Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/551510
23 SUMMER 2015 / CINEMONTAGE by Rob Feld • portraits by John Clifford T he skill set required for Alex Hall to edit a film like Oren Moverman's Time Out of Mind — due in theatres September 11 through IFC Films — is vast and unique, not that there are many such films. A recurring mantra of their collaboration, since working together on The Messenger (2009), has been to "be bold"; that's what works for them. The result is an immersive meditation in and around the mind of a mentally ill homeless man played by Richard Gere, as he whiles away his days on the streets of New York and tries to reclaim a piece of his identity. How Hall came to cut for directors Moverman and Jim McKay, television writer/producer David Simon and, most recently, on episodes of both seasons of Nic Pizzolatto's True Detective, charts a course of well- utilized coincidence and circumstance. Hall was part of the art-semiotics program at Brown University, which included some film studies, and moved to New York upon graduation. Cold-calling alumni, Hall found production assistant work on commercials until he was hired as the house PA at a production company, answering phones and taking lunch orders, but also putting together director's reels to be sent out, working on Sony RM-450 decks. It was the early 1990s and, after the company's owner came across something called an Avid at a trade show and purchased it, Hall was tasked with setting up the system and figuring out how to use it. As the only one who knew how the machine worked, he immediately began cutting all the company's commercials on the Avid. The next bit of happenstance came when he met filmmaker Jim McKay and co- edited his debut feature Girls Town (1996) with him. The film got into Sundance, won a bunch of awards, "And suddenly I was an editor," Hall says. More work with McKay and others followed, but Hall's big break came while working next door to HBO's The Wire's editorial team. Relationships were formed, which led to an eventual job offer to cut the series' fourth season. Hall came to love editing, although he had left school wanting to direct — and, in fact, has directed several TV episodes and is currently developing a feature. It is this mentality that has made him so valuable to Moverman and his collaborative style of working. "He thinks like a director," says Moverman. "Every editor has his approach, but the thing I really admire about Alex — because his background is rich with everything from semiotics to art to rock 'n' roll — is that cutting True Detective or Treme is not going to dictate how he cuts a feature film. He'll tap into what the script is about, what the shooting style is, what the director's intentions are… And then he'll make it his own." Though Time Out of Mind's long takes and abstracted presentation of time mean far fewer picture cuts than the average feature film, its editorial choices are as present and consequential as in any. That they work reveals a harmonious collaboration between Moverman and Hall, which only comes down to chemistry. CineMontage spoke to the collaborators about their new film earlier this summer. Editor Alex Hall and Director Oren Moverman Collaborate on 'Time Out of Mind'