FAST FIVE Oscar Watch: Film Editing
Ladies and gentlemen, what I am about to say may cause some of you to scoff. I understand this and am prepared for it. But once your giggles have passed I ask that you pay attention to what I say and give it some serious consideration. Because I believe this to be true:
The Fast Five editing team of Kelly Matsumoto, Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner deserve serious consideration for the Best Film Editing Academy Award. And here's why.
While the editing process is obviously of vital importance to films of all genres the skills of an editor take on a special significance in the world of an action film. Like no other type of film the action film relies on dominantly visual storytelling - on the clear presentation of images to the audience - for it to maintain any sort of impact. Other films can make their key points by telling you things but not action. No, action is all about stringing together a complex collection of visuals to make the audience feel as though they are experiencing things directly, experiencing them first hand. When you break down an action sequence into its various components you are often looking at scores of individual shots, all of which need to lock together so tightly that they feel like one continuous piece of motion. Fail at that and your movie is no movie at all.
Editing action is tough enough if you're dealing with a simple plotline with a small core of characters to track but the job is made even more difficult when dealing with a large ensemble cast, a large number of characters who all need to slot into their proper places. Fast Five has - stop laughing, it's true - a surprisingly complex plot that rolls a large cast - eleven characters considered significant enough to include on the poster - through multiple twists and action sequences spanning multiple environments and styles. There's a lot of stuff in this movie, to put it mildly, and without a strong editing team stuff is all it would ever be.
Action movies get a bad shake among the critical and awards community. Construct a film designed to play on the emotions and you're sure to gain awards consideration but construct a film to play on adrenaline and you're shunted aside, which seems odd because to be effective at either requires an equal amount of care and pure talent. And Fast Five is a fabulously well constructed film. And that it's about guys in cars instead of being about Michael Fassbender's penis should not be held against it when considering whether it is well made or not.
Until the day comes that the Academy does what it should have done long ago and includes awards for stunt performers the Best Film Editing award is the best shot for an action film to receive some credit for a job well done. And the job was well done here.
[Support the Fast Five Oscar Watch: Tweet the hashtag #ConsiderFast5]
The Fast Five editing team of Kelly Matsumoto, Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner deserve serious consideration for the Best Film Editing Academy Award. And here's why.
While the editing process is obviously of vital importance to films of all genres the skills of an editor take on a special significance in the world of an action film. Like no other type of film the action film relies on dominantly visual storytelling - on the clear presentation of images to the audience - for it to maintain any sort of impact. Other films can make their key points by telling you things but not action. No, action is all about stringing together a complex collection of visuals to make the audience feel as though they are experiencing things directly, experiencing them first hand. When you break down an action sequence into its various components you are often looking at scores of individual shots, all of which need to lock together so tightly that they feel like one continuous piece of motion. Fail at that and your movie is no movie at all.
Editing action is tough enough if you're dealing with a simple plotline with a small core of characters to track but the job is made even more difficult when dealing with a large ensemble cast, a large number of characters who all need to slot into their proper places. Fast Five has - stop laughing, it's true - a surprisingly complex plot that rolls a large cast - eleven characters considered significant enough to include on the poster - through multiple twists and action sequences spanning multiple environments and styles. There's a lot of stuff in this movie, to put it mildly, and without a strong editing team stuff is all it would ever be.
Action movies get a bad shake among the critical and awards community. Construct a film designed to play on the emotions and you're sure to gain awards consideration but construct a film to play on adrenaline and you're shunted aside, which seems odd because to be effective at either requires an equal amount of care and pure talent. And Fast Five is a fabulously well constructed film. And that it's about guys in cars instead of being about Michael Fassbender's penis should not be held against it when considering whether it is well made or not.
Until the day comes that the Academy does what it should have done long ago and includes awards for stunt performers the Best Film Editing award is the best shot for an action film to receive some credit for a job well done. And the job was well done here.
[Support the Fast Five Oscar Watch: Tweet the hashtag #ConsiderFast5]
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