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MAKING A BLOCKBUSTER Eddie Hamilton (1985, D)
Film Editor Known for: Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), X-Men: First Class (2011) Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Obsession with film started at a young age for Eddie Hamilton. He remembers begging to be taken to the cinema, listening to movie soundtracks on repeat, and reading any book about films that he could get his hands on. At Radley, Eddie benefitted from the investments that Max Horsey had made in new equipment, using them intensively, and becoming familiar with the rudiments of film editing. French don Charlie Barker’s Foreign Film Society was also influential, by introducing a wider scope of cinema.
“Max Horsey and Charlie Barker were instrumental in fostering my passion for technical and creative filmmaking.”
Eddie went on to University College London, where he studied Psychology, and joined the thriving student film society. Throughout his studies, Eddie was involved in student film and TV projects, and as soon as he finished his degree he secured a job as a runner at a post-production facility in London.
“You go in at the bottom, and make tea, get everyone lunch, and you start to learn how to use the equipment in this professional environment. It’s so different to what you experience as a student filmmaker, where expertise is rare, and deadlines aren’t crucial.” His first jobs in the industry as a runner allowed Eddie to become familiar with the pace of filmmaking, begin to navigate the politics of working with others creatively and, importantly, to make mistakes.
“You make a lot of mistakes when you’re starting out, which could be extraordinarily costly on a bigger budget film. It’s good to make plenty of mistakes earlier on, when the stakes and the budgets are smaller. That way, you learn, okay, I’m never gonna do that again.” Gradually, Eddie worked his way up in the industry. At first, he paid for rent with a couple of days’ work per week editing 30 second promos for Paramount Comedy, so that he could spend the other five days working for free on small-budget movies to gain experience and widen his professional network. From the late 90s to 2010s, Eddie worked on around 40 productions, eventually landing editing roles on films like Kick-Ass (2010) and X-Men: First Class (2011). The real breakthrough came when Eddie was called to edit Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), a huge blockbuster from this popular series, with a budget of over $150 million. The commercial success of the film is evidenced by the subsequent titles, all of which Eddie has edited, Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), with further instalments forthcoming. Eddie was also the editor on Tom Cruise’s recent film Top Gun: Maverick (2022). What does film editing involve? Editing is the creative hub of any film. There are 200 – 300 people all working frantically to make the magic happen between ‘action’ and ‘cut’, in front of the camera. All that data then makes its way onto the editor’s laptop, and it’s all over to them! Productions start off a bit lumpy and baggy. Over time you keep working and working to refine it, until it’s ready to go to the sound team, the music team, the visual effects team, and the colour team for the final touches. It’s a creative process, but one that involves plenty of technology. As the editor, you’re the single person responsible for everything that the audience sees and hears, from the very first opening credit all the way
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the old radleian 2023
