What do you call an energetic gathering of some of the top editors from past and present, East coast and West coast, who finish their day and a half convocation with a mind numbing look at the complexities of editing Cameron’s singular Avatar?
EditFest New York.
My article on the now annual event–this was its second year at the DGA on 57th–is posted on the Editors Guild website. I think it captures some of the more important information attendees received as they hung on the words of such noteworthy types as Alan Heim (Network, All That Jazz), Thelma Schoonmaker (Goodfellas, Raging Bull), and yes, the editors of Avatar–John Refoua, Steven Rivkin.
In an interesting twist, James Cameron was not only the third member of their editing team, but both editors spent much of their nearly three years on the job on the set, a very strange place for most cutters to find themselves indeed.