Acknowledgments

“One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.”

—MALAYAN PROVERB

My life has been a series of changes—as I moved up the ladder in the New York and Los Angeles editing worlds, as I segued into working with Internet companies, and as I made the transition into academia. Somehow, the idea of change seems completely wrapped up in the concept of the Lean Forward Moment, and so it would seem appropriate to thank all of the people who helped me get from my starting point to here.

Obviously, though, that would be way to wordy—even for me. So, I’ll attempt to prioritize, knowing that I’m going to forget someone crucial. Hopefully the book makes it into a second edition so I can correct those inevitable omissions. In the meantime, my apologies for my early senility.

In my last book I saved the most supportive and amazing people for last. This time, however, I think they deserve mention right up front. My wife, Janet Conn, has been instrumental in helping me to form my concepts of change. As a career counselor and advisor she helps countless people make changes, both large and small, in their careers and lives when they reach places that demand change. She has done the same for me at several crucial points of my life. Those moments were, looking back on them, major Lean Forward Moments in my own story and have helped to shape not only my thoughts on change but the entire line of my life. Plus, she’s managed to put up with me for an awful lot of years. Thanks and love to you.

My daughter, Elizabeth, has not only provided me with great moments of change but has also been an inspiration for me as she moved forward in her own work as a photographer. Watching her explore choices, pushing forward into new ground, has helped me in my own life in ways that she will never know. I am a better person because of her.

And props go to Renton, who has provided a much-needed alternative focus when I most needed it. Thanks for sitting with me in my office, guy!

When I did the introduction to the third edition of my first book, The Film Editing Handbook, I was able to thank my mom and dad. Even though my father is no longer with us, I feel that that both his and my mother’s presence have continued to inspire me throughout my life. Mom and Dad, you helped to make this happen. It could never have been done without the years of character that you put inside of me. Thanks and love forever.

I have been fortunate to have worked alongside some amazing collaborators in my career: editors like Gerry Hambling (who I want to be when I grow up), Alan Heim, Lynzee Klingman, and Barry Malkin. Observing their decision making process, and listening in on their artistic collaborations with their directors, was incredibly valuable for me and truly embodied the meaning of the word apprenticeship. Along the way, some great directors let me peek in on their process: Francis Coppola, Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, Alan Pakula, Alan Parker, Arthur Penn, Elizabeth Swados, and my director friends Jason Alexander, Larry Bishop, Bruce Leddy, Michael Lehmann, Mitch Rouse, Mark Rowen, and Paul Schneider.

One of the fantastic things about working in filmmaking is that I have been fortunate to get to know people from all of its crafts—and that knowledge has informed this work. Al Pacino was incredibly helpful to me on a film in which I learned about acting, editing, story, and directing. Jeff Goldblum allowed me to sit in on two years’ worth of his acting classes. Composers like Mark Mothersbaugh, David Newman, and Earl Rose were incredibly generous with their time. At the same time, I learned from cinematographers, production designers, sound recordists, mixers and editors, writers and others.

Not all of them realized they were teaching me, but I thank them anyway.

At the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, I have found a new home and family: Dean Elizabeth Daley, professor Robert Jones, and lecturers Kate Amend and Jim Mitchell have been overly generous and supportive. I also need to thank Professors Marsha Kinder and Michael Renov, from whom I never stop learning. I have also been able to work with brilliant minds from many other disciplines: Professors Ann Crigler, Margo Apostolos, Maja Mataric, and dozens of others. I have also been fortunate to have traveled widely on the school’s behalf, including several stints in Jordan, where I feel that I have found a yet another family—including film-makers like Nadine Toukan, Amin Matalqa, Laith Majali, and a slew of students and friends whom I would never have met in any other part of my life.

Filmmaking is collaborative by its very nature, and two classes—an Episodic Television class and the Production III class—have been especially valuable in demonstrating that point, both to the students and to me. I thank all of my co-instructors there who taught me much about their individual crafts that have sneakily shown up in this book: David Balkan, Chris Chomyn, Midge Costin, Tim Curnen, Bill Dill, Brenda Goodman, Helaine Head, Mary Jansen, Victoria Paul, Michael Provart, Doug Vaughan, and John Watson.

