Preliminary Research: Thelma Schoonmaker

To understand my role as an editor better, I wanted to look at the professionals within the movie industry and try to learn from them. I thought the best way to do this was to look at long-term editor director relationships to see their overall editing style across various films and how they might change things up. One that stood out to me was Thelma Schoonmaker who worked with Martin Scorcese across various films.

Interview with Thelma Schoonmaker about her experiences with editing

This video above gave me insight into Thelma Schoonmaker's process as an editor. For instance, she doesn't primarily focus on what the script has to say but more so on the actual footage that was taken. She then works closely with Scorsese to create the intended scene. The two also review raw footage together and there is discussion on what the film may need in order to be better, what specific shots are the best ones to use, and to provide ideas in order for the editor to cut things together to make it happen. 

Video containing Thelma Schoonmaker's views on certain aspects of editing

From the start, Thelma Schoonmaker explains that she works with the director of the film and edits in specific ways such as inputting an unexpected cut, holding on to scenes for just a little longer than they should be, and including those "bumps' in editing as so everything doesn't feel slick, in order to add on to the film's vision. She then explains that she provides the director with multiple edits of something instead of just one to look at which is something I never thought of before. Creating multiple cuts means less time is spent on going back and tweaking it just for the process to have to be repeated again. The editing should also suit the film such as the tight editing found in Shutter Island which purposefully makes the viewer uncomfortable or the simple cutting of The Irishman which was the intended feel of the film, simple. 

Clip of Thelma Schoonmaker talking about working with improvised work in Raging Bull

Thelma explains that having to cut together two different pieces of improvised footage from two talented actors and make it construct a scene was difficult even for her. As the editor she gets a start point and end point from the director and it's up to her to fill in that middle. In improv scenes like this, there are normally two locked-down cameras to maintain consistency within the film but that was not done here which made it more difficult. Thelma was able to pull all the clips that best brought out the traits of the characters represented such as keeping the portion where one of the non-main characters in the scene speaks and a main character has a reaction to it. 

I believe that the most important thing Thelma Schoonmaker that I didn't think about before was the relationship and dynamic between the editor and director. In Thelma's work, she shows time and time again that the decisions she makes are those that capture the director's intended effects and vision. She works closely with the director of the films she works on in order to craft a film with a specific direction and style. Editors and directors should go over footage together to see what could be potentially missing or fixed to create a better product when it comes time to edit it together. She comments on how some editors try to make things look slick or cut many times and ultimately questions the reasoning behind these decisions. The decisions you make in the editing room aren't influenced by what's popular and what doesn't let your viewer look away in fear of missing something but on the goal of that specific scene. That could either be a certain mood or emotion that you want your viewer to feel or the capturing of the best parts of a take.