It’s not often that an Oscar award-winner responds to an interview request from a student publication, but AlumNouse recently had the opportunity to interview Oscar award-winning Film Editor Joe Walker. Joe has edited many films, from 12 Years A Slave to Arrival, and most recently Dune Part One and Dune Part Two.
Our interview took place over Zoom, with Joe speaking to me from his cutting room in Hollywood, Los Angeles where he’s been based for the last 12 years. He held his computer up to show me around the cutting room, featuring the sofa film director Denis Villeneuve frequents!
Joe and I spoke about a few topics, including Dune Part Two, how he entered the film industry and his time at York which he described as particularly formative.
Joe: “I’m always happy to talk about York because it really formed me, the people I met there, I’m still talking to. It had a profound effect on me, it always felt like home.”
This is certainly something our current student body can relate to, and it's nice to hear that York pride is so strong for Joe even after relocating to Hollywood. Joe described his Music degree, which he studied at York during the 80s, as “a gateway drug” to the world of film-cutting. But even still, while at York, Joe was “ambivalent whether to go down the film path or the music path”, as his grandfather had been a conductor, and music was a major part of his upbringing. Ultimately, the introduction into the film industry by a family friend and successful film editor made Joe realise that there was a living to be made doing something he loved.
Joe had been excited about the York Music Department since applying to university, and his dedication and enthusiasm for his degree and the department certainly shone through during our conversation. Joe explained to me that he practically “lived in practice rooms”, and that his flatmates were always shocked to see him on his bike at 8am, arriving on campus for a 12-15 hour work day.
Joe: “There was so much opportunity, I was just trying to grab everything while I was there.”
So, while he was not so involved in college life, he certainly made up for that with his dedication to his department. Our conversation then turned to how his music degree has shaped his career as a film editor.
Joe: “I still can’t see a difference between people getting together in a small ensemble, and having a passionate commitment to doing something novel in film.”
Joe continued this musical analogy, describing the role of an editor as “closest to being the drummer trying to keep the rhythm, to use time as a way of combining all elements: marrying narrative and rhythm, not just the lead singer at the mic like Timothée Chalamet.”
As an editor, Joe’s role is to “respond to the material that’s been shot on-set,” normally starting the day after they begin shooting. This material comes from numerous departments: camera, sound, art department and visual effects to name a few. Ultimately to ensure that, particularly in the case of Dune Part Two, “even though it's a long film, you’re left wanting more.”
But before working as a Hollywood film editor, Joe worked in music for ten years.
Joe: “I thought I was going to stay with music, but then a really good job offer came in”
This was the opportunity to cut Eroica (2003), which Joe described as a “combination of a filmed performance of Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, and conversations concerning the politics of the time”. Not only did Joe describe this as “something I was really well-placed to do”, but that it was “such a good way of getting back into the industry. Because I read music, and knew the piece.”
Intrigued to know more about Joe’s life as a Hollywood film editor, I then asked Joe some rapid fire questions.
Grace: “What’s a favourite film, or childhood film, that you’ve really connected to and stuck with?”
Joe: “That’s really tough; that’s a killer question, Grace. I think one of my favourite films is one of Denis Villeneuve’s films, but one before my time with him. He made a film called Incendies. I’d seen a screening of that in 2010, and I remember that everyone who came out of the cinema was shell-shocked. And it felt to me the sort of perfect marriage between brilliant filmmaking technique, craft and art, and a story that broke your heart and was deeply effective. I’m very jealous that I didn’t get to work on that one!” … “When I was a kid I was into the things everybody was into. You know, the beginning of blockbusters happened in my teenage years: Jaws, Star Wars; but I wasn’t wild about them. I was more into the much more quirky things, Monty Python, horror and animation. I was glued to the television as a kid, unfortunately. I spent most of my time watching the first series of Star Trek.”
Grace: “What is it that persuades you to work on a project … the producer, the concept, the genre?”
Joe: “It’s a kind of magic formula between an exciting script and an exciting director. … I read scripts all the time, and the script doesn’t read that well, but it’s an exciting director. Are they going to be able to pull it off? But it’s worth saying that the script isn’t the film. You have to go through the filming and editing process to really discover what a film will be.”
Joe: “I find it quite hard to read scripts. I spend so much time imbuing them with mental images as I go. You know, if I was in my comfort zone I’d be reading a documentary book, something that doesn’t require my imagination”
He described this as a hugely creative process, seeing the script unfold into a movie inside his head.
Joe: “It’ll take me two sittings, and five or six hours for something that’s meant to be on screen for only two hours”
Joe also explained the feeling of “discovery in the editing process” making sure people understand and follow the narrative and characters. So while the script is often “a great place to start”, there’s often “upheaval in the cutting room where you try things out differently than how they intended it years before”. Joe explained that he was lucky that Denis Villeneuve, Dune’s director, also co-wrote the movies making him feel even better equipped to master the aims of the director in the cut.
Grace: “You’ve worked on a fair few genres, do you have any genres you’d like to work on in the future?”
Despite being “proud to be” so involved in the sci-fi genre, Joe said that “I’m always surprised I don’t get that many offers of musicals”, surely a “fantastic way to combine the skills I’ve got”. But, he’s ultimately “very happy continuing in the ‘pigeonhole’ [he’s] in”.
Joe: “If I was hankering after any other genre, it would probably be a musical.”
My final question for Joe was whether he’d ever had an actor be annoyed that he’d cut out their favourite scene, and while I was hoping for an anecdote about an A-list celeb diva-tantrum, Joe explained that “the actors have to work with the trust of their director”, particularly in choosing a good editor to “piece together what we interpret as their performance.”
Joe: “The only person who’s ever been annoyed at me was an art director.” Joe explained their frustration at the deleted scene for which filming involved “a massive crane shot and a night up a ladder stapling plastic flowers to an abandoned building that they’d gotten up at 2am to film”. Joe: “In the cutting room it felt like the best cut would be to go from the scene before to the scene after, without this establishing shot. And of course, you do that with a heavy heart.”
As viewers, we often see ‘deleted scenes’ and ask ourselves why it wasn’t included in the final cut. It was interesting to hear first hand about how and why these decisions get made, and how removing a scene can make for a more “impactful edit”.
Editor's Note: Thanks so much to Joe Walker for getting involved (and responding to my DM!), it’s been so interesting to follow a York alum to the Hollywood hills and we hope to stay in touch with him and hear about his future projects.
Want to get involved? Whether you are a current UoY student and want to write for AlumNOUSE, or you’re a York alum and want to share your story, please contact me via my email: grace.bannister@nouse.co.uk
