interview and copy written for Sohonet
article here
Dana E. Glauberman,
ACE is one of the most successful editors working in the business today. She
has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with director Jason Reitman on seven
feature films, including Juno, Up in the Air and Ghostbusters:
Afterlife. Throughout her career she has refused to be pigeonholed into a
particular genre having cut everything from comedy to drama to satire and
sci-fi.
After graduating
college with a degree in film, Dana honed her skills working as an assistant
editor on TV series including Northern Exposure and Dr.Quinn,
Medicine Woman, and feature films such as The Birdcage and Pirates
of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, to name just a
few. Thank You for Smoking put her on the map and launched her career
as a solo editor, however she is one of three on Creed II, and an
additional editor on both Mark Waters’ Mean Girls, and Todd
Phillips’ War Dogs.
Her work on The
Mandalorian landed her a fifth ACE Eddie nomination, along with a
Primetime Emmy nomination, and led to further shows in the Star Wars universe
including The Book of Boba Fett and the recent Ahsoka,
for which she earned a sixth ACE Eddie nomination for “Part 4, Fallen Jedi”.
We are delighted
that Dana shares time with us to talk about how she works, her fears for the
future of AI and advice for editors wanting to follow in her path.
You’ve had a great
career – can you tell us what inspired your journey to being an editor?
As a kid I loved
doing jigsaw puzzles. I would lay all the pieces out on our dining room table
and get lost putting them together. As a teenager, I found photography which
led indirectly to pursuing a degree in Film Studies at UC Santa Barbara. In the
one film production class that I took, we would do everything from write and
cast, to direct and produce Super8mm movies, but what I loved the most was
editing. It really just reminded me of my childhood with putting a jigsaw
puzzle together. Because of that, I followed my heart so after graduating, I
cold called a bunch of different production companies, finally landing work as
a Production Assistant at Hearst Entertainment in Los Angeles. During many
months there running errands all over town, I met many people who helped me
along the way to become an assistant editor. I feel so lucky to have met and
been mentored by the late great Arthur Schmidt, ACE on several films, as well
as Sheldon Kahn, ACE and Wendy Greene Bricmont, ACE for whom I assisted on many
Ivan Reitman movies.
Through my
experience on the Ivan Reitman projects, I met Jason Reitman, who hired me to
edit his directorial debut Thank You for Smoking (2005) which
he also adapted as a screenplay. That was the film that launched my editing
career and landed me an agent.
Were you at all
daunted or challenged by an industry which was and arguably remains male
dominated?
As a teenager, a
friend of the family warned me that cinematography was a more male dominated
part of the industry, and it did scare me a bit going that route. When I got
into the business, there were plenty of both male and female editors but it did
seem that there were some stereotypes, such as a man was more likely to be
hired for action movies or huge budgeted shows. Thankfully that has changed, as
there have been positive strides over the years toward greater diversity and
inclusion in all the guilds.
I think there is a
genuine understanding that everyone is hired to tell a story whether it’s
action, comedy, drama, musical, etc. Filmmaking in general is a collaborative
art. But a key to being an editor is to enjoy spending many hours a day in a
room with someone. You have to like, trust, and respect the people you are
collaborating with, as you are often spending more time with these people than
your own family.
You mentioned
jigsaws but of course there is only one way to put that puzzle together and
there could be hundreds of ways to cut a movie or TV show. What is your process
at arriving at the final picture?
There is no right
or wrong way to cut a scene, or an entire show or movie for that matter. But
the process is ultimately a collaborative one where we are trying to bring the
director’s vision to the screen. My process is to look at every frame of
footage of every single take. Back in the days of shooting on film, only
selected - or circled - takes were given to editorial because of the cost of
printing. But with shooting digitally, we usually get every take that was shot.
You can call me old school but I try and look at it all. Where some might focus
on the last couple of takes to use, there are often beautiful nuances within a
performance that you can find and use from take 3, for example, that you don’t
necessarily have in take 7. It could be a reaction, a twitch or sparkle in the
eye, a smirk, or even a line that was delivered a little differently. So, I
assemble the scene or the movie in the best way I see fitting the story.
But the most
enjoyable part of the process for me is to sit with and collaborate with the
director, as that is our time to get as close as we can to his or her
vision. And the
most satisfying part is seeing the final product and releasing it for the world
to see, whether on the big screen for a feature film, or the smaller screen
with an episodic show.
Do you think
working remotely has an impact on the creative process? (For better or worse)
I personally prefer
going to an edit room for a number of reasons. First, I appreciate the
separation of work from home. And second, the pandemic was very isolating for
so many and I just like being around people. I want to be able to call my
assistant into the room and get feedback face to face. It is much harder to
read the room when you are streaming the session.
That said, I am in
favor of a hybrid work pattern. There are definite advantages to working from
home in terms of work/life balance. Assembly is generally a solo process and
could be done remotely. But when you want to show somebody a cut, I find the
experience more real when doing so in person, rather than when staring at
somebody on a computer. I also like the buffer of the commute, driving home in
particular, during which time I can decompress from the day. Working from home
has never given me a true feeling of separation when my home office is under
the same roof as where I live.
How do you feel
about the role that Generative-AI might AI fit into your work or that of your
peers going forward?
AI scares me on a
number of levels, namely the threat of taking jobs away from people. As far as
the editorial process is concerned I do not see how AI can help. I’ve had many
conversations with people who say that AI could help speed up the assembly process
- which might be true for some. But even so, I am not sure how a computer can
beat a human’s sensibilities and the skill of an editor in choosing the right
performances, the right beats, and the pace of the storytelling. Even if AI
could be prompted to spit out a dozen different versions of a scene in seconds,
I feel that it would take way more time to review those versions and to fix
things, than it would for me to watch every take and use my own judgment.
Creative talent and
diligence are at the heart of a successful career in editing. Do you have any
advice for those who aspire to a career in editing?
Be honest, be
truthful, be patient, be a collaborator. Show interest in what you want to do
and don’t be scared to take ‘no’ for an answer. There is a lot of rejection in
this industry and you must be strong enough to understand, and to deal with
that.
You can follow your
favorite editors on social media and reach out to them. Our work often goes
unnoticed, and in many ways, that’s how it’s supposed to be. But don’t hesitate
to reach out to your favorite editor - whether through social media or through
their agent - and tell them what you aspire to do, and what you enjoy about
their work. It will be very much appreciated, and you might just hear back.
I also believe in
the importance of starting at an entry level position and working your way up
the ladder. Many think that by having editing tools on their laptops, and being
able to edit short videos for various social media platforms makes them an editor.
But there is a lot more to editing than cutting pieces of video together. Being
an editorial/post production PA in a live edit room is an important route to
getting where you want to be because you can learn so much. I’ve been in this
business for many, many years and I still learn new things on every project
that I work on.
I have had a few
people start as Production Assistants in my edit room and move up the ladder to
assistant editor and now have successful careers as editors as well as visual
effects editors. Some of those names include Harry Yoon, ACE, Maria Gonzales, Omar
Hassan-Reep, and Erika Robbins, just to name a few. They all went above and
beyond while working for me, and proved that they deserved the promotions. And
in turn, deserve much continued success in their careers.
Good luck to
everyone!
