You were also present at the shooting of Run to Gounds, as a scriptwriter. Is it useful when an editor also participates in the shooting process?
Some directors believe it is not, because it means that the editor will not have a fresh enough eye. They are probably right about that but if you look at both sides of the scale, what the editor?s presence adds and what it takes away, then we may profit much more from me being there. We spent 42 days shooting Run to Grounds in Miskolc, with me, watching as a scriptwriter, then making sure that everything was alright later during the editing process. I don?t know if you remember the winter before last when it was 15 degrees below freezing a lot of the time. Well, we happened to be shooting the film exactly at that time, in snow and ice. It was very difficult to work like that but we had an excellent crew. Everybody did their best for the success of the film.
Run to Ground has a very complex structure. Compared to the original script, did you make changes during the editing phase?
Initially there were just some minor changes but it later got more substantial. The most radical changes were needed at the end of the film, in order to merge the three storylines that had been kept separate at the beginning. We combined them at the editing table, but the idea had already come up during the shoot. It was very exciting to edit that part because it allowed us to play around, like someone pushing down the door handle in one image and another character stepping in the door, or showing someone looking around, but then showing the perspective of another character. I love playing with the filmgoers.
Are you satisfied with the shorter edited version of Run to Ground that was screened at the Film Week?
We were already satisfied with the 110-minute version, and then there was a test screening and we got some feedback so we were ready to make a final edit. Then we had a new idea with Zsombor. In the very last minute, we swapped, threw away and cut short some scenes. It is not an easy task to take away 10 minutes from a film that has already gone through the final edit. But it was worth staying up all night because everyone preferred the new version. Of course you can always chisel a film further. For instance if I was to watch my first work again, I?m sure I could cut from it.
What was your first film?
Márton Nyitrai?s short film entitled Tram. We edited it on a 16mm table and I had not been trained on that at all. But I did learn it in the end because I really wanted to do it. Eventually I trained myself in all of the skills of the profession.
Did you always want to be an editor?
I had mass communications specialisation at secondary school and we would create our etudes there which had to be cut, and I did not have the patience for that. I was only 16 then but I already heard a voice telling me that I would quite enjoy being an editor. Before that, I had been preparing to become a programmer mathematician. I think there are a great many things common in mathematics and film editing because logic play an important role in both. It is not easy to see the rhythm, story and character development as a whole for 90-100 minutes. Of course there are things you cannot achieve purely by following logic, but your hands start moving and something comes out of it.
Do the editor?s tasks include creativity and controlling the director?
This is our greatest task. In the head of the director the film has been running for some time and he or she often projects some feelings and motifs on it that do not actually appear in reality. But sometimes the opposite can happen: they go overboard telling the story to make sure that the viewer understands everything.
What makes good editing?
If the viewer watches a film till the end and develops a feeling for it or even after the final credits roll, gives it some thinking, then the film has worked and the editor has done a good job.
Could you mention some films as examples?
The most recent such film I saw was Black Swan. It is very difficult to create such an atmosphere when you watch throughout the film as if you were inside the head of the main protagonist dancer and forget about your subjective images. I managed to identify with her right from the start.
Why do you think you have been awarded the Golden Scissors for the third time?
When I found out that I was not accepted at the university?s editing department, I was devastated. But just then I met Zsombor Dyga and started editing Bro. Ever since, life has brought me together with very different directors. I work together with Csaba Bollók, who is for instance a very different type of person than Péter Mészáros, who is also very different from Károly Mészáros Ujj, so obviously they make very different type of movies. I have had the opportunity to test myself in very different type of films and each of them gave me a chance to demonstrate what one can achieve through editing. I think my success has been the result of good luck.
What are you working on now?
I am lucky with that, too. I am now working on an HBO series and I have recently finished a very interesting project with György Pálfi: we used 500 existing films to create a new one. This is very exciting from the editing point of view. I?m glad Gyuri has found me this work because it is a great experience and one can learn from a lot from it. I sometimes play around with my students at MOME with such tasks: they edit a half-minute scene using snippets from 150 different movies. The task is to forget that the characters or the background are changing and only concentrate on the emotions and the movement. We jump from America to Paris, we run down the stairs in Budapest and then enter a building in Berlin, but that does not bother anyone. These sequences are linked together by the rhythm. We editors work like magicians: we cheat. But it works.
Interviewer: Bori Nagy / Photo: Bence Kovács
