Editing Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I on the interview questions when I started watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens but the moment Rey and Finn took off in the Millennium Falcon I became a kid again. I lost myself in the film; the sounds gave me goosebumps; the tight, intense editing had me on the edge of my seat; and the near misses of shots and close quarters of the chase made me want to jump up and yell “YEAH!!!”

That’s why I was so excited and nervous when doing this interview with Mary-Jo Markey, the kid in me got lost in the world of Star Wars, taking adult me with him.

I do have one disclaimer before you continue reading - I am a fan of Star Wars, but not an obsessive fan.

I’ve seen the movies, and even a bit of the Star Wars Holiday Special, but I’m not chomping at the bit for every piece of Star Wars information. However, The Force Awakens engulfed me in the sounds, immersed in the visuals, and lost in the story.

Aotg.com (AOTG): How did she find out about J.J. Abrams taking this job, and what did that experience feel like?

Mary-Jo Markey, ACE: I was just with him, and it kind of seemed very unreal. I couldn’t believe that we were going to be doing something like that. And it just took a long time for it to sink in.

AOTG: (laughs) To absorb this information?

MJM: It just took a long time for it to sink in. Fortunately, we had a long time for it to sink in. I think it was at least a year and a half, or so, before we started the movie.

AOTG: With a fan base so rabid, what was the stress and the pressure like?

MJM: I think J.J. felt it most of all and I felt it through him as well. We had to honor [the material], and come up with something pretty darn good to give to the fans, but I feel pressure on every film I do. I think I put the rest of it out of my mind for a bit, because like anything that’s big and overwhelming, you have to break it down and do one foot in front of the other, and just make scenes great. It was later on that I realized, “Oh my God, there’s a rabid fan base out there…”

AOTG: That’s where that question came from, because I was like, “man, they must be trying to match the history, and make sure everything’s perfect, just because of the possibility that someone’s going to double check it on the Internet.”

MJM: I researched everything. I mean, I didn’t - there is an expert at Skywalker Ranch, named Pablo [Hidalgo], who worked for Lucasfilm, and he is the expert on Star Wars. We had a couple of instances where the character said ‘radar’ instead of ‘sensors’, and Pablo would nab that and say, “They never say ‘radar’ in Star Wars.”

AOTG: Oh wow.

MJM: We did check everything. We didn’t leave that to chance.

AOTG: When researching for this interview, I came across J.J. Abrams discussing the lightsaber battles and how they reflected dialogue scenes.

Which made me wonder, how was this reflected through the editing?

MJM: At one point J.J. had this idea, that Finn and the stormtrooper that calls him a traitor and then takes him on with that huge weapon, would say something to each other, before they started fighting. Something besides traitor, or whatever he said to him. And it just seemed that between the looks that they give each other, and the way that they raise their weapons, it is already a conversation, without having to be [dialogue] focused.

AOTG: What was it like having to create and communicate emotions when you were editing the droids C-3PO and BB-8?

MJM: C-3PO is all in the voice. We did a lot of ADR sessions with him [Anthony Daniels], and he’s been doing that character for such a long time. Also, C-3PO is not as good an example because he’s actually in the suit. His mannerisms...

AOTG: BB-8, yeah.

MJM: BB-8 is really the magic. The puppeteer who operated him was phenomenal, and kind of made little sounds and turned his head at the right time and we had a sea of BB-8 footage for all the scenes that he was in. We’d pick and choose what we’d use. The simplicity of BB-8’s design is so amazing. So even in finding a voice for him, it was really complicated. At some point I thought, we don’t really even need to find a voice for him because he’s just so expressive in his look.

AOTG: You’ve had to sit on this film, and weren’t allowed to talk about it for however long you were cutting it, until

John Boyega from Star Wars The Force Awakens

its debut. What were you most excited for the audience to notice, and why?

MJM: Sitting on it and not being able to talk about it is nothing new to me, I’ve been on the Star Trek movies, and I did the Lost pilot. I’m pretty used to that tight-lipped thing of having to go through the film process and not saying anything. However, it was just hoping that people would feel the same spirit that they felt in the first movie - just a sense of fun, and delight, and adventure, and joy of being with their old friends, Leia and Luke and Han, - and then that they would embrace these new characters that we’ve really come to love. Everyone involved in the film just loved the actors and the performances, and they’re all such nice people. I’ve really come to embrace them and for me, it was that.

Just, really hoping that people would feel some of what they felt when they saw the original. And also that a whole other generation would maybe discover it, that never had before. n

About Gordon Burkell: Gordon has worked in the film industry and as a film editor for 10 years. He started Art of the Guillotine to help build a community for editors and to create a vehicle to help editors and film academics share their knowledge and expertise to improve the art form. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada where he edits and teaches film editing at Ryerson University. Go to aotg.com for more information.