Let’s take a look at the role critics play in the film industry and how every year they get together to discuss the best films and reward them for their effort.

“Film gets released. Critics write about it. Critics love to champion work that they’re passionate about,” explains Eugene Hernandez. “A group of critics, at the end of the year, meets to say, Ok, what were the films that mattered to us this year?”

Critics watch the most films out of any kind of writer or journalist. They’re like programmers of festivals, the folks that choose the films. Eugene explains that they watch lots and lots of movies. At the end of the year, they sit back and make a list, and they say, well, what was my favorite? What was my favorite film of the year? What was the best performance? What was the best-what had the best costumes or the best editing or the best direction, writing, various categories?

There are several critics groups at the end of the year in December you see a lot of. If you’re aware of it and thinking about it and you do a search on Google at the end of the year and you look for sort of critic’s prizes or best films according to critics or even top 10 lists, you’ll see a lot of that. You’ll see that critics are championing, celebrating, and highlighting the films that they were the most passionate about.

Eugene says that could be a great way to bring more attention to a film as well. A film comes out maybe early in the year or it’s at festivals earlier in the year, and then suddenly at the end of the year, critics are looking at it against all the films they’ve seen, the hundreds of films they’ve watched that whole year. And they’re saying, oh, these are the ones that stick with us, that matter, that is worth giving more attention to.

The awards season -as it’s called for the industry at the end of the year and into the beginning of the new year- is the moment when a lot of these films are celebrated.

“Whether that’s at the Golden Globes in January or at the Oscars later in the winter or early spring, these are the highest-profile awards,” Eugene says. “There are different levels and layers of awards, starting at local film festivals and national, international film festivals, but also continuing to the critic’s groups in the fall and then the higher profile, well-known awards.”

[Please embed: https://pixabay.com/photos/shooting-cinema-camcorder-cuba-75599/]

In the 21st century, the editing process is very different between fiction and nonfiction. For Sam Pollard, the nonfiction editing process depends on whether or not the film contains interviews. “If it’s an interview-based film, I will make sure that the director has transcribed all the interviews, which I can read to make selects,” says Sam.
“Sometimes I just read the interviews. Sometimes I read and watch them at the same time, so I can hear the cadence of the person who’s being interviewed.”

Once Sam makes his selects, he uses a step-by-step system. If the filmmaker has shot B roll or verite footage, Sam starts by watching that. He pulls the things he likes and the things that work in terms of look, feel, and relevance.

From there, Sam determines the film’s structure. He writes down the interviewees’ themes on 3×4 cards. On a poster board, Sam lays out a three-act structure for the film based on those themes. He arranges the cards into these three acts, and that’s how he builds the film.

Of course, Sam’s editing process looks different for films with no interviews. “If it’s just raw footage that’s been shot on location, I’ll just make selects from that footage,” Sam explains. “Instead of using the storyboard structure, I’ll just edit sequence after sequence. Fo example, someone shot me today, getting up and doing my activities. I would just edit that sequence in order.”

After Sam edits his sequences, he starts thinking about the beginning of the film. “How do I want to start this film?” he asks himself. “Do I want to start with Lizzie having the idea? With me getting an email about this program?” Then, Sam moves his sequences into place.

This editing process lets Sam create order and structure. “That’s the way I work with documentaries,” Sam says, “because 90% of documentaries have no scripts.”

There’s a movement right now in the world with streaming and online audiences, and filmmakers who self-distribute their films. These filmmakers figure out how to get their films booked and get them into theaters and do everything themselves. Taking the self-distribution route is completely possible for you, too. It takes a lot of work, but it’s definitely possible.

According to film industry expert David Ninh, “When I think about the role of distributors that we work for, and specifically our distributor and my role, it’s very curatorial.” Distributors look for unique storytelling. They look for whether or not the filmmaker has an interesting voice or an interesting story that they want to tell the world. They look at the film and if it’s going to be relevant and special down the road in their library. Or if it’s going to become a classic, because distributors sometimes compete for films. David adds, “I think that when there is a good film, there’s a lot of interest. A lot of distributors want it for themselves so that they can put their stamp on it and put it out to the world with the filmmaker.”

Those are very striking instances for the filmmaker to figure out the right home for their film, to get the film out to the world, and to figure out who can be the best partner for them to get it out in the widest way possible. Filmmakers need to outline the goals for their films. Some filmmakers just want a lot of money and to sell the film. Some filmmakers are more concerned with getting it out organically and having the theatrical experience by getting it rolled out in as many theaters as possible. The money is secondary to them because it’s more important to build the profile of their film in their career.

