Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
35 Q1 2018 / CINEMONTAGE on the Avid editing a recent interview, smoothing it out without cutting any of the interviewee's stories. For a year and a half, he has volunteered to edit the interviews and has been interviewed for the Legacy Collection himself — "It's my Academy Award," he smiles. The same day, Holley shot two separate interviews in the seminar room — one with post producer/picture editor Marty Cohen, another with retired assistant editor Ron Krehel — with camerawoman Micah Manott. Welcoming the interviewees and taking notes was USC associate professor of Editing Reine-Claire Dousarkissian. Prior to teaching, she was an assistant editor and enjoys helping with the archive when she can. "These interviews are key to the survival of the art of editing," she offers. "What Sharon has done is absolutely essential to our field." Between classes and during summers, Dousarkissian has edited Legacy interviews and, three years ago, organized all the interviews completed so far onto fewer hard drives and set up a database for easy access. Last year, she got a fuller idea of the work the interviews required when she scheduled six shoots on her own. A visual effects editor and assistant editor, Holley has been a Guild member since 1990 and a Board member since 1997. "I wanted to be on the Board because I wanted to do educational things for our members," Holley says. Soon after joining the Board, she developed two educational programs specifically for assistant editors: 36 "Assistant-to-Assistant" seminars and 35 informal "Fireside Chats." For the chats, editors screened clips from their films to discuss their working methods and their relationships with directors and producers. These gatherings gave Holley more contact with members who would later be interviewed for the Legacy Collection and helped her work out the best questioning approaches for the interviews. Furthering her interest in members' personal stories, in 2005 Holley produced a four-week series of panels about the art of editing called "Cut to the Chase" with Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences director of Educational Programs and Special Projects Randy Haberkamp. For each week of the series, she wanted to display a different lobby exhibit of equipment and photos depicting the craft of editing from vintage to digital. She discovered, however, that the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library did not yet have a sufficient number of photographs showing post-production professionals working behind the scenes. Recognizing the need for archival resources, Holley approached the Guild's Board early in 2007 to create a post- production history project — encompassing a physical archive of the tools of the craft, a photo archive for images of members at work, and the Legacy Collection for visual oral histories of members telling the stories of their careers. The night she introduced this proposal, the Board voted to establish the Archive and History Committee and Holley was appointed as chair. In August 2007, with an eye to recording the oldest retired members to capture their memories of earlier industry history, she videotaped the first Legacy oral history — with then-97-year-old Guild charter member Mary Steward, a longtime assistant editor at 20th Century-Fox with experience working on major films directed by John Ford and Henry King. Steward was interviewed by Board and committee member and assistant editor Jeff Burman. Including the earliest interviews, Holley has now produced about 170 oral histories, serving as interviewer for some of them (including one of her mentors, former Guild President Donn Cambern, ACE). During the first three years, 45 interviews were shot on mini-DV; afterwards they were all shot digitally. The first 45 interviews were transferred to hard drives and the original tapes moved to the Academy vaults in 2014. At least two cameras have been recording every shoot. Varying in length, the interviews average about 90 minutes each. "The goal has always been to hear the members' stories with the interviewer off-camera, except when someone close to the subject was the interviewer," Holley notes. Examples of these close relationships include sound editor Sam Crutcher interviewing his father, sound editor Norval Crutcher, as well as sound editor James Nelson (both of whom have passed), and picture editor Virginia Katz, ACE, interviewing her father, Sidney Katz, ACE, before he died. The setup changed to interviewers off-camera in 2014, when director Edgar Pablos came in with cinematographer Kak Lee to record about 70 interviews, and Lee has continued to shoot for the Legacy Collection since. Throughout 10 years of interviewing, Holley has managed to recruit volunteers from friends and family, including her niece, Madison Harding, who put in a few months-long stints at organizing and scheduling. Others, like Dousarkissian, Kleinman and picture editor Randy Vandegrift, see the value of the work and learn from it also. For a few years, Guild member John Acosta, who left the industry to teach editing at Kingsborough Community College in New York, had his students cut some interviews as class projects. Working on interview transcripts and as "hospitality" at members to capture their memories of earlier industry history, she videotaped the first Legacy oral history — with then-97-year-old Guild charter member Mary Steward, a longtime assistant editor at 20th Century-Fox with experience working on major films directed by John Ford and Henry King. Steward was interviewed by Board and committee member and assistant editor Jeff Burman. Holley has now produced about 170 oral histories, serving as interviewer for some of them (including one of her mentors, former Guild President Donn Cambern, ACE). During the first three years, 45 interviews were shot on mini-DV; afterwards they were all shot digitally. The first 45 interviews were transferred to hard drives and the original tapes moved to the Academy vaults in 2014. At least two cameras have been recording every shoot. Varying in length, the interviews average about 90 minutes each.