The Rhythm for Editing Movies with Film Editor Matt Villa

Kino Society with Owen Shapiro

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The best edit in a movie is the one we don't notice! Today's guest is Matt Villa, an Australian film editor, best known for editing The Great Gatsby and Predestination with which he won the AACTA Awards for Best Editing. As a child growing up in the 70s and 80s, Star Wars impacted him in such a way that from then on, he always wanted to be involved in movies. With over 30 years of experience, Matt's passion and commitment to the filmmaking process has given him the opportunity to collaborate on some of the best international film productions. He argues that to participate in editing, one must have a sense of rhythm and understand how to keep the audience engaged without overwhelming them, but also without boring them. He is currently working on the Elvis biopic, with Baz Luhrmann as director, and starring Tom Hanks.

Highlights

• Matt tells us how watching Star Wars as a kid made him fall in love with movies forever.
• The sense of rhythm that you need to have to be an editor, to be able to entertain the public without tiring or boring them.
• What he likes best about being an editor; exploring a scene and refining it until he feels he is telling the story in the best possible way.
• Matt’s favorite movies; Back to the Future, Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption.
• Why the best edit is the one you can't see.
• The challenge of editing Predestination, a movie with many twists and turns in time.
• The type of editing he doesn't like; movies like Transformers, where you're exhausted and don't know what's going on.

To learn more about Matt, visit his website.

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