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Dede Allen passes
“Mother of the L-cut”?
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6 Replies
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Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker, Anne Coates and Sally Menke are all names you should know. Women were editors right at the beginnings of commercial film, when the job was considered not creative but drudgery work for inexpensive menials with good hand-eye coordination. But these women took editing to a new level, made it a creative contribution on a apr with that of the Cinematographer and Director and made it clear that the Editor is as important as the Director in the creative collaboration.
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And I’d take any one of them with a razor blade and Kodak presstapes over any hotshot FCP kid just out of school for knowing when, where, what, and how to cut to enhance a story – without calling attention to the editing, which is supposed to do just that, enhance the story, not distract from it.
(Crabby old-guy rant off…)
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Anne Coates is one of my all time heros. The love scene in Out of Sight is, to me, one of the single greatest achievements in editing. Very noticeable editing with crazy jumps in time; but so eloquent, sensual, and flawless.
Scott Davis
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As a somewhat hotshot Avid kid fairly recently out of school… me too.
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WOA. I was just watching a doc where she was one of the talking heads – so insightful. A huge loss, but hopefully it’ll generate some discussion about her contribution to field.
“A song is an excuse to go to a chorus, and a chorus is an excuse to go to a breakdown.”
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Just watched that love scene. I seem to remember it being pointed somewhere for the momentary pauses that she employed. I think it was an approach to a love scene that I wonder if a man could have come up with. It really was a woman’s touch/perspective on the “love scene”.
Chaz Shukat
Avid/FCP Editor
Author of “EDITING REALITY”
https://www.chazmoedit.com
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