Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1492834
36 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E CineMontage: Scott, how did you make the jump to solo editor on "Arma- geddon Time"? Morris: John [Axelrad] is a mentor, and he told James, "He's more than ready to do this." And James was excited — because we were already so close at the time — to do it. He called me one night, and he said, "I'd love for you to do my next picture." I said, "Of course. I'm available." He sent me the script. And I knew about the project. It was shocking to me how much I related with a lot of elements, because I had some similarities in my childhood growing up in New York. Gray: I always like to give people a help- ing hand if they need a job, and he deserves to be editing movies. CineMontage: How do you both work together? Morris: I was there cutting while they were shooting. They'd shoot, and I would screen. I'm religious about screening. It's a very personal experience for me. The way I see it, you experience the film, as an editor, really three times: You experience it the first time only when you read the script; the second time is when you screen the dailies, the only time you'll ever experience that footage in a raw, visceral way, the way an audience member would; and the third time when you watch that first assembly, the first screening of the feature. That's it: you get three opportunities. I take them all very seriously. Gray: To me, the editing process is drilling down on the best possible narrative idea. Sometimes you have to fight the foot- age; sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's about maximizing the footage. But it's not about adhering to your original concepts. That will get you in a pickle. In other words, you have to start thinking that the film starts speaking to you. You can't sit there and say, "This is what I had, this was my original idea, and we're going to try to force this to work." That is folly. It becomes its own thing once you're in the editing room. Morris: I'm a very analytical person. I think most editors are, instinctually. So I try to turn off my brain completely and absorb the material, get it in me, and then when I work, it's my body. It's almost like a dance. My body's working. And then, after I assemble it, then I'll watch it and then my analytical brain turns on and I go, "Oh, okay. Interesting." Because I want my subcon- scious to do the work for me. Gray: It's not about being open. "Open" is the wrong word; "open" is a word used, I think, to describe people who don't have an idea. You have to have an idea. But what you have to be is willing to listen and to respond to things that are bigger than what you thought about. CineMontage: Scott, what was it like working with the young cast? Morris: I knew James would get an incredible performance out of whoever he cast. I just knew he could pull it off, I was never concerned. And then, of course, we get the footage back and immediately it's incredible. The kids are just phenomenal. It was never an issue of having to tailor a performance or create a performance or cut around a performance, ever. Banks and Jaylin were just rock-solid. Throughout the editing, one of our mot- tos was: "How do we get more into the lead Director of photography Darius Khondji and director James Gray shooting "Armageddon Time." P H OT O : F O C U S F E AT U R E S