Manhattan Edit Workshop's Blog

Anna Gunn in Equity In Equity , the new woman-centric Wall Street potboiler from director Meera Menon and production company Broad Street, shot after shot and cut after cut line up to reinforce a feeling of suffocating isolation. This is by design, according to editor Andrew Hafitz. The film, which follows investment banker Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn) through a scandal-plagued tech IPO, is shot and cut with a cold, nearly clinical eye. From the first frames, the entire film seems intent on distancing the audience -- when we sneak up on Naomi for the first time, her back is turned; her defenses are down even as she steels herself for the gauntlet of the workday. The rest of the film follows this pattern: characters are observed coolly, and often overhead, even at their most vulnerable. Some credit here goes to Hafitz, whose editing is a major part of what makes the film tick. “Meera’s a great collaborator, and I loved working with her,” he says. He describes the post-production pr...

Miguel Esteban Rebagliato MEWShop alumni are always popping up in new and exciting places. Case in point: Miguel Esteban Rebagliato, who completed the Six Week Intensive at MEWShop in 2012, recently worked as an assistant editor on the Emmy-nominated miniseries The Night Manager . He recently wrapped a job on the upcoming Angelina Jolie film First They Killed My Father , and is currently working as an AE on the BBC adaption of Zadie Smith’s N.W. We recently caught up with Miguel to talk about his work, his editing philosophy, and how his experiences at Manhattan Edit Workshop have shaped his career. 1. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Valencia, Spain. I lived there until three years ago, when I finished an undergraduate degree in media and journalism and moved to the UK. I currently live in London. 2. What kind of film education did you receive? My parents used to take me to the cinema often, sometimes to films I wouldn't normally choose to watch myself. But I didn...

The cast of Captain Fantastic In Captain Fantastic , Viggo Mortensen plays a survivalist father raising a brood of six kids off the grid in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, whose life is thrown into disarray after his wife commits suicide. The film, written and directed by veteran character actor Matt Ross ( Silicon Valley, Big Love ) earned major praise at Sundance and Cannes, and for good reason: it's by turns intense, funny, and genuinely moving. I recently caught up with editor Joseph Krings to talk about his career and the process of cutting the film. Tell me a little about your schedule for cutting “Captain Fantastic.” How long did it take? What did you cut on? Give me the nuts and bolts of it. The editing schedule for this film was actually somewhat long and luxurious for a film of this size. Matt Ross and I have worked together before on 28 Hotel Rooms and we knew from our previous effort that Matt is most comfortable having ample time to make major decisi...

Photo by Claire Marie Vogel Manhattan Edit Workshop congratulates Eileen Meyer, winner of the 2016 Karen Schmeer Fellowship! Eileen completed the MEWShop Six-Week Workshop in the fall of 2011. We caught up with her to chat about her achievements since, including a Cinema Eye Honors "Outstanding Achievement in Editing" nomination for her latest film, Best of Enemies , a 2015 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize nominee. 1. Where did you grow up? Durham, North Carolina.   2. What kind of film education did you receive? My first job at 15 was at a local, independent video store that was walking distance from my house.  The store catered more towards the new indy films that were coming out in the late 90s, so that was my first experience with films that inspired me to be a filmmaker, especially all of the Sundance films of that era.  Later in high school I worked nights and weekends at an arthouse movie theater in Chapel Hill, NC and got my second dose of insp...