Arts and Recreation in
Northern Ontario
Independent Film in Northern Ontario
Music and Film in Motion Workshops
2005
Caroline Christie
The
Craft of Editing
The Craft of Editing began on a Thursday evening as part of a
four day combined film editing and filmmaking workshop. The wildly
talented film editor Caroline Christie talked about her craft and long
time career in film editing.
Caroline showed us examples of her work,
explained the choices she made for each film and why she made them.
Caroline also shared stories with us about her 20 year career in
editing. We heard about her work with the well known
filmmaking character Michael Moore of Fahrenheit 911 fame, and other
anecdotes. In doing so Caroline drew us intimately into the wonder and excitement of a film editing
career.
She explained in some detail how film is
shot and then cut, combined and recombined to create moods or show
the inner workings of ideas and emotions. She explained pace and
settings. And then
explained, and showed to us, how they were ultimately presented. She
talked about the process of working with directors, musicians, and sound
people.
In all, it was an informative and
enjoyable evening and time very well spent.
My one complaint... Caroline was
too modest. As someone entirely new to the filmmaking world, I don't
know enough to even know what questions to ask. (When asked by a fellow
workshop attendee what my experience was in filmmaking, my answer was
"My entire experience, knowledge, and history in filmmaking will start
in about... 4 minutes.")
Over the next three days in the
Long and the Short of It workshop I got a much better idea of the
ultimate power that a film editor can have over a film. I've heard the
saying "the film is made in the editing room." Only after the three days
following Caroline's presentation did I begin to appreciate the enormous
truth of that statement, and the enormous talent of this woman.
Editors work behind the scenes, often
alone, without the glamour or fame enjoyed by the Designer Directors of
our time. While it may seem at times a thankless task, I've come to
learn that good films don't get made without good editors.
Now I know. Film editors have The Power.
About Caroline Christie
As supplied by MFM
She has toiled away behind the scenes of
a wide variety of film projects, has had a hand in crafting the
crusading message of Michael Moore, and has breathed life into homicidal
puppets.
Born in Montreal, Christie set her career
in motion in 1985, editing and packaging programs for The Life Channel.
In 1987, she became senior editor for CFMT Television, packaging and
editing prime time magazine shows; editing commercials, corporate videos
and short features; and producing and editing station promos.
Working alongside her partner, director Peter Lynch, Christie has helped
articulate his creative visions, editing all of his signature works. A
number of her film projects include:
- Arrowhead, winner of the 1994 Genie
for Best Short Film
- the wildly successful Project Grizzly
(1996), which rose to become one of the most acclaimed Canadian
documentaries of all time
- The Herd (1998)
- Cyberman (2001)
- and A Whale of a Tale (2004), which
premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004.
Throughout the years, Christie as been
crowned victorious for her work on a diversity of projects. Her work on
Michael Moore’s The Awful Truth earned the series nominations for both a
Writer’s Guild of America Award and an Emmy, in 2001. At Toronto’s Hot
Docs Festival in 2000, her work on Elida Schogt’s acclaimed Zyklon
Portrait merited an editing award.
Recently, her eclectic eye has led her to the world of comedy,
fine-tuning the Comedy Network’s hit series, Puppets Who Kill. Winner of
the Rose d’Or Award at the prestigious Montreux Festival in 2002, this
anarchic and hallucinatory sitcom has emerged as one of the
highest-rated Canadian TV Series.
