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POST’S OSCAR PICKS EDITING Several films look likely to get nominated, including The Social Network, which features the story of how Facebook was born, inter- cut with a pair of deposition hearings, thanks to deft work from editors Kirk Baxter (Ben- jamin Button) and Angus Wall (Benjamin But- ton, Zodiac, Panic Room). They report that the greatest challenge of editing it “was to live up to the script and to maximize the great performances we were working with,” says Wall. “There was a tremendous amount of material and we had to be very diligent in making sure we used every nuanced performance pos- sible.The movie is fairly breathless and so was the process of putting it together.We worked out of David Fincher’s offices in Hollywood and used Apple Final Cut Pro to edit the film.” Harry Potter vet Mark Day (he cut Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince) may be in the running for his work on the The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the first of the two- part franchise finale (he’s currently also cut- ting Part 2, which arrives next year). Inception, with its many layers of dream states coupled with visceral action se- quences, presented Nolan and editor Lee Smith, who previously collaborated with him on the Batman films and The Prestige, with “a big challenge.” Nolan reports that the team cut the film on Avid on the lot at Warners. The super-tense — and intense — drama 127 Hours may emulate last year’s tense winner, The Hurt Locker, thanks to its unblink- ing focus, courtesy of Boyle and editor Jon Harris, whose credits include Kick-Ass,The Descent franchise and Layer Cake. 127 Hours co-producer Christian Colson Skywalker’s Gary Rizzo could be looking at a Sound Mixing Oscar for his work on Inception. reports that all the editing and post was done at The Hat Factory in London where he, Boyle and Harris are based.“We cut it very quickly,” he says.“We shot in Utah in March and April, moved back to London and cut through the summer in time to pre- miere at Telluride in September. So it was a very fast edit and post schedule.” Tony Scott’s latest adrenaline rush, Un- stoppable, showcases fast-paced editing from Robert Duffy and Chris Lebanzon, both are frequent Scott collaborators.“It seemed like every corner we turned a new set of chal- lenges presented itself,” says Duffy.“The one constant was keeping up with Tony! I don’t think he sleeps. At first it was dealing with the amount of film that would arrive to the cutting room.Tony likes to shoot. Narrowing down your options was the first hurdle.We set up the cutting rooms at Scott Free.We 24 Post • January 2011 The King’s Speechhas created Oscar buzz for director Tom Hooper and star Colin Firth. were on Avids, Mac-based. Half-way through the project we upgraded to Version 5, a seamless transition.” ANIMATION It’s been another very strong year for ani- mated features, both creatively and at the box office, where such animated features as Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me,Tangled and How to Train Your Dragon all easily outperformed competing live-action features. Indeed, with its universally glowing reviews and huge box office — $414 million domestic, and over a billion worldwide mak- ing it the highest-grossing animated film ever — it’s hard to imagine that Toy Story 3 won’t rack up another win for Pixar, following last year’s triumph for Up. Insiders say that the film even deserves a Best Picture nod, which makes sense considering that while it’s been over a decade since Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang last delighted audiences, the franchise continues to dazzle the eyes with its spectacular CG animation while also managing to explore emotional and weighty themes of change and growing up in a film more than worthy of the other two. (See our interview with director Lee Unkrich in the July issue). But although Pixar seems to have a lock on the award, even Oscar voters like occasional change and they may want to loosen the apparent stranglehold that Dis- ney-Pixar has over the category (amazingly, every Pixar film has been nominated since the category was introduced). Toy Story 3 does face competition from some very different animated features, in- cluding Shrek Forever After, the fourth and www.postmagazine.com final chapter in a classic series from Dream- Works Animation, which also joined the 3D craze. Released back in May, the epic fairy tale returned to its green roots with a reboot that had Shrek (Mike Myers) yearn- ing to take a break from marriage and fa- therhood so he could revisit the good old days of being a truly scary bachelor ogre. The result? Another $240 million domestic take, and over $460 million internationally in the kitty. Back in April, DreamWorks Ani- mation also released How to Train Your Dragon, a clever tale about a Viking teen who befriends a dragon that referenced classic precursors Old Yeller and King Kong with Harry Potter overtones. Mixing a visu- ally beautiful palette with kinetic action that takes full advantage of its 3D digital format, the film also has a great message — igno- rance breeds fear and vice versa — that helped make this a global hit (close to $300 million overseas) and a strong con- tender for an Oscar nomination. Very different in tone is Despicable Me from Universal, which has watched from the sidelines while the likes of Pixar (bought by Disney for a staggering $7.4 billion), Fox (whose last Ice Age sequel grossed $885 million) and DreamWorks Animation have hogged the limelight over the past few years.The film is an inspired international collaboration with ingredients that include Ice Age producer Chris Melendandri (hired away from Fox), French directors Chris Re- naud and Pierre Coffin, and animation by the French visual effects house Mac Guff Ligne.The result is a rich goulash that tips its hat to the Bela Lugosi classics, thanks to