A Conversation With Sheldon Kahn
by Karen Rasch
At the age of seven, Sheldon Kahn knew he wanted to work in film behind the scenes. With determination, persistence, and the skills in magic he started learning at twelve, he amassed an impressive list of credits and is now working as editor and producer for Ivan Reitman. A partial filmography includes Same Time, Next Year; The Electric Horseman; Private Benjamin; Absence of Malice; Ghostbusters I and II; Out of Africa; La Bamba; Twins; Kindergarten Cop; Beethoven; Dave; Junior; Space Jam; Fathers Day and Six Days, Seven Nights.
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On July 30th, Sheldon Kahn provided a magical mix of gracious humor and practical advice to a full house of assistant editors at Electric Picture Solutions. He explained how he began his career when his family moved to California, by sneaking into CBS Television City after school to watch rehearsals. After graduating from USC, he got his first union job in film shipping at, oddly enough, CBS Television City. When an opportunity arose at KNXT to develop 16mm news film in a job that might lead to editing TV news, young Sheldon applied for the position. Not knowing the equipment, he got a 75-cent pamphlet on still photography from Kodak and begged the man he replaced to teach him how to operate the machine. Three months later, he was cutting news. Five years later, he started assisting Donn Cambern, who wanted to use a new machine called the KEM.
Partly because of his expertise on the KEM, Sheldon was offered his first full editing jobs, Mikey and Nicky with Elaine May, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Milos Forman. He stressed the importance of embracing new technology as a way of getting one's foot in the door and describes himself as "an Avid fan."
Film is Liquid
Just because footage was shot a certain way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. During their 18 months on Mikey and Nicky, Shelly and co-editor John Carter cut many scenes 20 or 30 times, sometimes trying picture-only cuts and sometimes sound-only cuts. He learned how to put completely different dialogue in actors' mouths by watching their body language. He also explained that he chooses cuts based on performance, not matching action, and uses his magician's skills to divert the viewer's eye to a different place in the frame so the material appears seamless. For a scene in Dave, he used movement to distract the audience so no one would notice the actor's glasses jumping on and off.
Shelly showed script cuts, followed by recuts, of scenes from La Bamba and Six Days, Seven Nights to illustrate just how fluid film can be. He transformed La Bamba's opening by completely restructuring it based on an idea he got from watching An Officer and a Gentleman. Using desaturated slow motion footage of kids playing basketball to relax the audience, he then woke them with the loud crash of Richie Valens' plane. By splitting Richie's dream into three parts, Shelly was able to use Richie's waking up the second morning as if it were the first morning. In the recut of a sequence from Six Days, Seven Nights, the marauding pirates were completely eliminated.
When he cut the TV movie Circle of Children, he stole a reaction from a character to replace a large section of bad dialogue. His love of classic old movies, especially silent films, provides him with a wealth of material for editing and the practical jokes he likes to play.
View the Film as if You Were the Audience
Shelly tries to hold onto the spontaneity of seeing everything for the first time, no matter how many times he views the material. During the script cut (a term he prefers over "rough cut" or "editor's cut"), he gets familiar with the material and sometimes tries a couple of different versions of scenes before showing them to the director. He often invites strangers in so he can sit next to them and "read their energy" as they watch scenes, to see how the film flows for a first-time viewer.
The Work is 50% Editing, 50% Psychology
Understanding the psychology of working with people is an important skill for editors. Although everyone works hard in his cutting room, Shelly likes to keep the tension to a minimum. He stresses the importance of being able to talk to producers and directors, expressing one's own taste, answering the director's questions honestly, and using humor. He strongly recommends being the director's editor; in fact, he believes the only person with ego in the cutting room should be the director. Shelly plants an idea, lets the director make it his own suggestion, then simply says, "Let's try it." He feels that after the editor and the director have each put forth an idea, what the third idea- the collaboration - opens up is often the best solution.
After the seminar, Shelly stayed to chat with people and expressed his concern about how the next generation of editors will learn their craft. He noted the lack of apprentices in cutting rooms and the few chances assistants have to watch editors work. This is an important issue, not just for assistant editors, but for all of us who care about maintaining the tradition and enhancing our profession as we move into the next millenium.
Karen Rasch is an assistant editor on the Guild's Board of Directors.
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 19, No. 5 - September/October 1998
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