The Making of a Motion Picture Editor. Thomas A. Ohanian
given four Aces. And, Dragon Tattoo, the same thing again. But, we really worked our asses off to make that come together.
TO: I saw a video interview with you and Angus where you talk about dealing with so much footage and how hard a film it was to work on.
KB: It was much harder. I have no guilt about getting that award whatsoever! (Both Laugh) I sweated blood for that. Dragon Tattoo, based on the movie, was much more modular for us.
TO: How so?
KB: Because it took so long for these two characters to meet and intertwine. And because of the book, there were three different endings to it. You had to continue to work out how to make that work for viewers. Whereas Social Network I think we changed one line.
TO: You and Angus achieved back-to-back Academy Awards for best editing. The last time that had been done was Ralph Dawson in 1935 and 1936. And he actually won a third time in 1938.
KB: Respect to Ralph! (Both Laugh)
TO: Okay, I have some other questions that I want to ask you. They are off-the-cuff, okay?
KB: Sure.
TO: What did you think when you saw J.F.K.?
KB: Oh, my God, I forgot about J.F.K. I loved that! That was a very aggressively cut film. There was a moment when Donald Sutherland comes out…
TO: Mr. X.
KB: Yeah. And he sits in the park and he’s rattling off all of the reasons why this happened with his fingers. And everything stops. And talk about a scene landing—that scene fucking lands! It lands so well. I remember seeing that in Sydney at Avalon at this tiny little beach theatre. And they even had an interval…
TO: An intermission?
KB: Yeah. And I remember walking outside, just pacing around until it got started again. Because that film is just slapping you across the face for so long and then Donald Sutherland came in and it was so powerful.
TO: There’s so much information in that section. It’s like a mini-movie.
KB: It just forces you to stop and pay attention because it was clarifying and clearing up and it stops you from being dizzy. God that was so well cut.
TO: Is there are particular film period you like the most?
KB: The moment that I got into loving film was during that ‘70s movement.
TO: I loved that period. And it wasn’t just the two Godfathers. There was Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico.
KB: The French Connection. Kramer vs. Kramer.
TO: Think about the ’79 Best Editing Candidates—All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Rose.
KB: Fabulous.
TO: Jerry Greenberg was double nominated that year. For Apocalypse and Kramer.
KB: Wow. Kramer vs. Kramer, I think, is such a good film.
TO: I really never would have thought you’d call out Kramer. That’s great. Remember, he won for French Connection.
KB: Funny—I went and rattled off two of his movies and didn’t even realize it.
TO: Fincher’s films seem richer to me. An example is sound—it’s not an afterthought in his films. It’s not tacked on.
KB: When he’s covering a scene, he knows where that camera needs to be and he knows how to get deep into it. He’s not going to just give you the wide and the over and the over. He’s going to get right into the depth of it so that you can always construct the scene to the best of what it’s supposed to be. There are a lot of takes because he’s going to make sure that all the beats are landing for each angle. There’s never going to be ‘Oh, that’s okay, we’ve got it in the close.’
TO: That’s pretty amazing to have that.
KB: Right and we’re not going to be dictated by, ‘Oh, on this line we’re going to have to be in the close because that’s the best time they said it.’ And there’s so much repetition in the footage that you can still be somewhere else and take that audio performance from the close-up and put it somewhere else. And when a scene comes in, he’s thought it through. You’ve got all the ingredients you need to cook that properly.
TO: What would you be doing if you weren’t editing?
KB: I could be a lifeguard. I like surfing. I like sand between my toes. (Both Laugh)
TO: What do you like most about your craft—your profession?
KB: I like making things. I like making a difference. I like things getting better. I enjoy it a lot. A hell of a lot.
John Bloom
London, England
Partial Credits: Charlie Wilson’s War, Closer, Wit, Notes on a Scandal, The First Wives Club, A Chorus Line, Under Fire, Gandhi, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Magic, The Lion in Winter, Funeral in Berlin, Georgy Girl.
Comedy, Drama, Suspense, Music… John moves effortlessly across genres but when he started he didn’t even know what editing was! The suspenseful assassination scene in Gandhi to the great comedic timing in The First Wives Club. There is an assuredness in his work that becomes evident from the very first cut.
TO: John, you are a three-time Academy Award nominated editor and you received your Oscar for Gandhi. You are a two-time ACE Eddie recipient. It’s a pleasure to speak with you.
JB: Thank you, Tom.
TO: How did you get your start in the film business?
JB: Oh, gosh. It was an incredible piece of luck. It was just before I had to do my two years Military Service in England. My mother asked my sister's (Claire Bloom) agent, Olive Harding, if she knew of a job to fill in my time before I got called up. Olive's best friend ran the Story Department at Pinewood Studios. So I went into the Story Department for a few weeks and got on well enough to be told that there would be a place for me there when I finished my two years away. My mother's request changed my life. We used to read books and scripts searching for something that might interest the resident Studio producers.
TO: That’s an important job to be just thrown into like that.
JB: When I did come back there were two others in the department. One, Ted Hughes, was to become the English Poet Laureate and the other was my mentor, Lukas Heller.
TO: Lukas Heller wrote many of the Robert Aldrich movies—The Dirty Dozen, The Flight Of The Phoenix.
JB: Yes and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. We became good friends and after being in the story department for a year and a half, he said, ‘Did you ever think about going into the editing department?’ And I didn’t even know what editing was at that time.
TO: What a start! You edited Man In The Middle, which was directed by Guy Hamilton who went on to direct Goldfinger and other James Bond films. Music was by John Barry who scored many Bond films, and it starred Robert Mitchum.
JB: Yes, it was a biggish picture, originally called The Winston Affair.
TO: In 1965, you edited Georgy Girl, which became a big hit.
JB: I knew Otto Plaschkes, one of the producers, and I asked him if he would consider me as the editor of Georgy Girl. And that was a real watershed for me because the film was a tremendous success.
TO: And the song was a very big hit.
JB: I have a story about that. During post-production I had put a song sung by Barbra Streisand over