Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1456671
31 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E F E A T U R E ONE HAND: Kahn said the editing "was a collaborative effort." P H OT O : D I S N E Y thing. If you talk, you're not listening. So I like editors to know: please listen." As Broshar and Kahn established their routine, Pat Crane joined them in the cut- ting room to help take notes and orchestrate everything alongside the director. Assistant editors Andrey Ragozin, Kevin Birou, and Nicholas Lundgren worked hard to organize all the dailies and sync up the music so ev- erything was lined up for playback. One of the best parts of the process was getting to edit the big dance scenes. "It's amazing where they got these dancers from," Kahn said. "They're from all over the country. This girl who played Maria [Rachel Zegler], at the time, was only 17 years old or 18. She's great. You have an opportunity to see some large scenes that are fun." Broshar found the authenticity of the talented young actors inspirational as was the reimagined script by Kushner. "It felt really, really special," she said. Even after all of his years in the business, Kahn said he still feels lucky to have found such a perfect match in his collaboration with both Spielberg and Broshar, especially as they worked on "West Side Story." "It was a collaborative effort with the three of us," Kahn said. "Steven's a great guy to work with—he's wonderful in the editing room. And certainly Sarah knows Avid bet- ter than anybody, so she was pretty quick on getting things done for Steven's input. But we all had input—he welcomed that." They're currently at work co-editing Spielberg's next film, "The Fabelmans," a semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age story about his early life, which recently wrapped production and is slated for re- lease in November. "It takes a lot of guts to do something like that," Kahn said, "because some of the blemishes that you may have in the family are discovered when people see it." As for "West Side Story," the only blem- ish is perhaps the delay in making it to the big screen due to the ongoing pandemic and the unexpected surge of the Omicron variant this past winter. It premiered in U.S. theaters in December , which Kahn said they'd been "eagerly waiting for," adding, "I think when people see this picture, they're going to come home feeling good." ■ Kristin Marguerite Doidge is a freelance writer who writes frequently for CineMontage. Her forthcoming book, "Nora Ephron: A Biography," will be published in June by Chicago Review Press.