BAFTA Guru (27 March 2019). Thelma Schoonmaker On Editing
https://www.youtube.com/embed/rHdg2pN4BrA
Point: "The priority is absolutely on the best take for performance, and frankly I don't understand why people get so hung up on these issues, because if you look at films throughout history, you will see enormous continuity errors everywhere, particularly when you're talking about the Academy aspect ratio where you see more in the frame. Even in The Red Shoes, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040725/ a film that nobody ever has complaints about, there are enormous continuity bumps, and it doesn't matter. You know why? Because you're being carried along by the power of the film. So throughout our history of improvisational cutting, we have decided to go with the performance, or in this case particularly with the humor of a line, as opposed to trying to make sure a coffee cup is in the right place. I remember that when I was nominated for an Academy Award for GoodFellas https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/ and we lost to Dances with Wolves https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/ for editing, the editor of that movie said to me: 'Why did you make that bad continuity cut?' And I said 'Which cut? Which continuity error? We have tons of them.' He was talking about a scene with Paul Sorvino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sorvino and another actor who was an amateur, but wonderful, though he didn't know about matching. It was much more important for us to get this beautiful performance by this untrained actor than to worry about where the cigar is in Paul Sorvino's hand. One wasn't want to do that, one would hope not to do that, but if the choice comes between a beautiful, clean line and a laugh, we would always go for the laugh" (Pinkerton, N, 2014). Bio: https://womenfilmeditors.princeton.edu/schoonmaker-thelma/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0774817/bio/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Schoonmaker Related: see the following for further examples of creative/media professionals discussing their career and the steps, which they took to arrive at the point where they are now. https://newpractices.co.uk/profiles/ Bibliography: Bafta. (2024, September 18). 'Two time BAFTA-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker to be honoured with BAFTA Fellowship'. https://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/two-time-bafta-winning-editor-thelma-schoonmaker-to-be-honoured-with-bafta-fellowship/ Pinkerton, N. (2014). 'Thelma Schoonmaker'. Film Comment. Film at Lincoln Center. https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-thelma-schoonmaker/
