DREAMFARM

With editing you either notice it or you don't. And if it is good and you don't notice it, then it is seamless. But if it is good and you notice it , you are seeing something rare. Like a great painter's telltale brush strokes, editing can have an identity -- a style and rhythm all its own. But the real mastery is in the invisible craft of it. The newest remake of "PELHAM 1 2 3" is crafted visual poetry. There are stanzas of visual verse taken down to the literal detail of a frame, a look or just a feeling. The sweet spot is always claimed with a perfect beginning and end to every cut. Each visual verse came with the hook at the end of its stanza. You saw 3, 4, sometimes 5 angles to complete a sentence by an actor that concludes with a drumroll of punctuation to set the scene. Throughout the film, the direction is to keep things moving like that train going through the tunnels. Don't stop we have a destination to meet. A story to unfold an...

The first time I met the creative director for a large East Coast advertising agency -- I really wanted to impress him. So I got a little dressed up. It was the early 90s and I thought I had to look a little corporate to impress. In fact, I even bought a "power suit" to go on interviews, until a producer told me she couldn't hire me because I dressed better than she did. The suit ended up in the back of my closet from then on. In this instance, my creative director, to say the least, was not impressed by my dress for success. His reaction was to give me, the once up and down, with a sneer, "Well, if I don't make you cry by the end of the next 3 days -- I'm not doing my job". The gloves were off. Here I am cutting my first national spot, with a big-wig A-hole from NY. I can take a challenge. So we were off and the race was on. I just cut. And cut. And re-cut. I pulled the music. I didn't think. I just cut. I step-framed -- a new ...