By Katey Rich
This is the time of year when even the most experienced Oscar followers have to start putting down their bets on what will win, and inevitably, everyone hits a wall. Who on earth sees all the documentary shorts? How do you tell the difference between sound mixing and sound editing? What's the difference between the fancy dresses of Elizabeth, The Golden Age and Sweeney Todd?
A sticking point that comes up year after year is the Best Editing category. It's hard enough to gauge a film based on what you see on screen, but editing is all about what's not there. You have to draw back and imagine the effect of a certain scene had the camera lingered a few seconds longer on Daniel Day-Lewis' face, or if we had seen Woody Harrelson's death from over Javier Bardem's shoulder. Then you think about these guys sitting at the editing bay, who don't have the finished product to look at like we do. How do you sit there and know which cuts will play the best when the whole thing is up there on the big screen for the world to see?
The ever-reliable Slate has put together a video that at least helps you get in the proper frame of mind to think about editing. Mark Helfrich, who edited Rush Hour and X-Men 3, among others, plays videos of each of the five nominees and discusses the effect editing has on each scene. It's fascinating to hear the input from an insider, not to mention just being a treat to see clips from some of these films, three of which I haven't seen since last fall. Putting Into the WIld and The Bourne Ultimatum side by side makes you realize how much can be done differently with what's essentially a small bag of the same tricks.
The editing category is one of the tougher to predict this time around-- Bourne won the editing guild award, but No Country has all the momentum. Giving the Coens--ahem, excuse me, Roderick Jaynes-- an editing award would be the first station on their way to the four points of Oscar history: editing, screenplay, directing and picture awards, all in one night. Can they do it? I sure hope so, if only to see what happens when the entirely fictional Roderick Jaynes is called up to the stage. Someone over at Awards Daily (which also pointed the video to my attention, thanks guys) suggested that Steve Buscemi could walk up there as Jaynes and collect it. I sure wouldn't stop him.
Below is the video. Enjoy, and maybe find it a little easier to tick that box on your Oscar ballot.
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