 “Being an editor gets you to understand the whole process of what a script needs, what production needs, and then, ultimately, what you need in the editing room in order to make your film effective,” David K. Irving explains. “The editor will want to spend a lot of time with the director thinking through how they want to do the story. They usually do their first cut, which is called an assembly, based on the script, and then they’ll eventually cut it down. Their most important job is creating a rhythm or a sense of pace in the film, so the film moves along.”

“I know when Shakespeare would write his tragedies, his first act always ended on a very tragic note, but he would always start the second act with a little comic scene for relief, so the audience could relax and then build up their tension for the tragedy that would happen at the second act.”

An editor, too, is looking for all those rhythms. They’re built into the script. Ideally, the director has given the editor everything he or she needs to put it together, but the editor is not on set. The editor is only making a movie out of the material they have in front of them.

“For example, many times, with an editor, I’ve seen them take a shot from an early scene and put it in a later scene as long as the wardrobe matched because it’s what they wanted in terms of their eyeballs going left to right. There’s a lot of freedom in the editing room. You have to let an editor be freeform in order to make sure they make the best movie possible,” Says Irving.

“As directors, we often get very stuck on the material we shoot. I shot a single take scene where at the end of the scene, one of the actor’s wardrobe got connected to another actor’s wardrobe and got dragged off the set. The actor was smart enough to come back on the set, but I didn’t print that take because I said I can’t use the shot if the continuity doesn’t work.”

“My editor said ‘the audience will never see the continuity problem’. That’s the take with the most energy, and that’s what’s in the film now. I, as the director, cringe every time I see it, but the editor made the right decision.”

In Midnight Cowboy ,the very famous movie with Dustin Hoffman and John Boyd, they almost get hit by a taxicab in the middle of the street in the middle of a scene, and Dustin Hoffman stayed in character as “Ratso” Rizzo, banged on the front of the taxi, and said, ‘I’m walking here! I’m walking here!’ That was never planned in the script, but in the editing room, we’re able to put it together and get this great moment that wasn’t planned, but the editor was able to use it to great effect.

An international film festival: early beginnings
“I was living in New York in the 1950s where there was this guy named Amos Vogel. He showed independent films in downtown New York in alternative spaces to various audiences,” Eugene Hernandez recounts. “Later Richard Roud, a Londoner, came to New York and to the Lincoln Center, where the New York Film Festival (NYFF) is now held.
The Lincoln Center for Performing Arts was founded in the late ’50s, early ’60s as this kind of arts campus for different art forms: ballet, opera, the philharmonic, and various other art forms.
“This is what started the connection between Amos Vogel, a guy presenting films in downtown New York, and Richard Roud, who showed films at London film festivals before moving to New York,” explains Hernandez. (Vogel and Roud co-founded the New York Film Festival.)
The NY film fest-where being different is the norm
The New York Film Festival has shown diverse cinema styles over the years. And it continues its tradition toward distinct filmmaking—high-profile films with well-known actors and directors.
Celebrated films from all parts of the world. Films that haven’t yet played to an audience in New York.
“This is the big thing about the New York Film Festival—each fall it introduces new films to new audiences, particularly to New York audiences,” Hernandez continues.
“Hundreds and hundreds of films are submitted for consideration each year, but few are selected,” Hernandez points out. “It takes place over a few weeks at Lincoln Center, at other parts of the city, and online.”
Short films, experimental films, movies from all over the world come here to New York to be discovered by audiences.
New York Film Festival is for film lovers
There’s a lot more festivals now, but NYFF has become an annual fall gathering place. Audiences get an overview, a cross-section of which films and filmmakers stand out for the fall season.
NYFF is highly regarded because it has a relatively small program, with only 25 to 30 films.
“It’s a place where we get a measure of what’s new, what’s celebrated, and what’s so special about the art form of filmmaking,” ends Hernadez.

###

Part of an editor’s responsibility is to take the material and understand what the editor’s vision is, but also, bring to the table their own particular perspective.

“A really good editor understands that, what he or she feels about the material, how they respond to the material, is just as important as trying to do what the director wants,” says Sam Pollard.

Sometimes, it’s about re-editing somebody’s interview or taking an actor’s line and finding a different note, a different word, or something that they might have said in a different way, in a different take, and using that instead.

“Some people call it sleight of hand. To me, it’s part of the practice, it’s a part of what I call the nuts and bolts of editing,” says Pollard.

“I see myself in a very funny way. I see myself as not so much as a magician, but as a professional craftsperson, like a master carpenter where my job is to take all these pieces of wood, or sculptors, they have all these pieces of clay, and give it shape and form and art.”

Sometimes, editors have to try something different: that tool or that piece of clay may not work.

“I see myself as a craftsperson. I always have. And to me, that craftsperson, if he or she does their job properly, they make it rise to the level of art,” adds Pollard.

