That's the great thing about filmmaking: Things happen you don't know are going to happen at the end.
— Thelma Schoonmaker
I don't think enough directors know enough about editing.
I love improvisation. I mean, it's hard to edit, because things don't necessarily fall together - you have to find ways to give it a dramatic scope, shape. But it's so much fun.
The studios are nervous on every movie. It never ends, because Marty's movies are so unusual. He doesn't repeat himself, so they don't know what to expect. We have to fight hard to keep them from being ruined. Film students can't believe that when I tell them, because they think, 'Well, it's Martin Scorsese.'
It's wonderful to work on footage by someone who understands how to get it to cut right, which a lot of directors don't.
I can access footage much quicker, yes. But in terms of living with a film and knowing what's right, digital doesn't do that for you.
I just happened to see an ad saying 'Willing to train an assistant editor,' and I learned enough from that to go to NYU for just one summer course. That's all that I could afford.
We do documentaries on the history of cinema in between our feature films.
It's hard for people to understand editing, I think. It's absolutely like sculpture. You get a big lump of clay, and you have to form it - this raw, unedited, very long footage.
I have the best job in the world.
I always thought that's the wonderful thing about filmmaking: people see things differently.
My job is so wonderful.
I love being around great artists, and I've been around a few of them.
Scorsese has very defined ideas about how to shoot a scene, and he's an editor himself - we cut together. It means he's constantly thinking about my problems while he's filming.
In certain fight scenes in 'Raging Bull' - for example, the shorter ones - I literally just took the head and tail of the shot and put it together, and it all worked beautifully.
My family goes way back in New York. So I am a New Yorker; I feel like a New Yorker. It's in my bones.
As you can imagine, between Michael Powell and Martin Scorsese, I've had quite a rich life!
I don't think you can be a great director without knowing a lot about editing.
Editing is really like plumbing a good deal of the time. You put two things together, and a current runs through it.
Cutting improvisation is really hard, because things don't match, and you end up with some bad cuts sometimes. But we'd rather have the bad cuts and the great improv.
I know a lot of editors who are very bitter about the directors they work with. They feel they could have done a better job, and I say to them, 'Oh really? Why don't you go try - it's not easy.'
Boxing is insane and, in my opinion, should be banned.
It's part of your job always as an editor: you always have to drop stuff.
The studio was very nervous about 'Raging Bull.'
When you're in a movie with an audience, you can feel where a film is dragging. People start to move. They fidget. You need that perspective. To give it a cold eye.