It is a cliché that good teachers learn as much from their students as they teach them. So I must be a really good teacher, because I’ve learned a tremendous amount from the amazing students at USC and the other programs where I’ve taught. You have enriched my own work: so I thank you from somewhere deep down.

Thanks also go out to my partner in Internet crime, Gregg Rinsler, and all of the people I worked with at UMPG. They taught me a tremendous amount about collaboration and working in new fields. You know who you are—so thanks to you all as well.

Any book with so many film stills and script excerpts needs to have a large number of champions in order to emerge successfully.

I use a lot of material from The Godfather in this book. This would not have happened without Marty Cohen, Larry McCallister, and Brian Paragallo from Paramount. The book is much richer because of their generosity and support.

Many other people contributed to the success of the book. For scripts and contacts: Allan Holzman, Scott Powell, and Barb Siebertz and Mariana Galvez at Fox; Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer for Into the Arms of Strangers. Julie Heath provided truckloads of yeoman (yeoperson?) help to get material cleared at Warner Bros. Thanks also to Zach Staenberg for his help with The Matrix. Bill Kinder and Steven Argula at Pixar Animation and Margaret Adamic at Disney Studios helped with access to materials from the film Finding Nemo, including the extraordinary color scripts. Bill, you are a real comrade! Dominique Brunet at Canal-Plus and Tommaso Cammarano at Rialto Pictures very quickly OK’d the stills from Contempt, a film which continues to surprise me to this day. Steven Sellers helped to license the material from Terminator 2. A “shout out” also goes to Mark Goldblatt for his work on that film. Sony was so helpful that I didn’t need to take him up on his offer to help with stills licensing.

Thanks for Larry Jordan (who is an incredibly gifted teacher in his own right, as a visit to his web site or any of his Final Cut Pro classes will show) for permission to quote some of our correspondence in Chapter 11, Special Cases, and to Michael Provart for permission to quote from his emails for Chapter 4, Production Design. Ken Rutkowski (a force in his own right, whom you can find on kenradio.com) and Bill Ryan allowed me to use their “speed to cool” concept in a few places in this book. Both of them are smart, forward-thinking people.

It’s no secret that I believe the up-and-coming filmmakers of today (no matter what their medium) will be the stars of the future. I am thrilled to have been helped by filmmakers of online webisodes, low budget independent films, web-based podcasts, and student shorts. I thank Jesse Cowell, Brad Winderbaum and Diahnna Nicole Baxter, Chris Cloyd, Shyam Balsé, and Luke Hutton for their generosity and help in all hours of the day and night. Larry Auerbach and Sandrine Cassidy were invaluable in obtaining rights to student work. Michael Phillips has been incredibly helpful on so many things for me, including the Jack in the Box stills, one of which graces the first page of every chapter in this book. The film is a great example of bringing great attention to detail in every aspect, even for a low-budget film.. And Megan Cunningham, from Zoom In Online (one of my favorite video podcasts about creativity), very rapidly said “Yes” for the use of frames from “Designing Minds.”

Ellen Feldman and, once again, Michael Phillips, at Avid Technology were always there for me. These people must have unlimited time, because they certainly give enough of it. And thanks to Ian Calderon at Sundance for knowing how to create an atmosphere of creativity and exploration around new and old media. I’ve been lucky enough to have been a small part of some of it. I look forward to much much more.

Finally, it has been a treat to work with Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel, Nancy Davis, Karyn Johnson (you are The Absolute Best!), Charlene Charles-Will, Cory Borman, Lupe Edgar, Damon Hampson, and the entire Peachpit team. This has been a thoroughly collaborative and enjoyable experience. It’s the kind of family that makes you want to keep doing it forever. Thanks to Karyn and to everyone up there in Berkeley. And thanks to many of you, who have communicated with me on my blog, Hollyn-wood, providing me with some of the great feedback that I needed to get into and through writing this book. Please, keep in touch with me—all of you!