Let's face it. The process of film editing is not something that usually causes a surge of excitement in the hearts of young film hopefuls. If you were to poll the Film Studies majors about what career they see themselves in, "editor" comes up about as often as "best boy grip."
If one has never actually studied what it is that a film editor does, you might be satisfied to pass off an editor as merely a shill that cuts a film down so it can come in under the usual time constraints, or perhaps someone that hacks off the unsavory bits for the MPAA. In other words, all technician and no artist.
Nobody kills this stereotype better than the latest Dartmouth Film Award recipient, Thelma Schoonmaker (pronounced SKOON-maker), film editor and longtime friend of Martin Scorsese's. Together, they have produced some of the greatest films of our time, including "Goodfellas," "Taxi Driver," "The Last Temptation of Christ," and of course, the film we are showing this Sunday, "Raging Bull," starring Robert DeNiro as the embattled Jake LaMotta.
Ironically, Thelma Schoonmaker did not start out wanting to work in films at all, let alone be an editor. "I originally wanted to be a diplomat," she states. "I was born in Algiers, then moved to Aruba later in my childhood. Aruba has become a giant tourist center these days, but back then it was quite idyllic."
The fact that she was born outside of the United States gave her a "more patriotic feeling" when she moved here. "I went to Cornell University with every intention of becoming a diplomat, but I was talked out of it when they told me that I was too idealistic for diplomacy.
"This was in the sixties, and we were out protesting for civil rights, for Martin Luther King down in the South, and I was told that as a diplomat I would have to follow other people's agendas instead of my own."
Schoonmaker later moved to New York City to do some graduate work at NYU, and while there encountered the catalyst that would start her on the road to her future career.
"I saw an ad in the New York Times offering to train people in the process of film editing," she said. "In all my time living in New York, I have never seen an ad like that again. Sometimes I think it must have been a dream." Schoonmaker answered the ad and ended up working for "this old hack, very old Hollywood type, who was butchering Fellini and Bergman, cutting them down so they could be shown on late night television."
She said this job helped her learn just enough from him to be interested and enrolled in a summer film course at NYU. One of the other students in that film course would go on to be one of the greatest influences on Schoonmaker's life --Martin Scorsese.
Schoonmaker still marvels at the serendipity of her start. "If I hadn't seen that ad in the Times, or had waited another year to enroll in that film course, because that was Marty's last year, who knows?"
After meeting Scorsese, they worked together on his first feature length film, "Who's That Knocking," before going off to be assistant directors on the Woodstock documentary.
"That was truly hellish. The trick was to know which numbers to shoot, like if The Who was onstage, which songs do you catch? A lot of time was spent discussing which numbers to film, mostly among the other assistant directors, because I didn't know the music that well."
When asked the difference between this documentary style of filmmaking and the more stylized processes involved with feature films, she replied that for her all the difference was in the editing room. She said she was used to doing everything herself and all of a sudden she had professional facilities and assistants and everything-- a little too overwhelming for her.
"I told this to Scorsese and he just said, 'Don't worry, I'll help you through it.'" However, Schoonmaker credits her documentary experience as invaluable. "Marty likes a little roughness in his films, so the things that I learned from documentaries has always been a help to me since."
Schoonmaker has no problem giving credit over to Scorsese. "Every film with him is a completely new film, with new editing challenges. Learning to cut for comedy, for example, that was a new challenge for us. We did one movie with Jerry Lewis, King of Comedy, and he used to count before delivering a punchline."Schoonmaker makes it very clear the role that editing has in setting the pace for a film. "With a film like 'Goodfellas,' we were trying to convey with the editing what it's like to be on cocaine all the time. With 'Raging Bull,' each of the eight fights had it's own feels, it's own pace, a distinctive technique. With a film like 'Kundun,' it's slower, more about contemplation."
She also credits Scorsese with introducing her to her husband, director Michael Powell. Interestingly, Powell was an artist-in-residence here at Dartmouth when they first met.
"We were in New York, cutting Raging Bull, and Marty had been talking about this wonderful director whose old films he had discovered and loved, and he was always telling me about them. Then one day he asked me if I wanted to meet this director, because he was inviting him over for dinner."
It was, no clich intended, love at first sight.
"Marty really saved Michael from film oblivion, because with the connection that Marty had with the young film audience, he could hold up these films and get them rediscovered by a new generation."