One thing that everyone needs to understand about filmmaking and film editing is that so many components are necessary to make a good film.

It’s not just shaping performance in a fiction film. In a dcoumetnary, it’s also understanding how to figure out the best pieces of an interview and make different segments come together.

It’s also understanding how to create the soundscape of the film and how to create the titles.

What’s the opening Title Sequence and what should look like? Or should there be no titles at the beginning?

How should it unfold?

Should it be at the beginning?

Should it be at the end?

“There’s some films I’ve worked on, like the title sequence in Mo’ Better Blues, a wonderful company, Balsmeyer & Everett, they created this wonderful title sequence that they gave me all these beautiful elements of Denzel and Joie and Cynda Williams, that I was able to shape to make it
work.”

“They did, also, a wonderful sequence for Jungle Fever that’s really very nice, using the landscape of Brooklyn to create the titles,” notes Pollard.

Titling is a very important part of this shaping of the filmmaking process and telling the story.

Pollard mentions a film about Martin Luther King and the FBI that he recently finished. When working on it, a company in California created a raw-ish title sequence with Martin Luther King using both imagery that we shot on a soundstage, imagery of archival footage of Dr. King with stills and other elements to create a very textured opening.

If you’ve got the budget and the money, you can do extraordinary title sequences. Sometimes, if you don’t have the budget and money, you can still do extraordinary title sequences.

Everything about filmmaking is going the extra mile, using your imagination and your sense of technique, and finding good collaborators to make the story come alive.

What does the future of cinema hold? I have often been beaten up over the last 10 years. Therefore, I’ll be very shy to say what I ought to say. You know my guess. I can tell you what I hope it will be, because we’re witnessing a television take over, streaming services take over the theater business unless you’re a big tent-pole movie.
We need to think about what we want for the theater industry in the future. The streaming television industry is booming because they produce great and digestible content, a user-friendly format, great funding, and plenty of resources. These factors negatively impact the film and television industry, which makes it difficult for traditional theaters to sustain their industry in the future.
I believe in the theater. I believe in human nature working as a society. However, we must employ the mentality of a ritualistic temple to maintain human nature in society. I refer to it as a temple because many of us don’t attend a physical church or a temple anymore.
We need to go to the movie theater. I’m not hallucinating. We, as a group, go to a place, preferably a dark house. We’ll speak freely, a heart-to-heart communication so that we enter an abstract world, forgetting reality. But you get down to the truth. I think that’s something. When you walk out, life is different. You are inspired.
It’s more than entertainment—it’s spiritual as well. I don’t see how you can get the same effect sitting at home watching television, going to the bathroom, and resume watching. It’s different. I think of the ritualistic event presented in a black box, where you’re sitting as a group, as a congregation. I think from day one in the cave; the cavemen spoke of how to hunt lions over a campfire. People become absorbed into storytelling and togetherness.
I still believe in the theater. However, I think it needs an upgrade. It’s hard to compete with television. If you want people to schlep into a big place, but have safety issues, then at some point it will cease to be. I don’t know how much theater can survive. Everybody’s going through a difficult time.
My thoughts are immersive, so we can experience with a group of people. You’re inside a movie instead of watching it from outside. The movie has its own language, 2D film, whatever, but it’s something bigger than life, with fine quality. Like when I was young, and I’d see a Hollywood make a movie.
No matter what they do, we go see it. You have a choice in this. Those days are probably harder to get back. It’ll be taken away by television, and unfortunately, sometimes iPhones. But in theater, you must make something good, very special. And some of them will be immersive.

“When talking about film history, you have to begin to think about what cinema is at its core. Cinema or motion pictures is an image that moves,” Alrick Brown explains.”
“As soon as man could see, he started interpreting stories, looking at the stars, differentiating shapes of objects, naming constellations. As soon as a kid could, they probably were drawing images with sticks and dirt.”
Early cave dwellers used image paintings in caves to communicate. Later, the Egyptians used hieroglyphics to tell their stories and preserve histories.
Those symbols and images were a prelude to film’s beginnings.
Over a century ago, the Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison’s company, experimented and found ways to make images move, creating motion pictures.
Gomez-Rejon’s film tells how film history and Edison, others are joined by history
“I made a film recently called The Current War: The Director’s Cut. I wanted to show how filmmaking and electricity were invented at the same time,” comments Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
It started in the 1870s with beautiful studies in film motion by Eadweard Muybridge. They were done, I think, with twelve cameras. That evolved into William Dixon and Edison working together on the kinetograph and kinetoscope.
Next came, the Black Maria, Edison’s film production, considered to be the first film company. Remember, at this time in history film was still a novelty. But then we see it progress. The Lumiere brothers (Auguste and Louis Lumière) have the first kind of commercial film screening.
Georges Méliès starts doing narrative storytelling, but it’s still very theatrical with a fixed camera.
“Everything evolves again with Edwin S. Porter’s, The Great Train Robbery. This film, with its illusion of uninterrupted time caused by innovative (for the time) camera cuts and pans, is like the beginning of modern film language, or film vocabulary,” states Gomez-Rejon.
It’s fascinating to see their work and how it’s been interpreted by film industry types throughout the ages. Certainly, these films spoke to me.
###

