#469 – More Editing Advice from William Goldenberg, ACE
It's always nice when you get to meet one of your heroes and they turn out to be pretty darn lovely.
Recently, I had the genuine pleasure of chatting with masterful editor William Goldenberg, ACE, about his latest partnership with director Paul Greengrass, The Lost Bus.
Once I deliver this documentary, I'll finally have time to edit our conversation into a fun little ‘podcast’ episode like this one with Editor Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer).
In lieu of that, and as prologue, in this issue I'll share yet more editing advice gleaned from over a dozen interviews with Billy, including one two-hour panel you can enjoy in full, if you make the wise decision to do so.
Incidentally, I was chatting with him from the Soho-based edit suite where he was cutting day 2 of production on The Rage, Paul Greengrass’s next feature.
Anyway, back in April 2021, when this fair newsletter was only #16 issues old, I shared this fistful of editing wisdom from the supremely talented ‘Billy’ Goldenberg, ACE.
Which tackled, how to face your insecurities:
Every film creates its own set of problems unique to that film. Often, there are sequences in films where you don’t know how to put it together. When I look at all the footage for a scene sometimes, I think, ‘Where do I even start?’
Why he learned everything he knows about editing from Michael Kahn:
Everything I learned as an editor, I learned from Michael Kahn, and his big thing was, "Give me the opportunity to be wrong, let me try things.
Let me make mistakes. Just don't persecute me for it."
You make discoveries along the way, that way.
And what it was like to work on Michael Mann's classic, Heat:
When I was working on Heat, my heart was pounding as I sat there in the editing bay on the first day, so hard I couldn’t even work. I thought I was going to hyperventilate and pass out.
Billy has been nominated for 5 Oscars, winning for Argo in 2013 while also competing against himself* that same year for Zero Dark Thirty.
*Apparently, one of only three editors to ever do so (Walter Murch and Michael Kahn being the other two).
Mr Goldenberg's credits include:
- The Lost Bus
- The Instigators
- Air
- News of the World
- 22 July
- Detroit
- Live by Night
- Unbroken
- The Imitation Game
- Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Zero Dark Thirty
- Argo
- Gone Baby Gone
- Miami Vice
- National Treasure
- Ali
- Coyote Ugly
- The Insider
- Pleasantville
- The Long Kiss Goodnight
- Heat
- Alive