Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521956
37 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E F E A T U R E ground once he met Michael Kahn, who has edited all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1977 (except "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"). "Michael became a mentor and taught me everything about editing. It was the best graduate school – he taught me the theory, methodology, politics, how to handle myself with executives, and how to take criticism, which was an incredibly important lesson," he said. He would work as Kahn's first assistant for four years before gaining his first main title credit, on Frank Marshall's Andes plane crash survival drama, "Alive" (1993). "Michael shared a main title credit with me, which was incredibly generous. He gave my career a tremendous boost — I owe him so much. After that, I went off and started cutting on my own." Goldenberg's C.V. covers a long list of projects, ranging from big-budget actioners like "6 Underground" (2019) and Michael Bay 's "Transformers" f ilms to quieter dramas like "Unbroken" (2014) and "Sea- biscuit" (2003). The Bay f ilms tend to be heavier on visual effects, so "it keeps me abreast of the most current visual effects technology. Whether it's cameras or the way Michael shoots, he gets such extraordinary footage that it requires a different style of editing. With how quickly visual effects technology changes, if you don't do one for three years, the whole world is different." Not limiting himself to certain genres also allows him to bring new techniques to other projects. "Af- ter I did 'Gone Baby Gone' with Ben, I used some of those techniques on 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon.' Stretching myself sty- listically makes me a better editor, so I try to do as many different genres as possible." All of this would ultimately lead Affleck to Goldenberg when the former was looking for someone to replace the original editor on "Gone Baby Gone" (2007). A fan of the Michael Mann films that Goldenberg had worked on – "Heat" (1995) and "The Insid- er" (1999) – Affleck reached out to him. "I didn't use the old cut," said Goldenberg. "I just started over again and recut the whole movie from scratch. It came out really great and we just loved working together," he said of his first collaboration with Affleck. Having cut four of Affleck's five features now, he is very impressed with the direc- tor's keen sense of what editorial requires. "Ben knows a lot about editing. Like any good director, he's shooting for the editing room. He knows the final rewrite of the movie is done in the editing room. So he is very good about shooting the pieces that I need to tell the story in the best THE GREATEST: Working on "Ali," with Michael Mann, left, Muhammad Ali, Goldenberg and Steve Rivkin. Goldenberg started as an apprentice on "The Breakfast Club" (with Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald). P H O T O C O U R T E S Y W I L L I A M G O L D E N B E R G P H O T O : P H O T O F E S T