[Please embed: https://pixabay.com/photos/movie-film-roll-filmstrip-analog-3057394/]

“Fundamentals” means understanding the basics. For filmmakers, that means understanding where film has come from. Film is only a little more than 100 years old, but it includes literature, photography, drama, theater, dance, and music, all rolled into one art form. It’s a very powerful tool.

If you want to be successful in this field, it’s important to know what’s come before. When you stand on the shoulders of those giants, you yourself can become a giant in the field. Knowing the history of film will teach you what works and what doesn’t work, and that will make you a better filmmaker.

For instance, if you want to pitch a story, you might reference a film. Sometimes, these references can help you communicate an idea to somebody else.

Sometimes it’s hard because you don’t want to sound derivative, because hopefully you’re moving the medium by doing some original work or interpreting. It depends on what kind of filmmaker you are.

Still, you can connect to previous films to develop your style. Someone who expresses themselves with a camera should learn from previous films, just like an author would want to know literature to see how other voices interpreted certain feelings. When you make these connections, you can find a kindred spirit in a ghost of the past.

It’s sad that people in this industry don’t love history as much as they should, because we are artists. There’s always a struggle between art and commerce, but it is important to know everyone that came before.

There’s always something beautiful to learn from film history. Consider the originators of the montage, colors in film, Avant Garde film, documentaries, and music. They’re all telling a story. By looking back, you can move forward and stay current. You’ll hear new voices, learn from them, and be humbled by them.

“Being a student of film since I was 12 or 13-years-old, I just loved films,” says Sam Pollard. “Learning film history was very inspirational and informative in the shaping of my career. I would say anyone who wants to understand the evolution of film history, should first look at two groundbreaking cinema filmmakers.”
One early director’s contribution to filmmaking
“First, is D.W. Griffith. Though politically I have issues with some of his films, specifically Birth of a Nation, Griffith revolutionized narrative storytelling.”
Griffith, with his camera operator, Billy Bitzer, figured out that film was about more than having master shots. It was also about medium shots and using closeups to enhance a scene’s dramatic actions. It was about the interaction between characters.
He also created cross-cutting, parallel editing. These techniques let filmgoers see story, characters and action occurring in one place, before cutting to a storyline happening in another time and place—parallel action.
Eisenstein changed film editing forever
Another seminal filmmaker in the evolution of film is the work of Russian filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein.
“Eisenstein’s film, Battleship Potemkin, specifically its Odessa Steps scene, was groundbreaking. It had revolutionary editing: from a political perspective, a social perspective, and from a cinematic editorial perspective,” Pollard remarks.
“This film is a must watch for anybody who wants to understand film editing and filmmaking—to watch the Odessa Steps scene repeatedly. I still am inspired and informed by that sequence. “
Another filmmaker who was very revolutionary for being very experimental but also engaging was Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera.
Dziga Vertov was Russian, like Eisenstein. If you have the opportunity to watch Man with a Movie Camera, you’ll see he takes you sort of behind the scenes, so you see him, the filmmaker, making a film.
This was revolutionary not only back in the 1920s, but still today in 2020.
Very important filmmakers: Eisenstein, Vertov, Griffith.
Great American filmmakers after the silent era
“When we got to the world of sound, where audio became important, some filmmakers really stood out. But first, before talking about these films, one of the other silent filmmakers who stands out, and whose films I just rewatched, is Charlie Chaplin,” says Pollard.
“Chaplin’s sense of cinema, how he created emotion and character. It wasn’t with a lot of frills but just so dramatic and great. If you go back and watch Modern Times and City Lights, the guy was a revolutionary filmmaker.
But again, when you got to the 1930s, after the silent era was over, you had filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and George Stevens. These American filmmakers.
Influential filmmakers from around the world
“Later, though by the time I got into the film industry, I understood that it wasn’t only American filmmakers who were important but there were European filmmakers, too,” says Pollard.
Filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, and Jean Cocteau.
“There were also African filmmakers, like Ousmane Sembène from Senegal. Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa from Japan. Satyajit Ray from India.”
All of these international filmmakers were very revolutionary, with a real understanding of how to create personal, emotional cinema.
###