meticulous execution of any of my scripts with precise camera movement and edit points. She seems to know where I’m going which is important because it’s not like I shoot a lot of coverage. She has a great intuition of where I’m headed. It takes a special person to have a director like me who has certain ideas about where edits are going to come—and for her to help fulfill that yet be creative outside of that, showing me things I didn’t see about my own stuff. She does this in a really beautiful way. There’s no ego involved in it for either of us. She’s trying to make the most beautiful cut possible.”

Monroe feels fortunate being able to work with Nichols, who also wrote the screenplay for Loving. She was particularly gratified by feedback to the film from actor Colin Firth who served as a producer on Loving. “After seeing the movie, Colin said he felt like he suffered with this couple in such a simple, profound way. As an audience reaction,” noted Monroe, “that was what we meant to do.”

Nichols and Monroe put the focus squarely on Richard and Mildred Loving. While the case led to a landmark Supreme Court decision upholding interracial marriage, Loving offered no courtroom drama, instead centering on Richard and Mildred’s love story and how their lives were impacted by a gross injustice. “To be part of such an important, beautiful project—in collaboration with Jeff—was quite special,” affirmed Monroe.

Loving has Monroe in this year’s Oscar conversation but she is no stranger to recognition, having been nominated for an ACE Eddie Award for De-Lovely (2004), which was directed by Irwin Winkler. And she’s enjoyed fruitful collaborations with filmmakers other than Nichols, perhaps most notably—and most pivotal early on in her career—with Oliver Stone. As an assistant editor, she worked extensively with Stone for an extended stretch, then reunited with him years later to cut his World Trade Center, W and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. “I worked a lot with Oliver and later Jeff—with a lot of other amazing people in between,” said Monroe. Among those in-betweeners was Dan Fogelman for whom she cut Danny Collins. She is slated to edit another Fogelman film early next year.

Nichols remains, though, someone to whom Monroe remains committed. “I found where I want to be—working on whatever Jeff Nichols is doing if I’m lucky. I feel very fortunate to be part of his cinema family.”

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