Lee Smith - Editor

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2021

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 119 - LEE SMITH - Editor

Team Deakins sits down with editor, Lee Smith (1917, SPECTRE, DUNKIRK, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES). He shares with us his thoughts on a lot of subjects: how working on bad films helps you learn, that the rhythm of the cut is instinctive and how you use the cut to create the rhythm, how his approach depends on the director and the differences between directors. We talk about how “finding it in the editing room” is not our favorite approach, editors being on set, the editor being a fresh eye, and working on the fractured time structure in Dunkirk. He also speaks of his work on the films Dunkirk and 1917 as well as his thoughts on cutting action sequences, using split screens unwisely and continuity. It’s a great episode that really delves into the craft of motion picture editing. Don’t miss it!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to the Team Deakin's podcast. This podcast is a dialogue between Roger and
0:09.8	James Deakin's often joined in the conversation by a guest. It's very informal and we never
0:16.3	know where it will go. We're connecting through Zoom so bear that in mind when you hear
0:21.4	the audio. If you'd like to submit a question or topic, please do so by e-mailing pod
0:28.7	p-o-d at RogerDeakin's.com. This episode is sponsored by AJA Video Systems. One of the
0:39.4	industry's most trusted and respected manufacturers of tools and solutions for production and post
0:46.0	professionals. Reliable remote production is now a reality powered by AJA tools. Stream
0:54.3	multi-camera shoots to anywhere in the world securely with Bridge Live, with 12G SDIIO to
1:02.1	a range of codecs and delivery platforms with SRT and encryption. If you need to work remotely,
1:09.7	AJA has you covered with workflow tools for 4K, 8K, HDR and beyond. Today we're speaking
1:21.3	with an editor. We had the pleasure of working with him on 1917. He's a frequent collaborator
1:27.5	with Christopher Nolan and Sam Mendez. Among his credits are The Truman Show, The Dark Knight,
1:35.1	Rises, Interstellar, Specter and Dunkirk. We're pleased to welcome Lee Smith. Lee, thank you
1:41.9	for doing this. Yes, thanks, Lee. You're welcome looking forward to having a chat. We'd like to start
1:49.6	it out by asking you how you got to where you are today. What was your path? Did you go down
1:56.2	another path first or did you always know from age five you wanted to be an editor? Tell us.
2:04.0	No, I think my father, the way I got started was my father was an optical effects supervisor.
2:11.9	In the UK, my uncle pardoned a lab. My auntie was a neg-matcher and my brother was an animation
2:19.4	cameraman. I don't think I had a choice. Wow, quite a family connection. That wasn't I don't
2:27.9	think the real reason that I got involved in it. At school, I got handed up a video camera and I was
2:38.8	in the drama classes and the debating classes. I was always interested in telling a story and
2:44.4	films and went off and sort of shot some stuff that was always disappointing as we always did
	...

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