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Award season is on the horizon and whoever gets nominated for Oscars 2025 will have quite the experience similar to our guest on Novelpro Junkie, Kevin Tent. Tent was nominated for film editing for the film "The Holdovers". He attended the Academy Awards ceremony earlier this year. So, here is the interview I had with him about his experience with the film and at this year's Oscars:
1. Could you list three adjectives to describe your long standing collaborator Alexander Payne?
Let's see....fun, generous, and collaborative.
Yeah, He's great. He's a great person and he's great to work with. I always say when he starts up a movie, it doesn't even feel like going to work. I mean, it's work, we work hard, but we have such good time. It doesn't feel like work.
2. What was your favorite scene to edit for The Holdovers?
It's hard to say. One of my favorites things, that I wasn't sure was going to work, was where they all go to the Christmas party. I really liked how that all came together. That each character got a moment at this Christmas party that was either happy or sad. I think that's not just one scene that's like three scenes, but I I liked that one a lot. That was fun to see. Anything with Paul Giamatti is a lot of fun. He's such a good actor so when you're working with his footage or Da'Vine's too and Dom's, it was all fun.
3. Did you experience any technical challenge on the film? And if so, how did you resolve it?
Technical challenges? No, it was a fairly straightforward movie. Alexander shot it fairly simply. Challenges like sound challenges or something like that, we always had some of those things. Like the kitchen where Mary worked, had a lot of noise in it, but that's not a big deal with especially now we got a great sound designer on mixer and they were able to clean up all the tracks.
The snow was a tricky thing, because in a lot of scenes, it would snow on one side when we were shooting and then when they put the cameras around to get the other stuff. There was no snow, because just weather changed. So, technically, you call them out a problem. We had to add snow to match here, digitally with visual effects, so there were a couple scenes that we did that up. But, there weren't any other big tech problems.
4. Which project are you most proud of in one in terms of editing?
Gosh, I'm proud of so many of the films I've worked on. There's a movie called "Disconnect" that I was very proud of, because that was a film that had been worked on for a long time and they were having trouble with it. They couldn't get it quite to work right and I did a lot of rejiggering, editorially with stuff. And that went and created storylines that weren't really there before there were there but there were about something else and I, we refined it all in a wonderful, very powerful movie. So, I was proud of that one.
I was proud of all of Alexander's movies. They're all special, unique in their own way, even though they're similar in some respects, but they're all unique. I worked on the "Peanut Butter Falcon" a little while ago, and that was a really fun movie to work on. I was very proud of that. So, I'm proud of all of them. They're all have a special spot in my heart.
5. From your previous film projects, which one was the toughest to edit and why?
Probably.... It might be "Disconnect", because there was a storyline in the movie. It's like it was really good. It's a really cool movie. It's kind of came out late, it was at the beginning of when the internet was just going crazy, about 10 years ago or a little longer (the Internet was already going crazy) but it's followed the different storylines. There's this couple that at the end of the movie do something really radical like entering into somebody's house with a gun and it wasn't motivated at all previously in the movie. So, what we did was creating the backstory with computer screens because we didn't have anything typed into it, that they had lost the child and they were so devastated from that and made them vulnerable to being hacked by somebody on the internet. Anyways, that gave the motivation for the couple to go off the rails at the end of the movie. That was all created with editing. That was a super challenge. But it worked, which was amazing. That's a problem that we had. That was a big one.
6. How did you handle changes to a script or story during your edit process?
Well, normally you kind of just you get all the footage there and you follow the script to start with. And then you kind of say, "wait a minute, this actor's expression is doing such a good job. You don't need that line that he says", you know, it's doing the work for you in doing what the work with the line would do. So that you say, "Oh, take away that line." And then all of a sudden you say "Oh, well if we take away that line, we actually don't need this either". We don't need that or you do need something else. It kind of keeps evolving and changing. You try different things in places and that's the part about editing. You just keep trying different things and you see what you need and what you don't need and you show it to people. People say "oh yeah", this is what they noticed. It doesn't work in there.... A lot of people say editing is the last rewrite of the script and in some regards, that's probably true.
7. 2024 marks the 20th anniversary for the book-based film "Sideways". Could you talk about any interesting moment working on that project? And did you ever meet the author, Rex Pickett?
Yeah, Rex was around a lot when we were making the movie, so I got to know him fairly well. I haven't seen him for years. It's hard to believe that it's 20 years that it came out. It was a lot of fun to work with him. That was a lot of fun. I loved working on it, and we did a lot of fun, editorial stuff. We solved a lot of problems in editing. And people loved the movie. So, it was like a wonderful experience.
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. There was a 10th year reunion, which was very nice. People, outside of Santa Barbara, and some of the winemakers and Frank from the Hitching Post, they had a party for us. The party was part of a fundraiser too, but it was a lot of fun. They treated us really well. Their businesses got a big boom from the movie. People would start going up there for wine tasting on the weekends. It was so popular that they started doing it a lot. People also started buying Pinot Noir.
8. This year also marks the 25th anniversary for the book-based films “Election” and “Girl, Interrupted”, could you talk about any memorable experience you had with either of those incredible film?
Election:
I can't believe it's 25 years. We were editing when my son was born. He was born on the first day of dailies, which is so wild. So, I watched dailies and ran to the hospital with my wife to have our son on the first day. Election was a great movie to work on. We cut forever to get Election right. We did so many fun things editorially. We did freeze frames, split screens, slow motion dissolves, rear screen projection. We did all sorts of stuff in that movie, which was so much fun. But, the biggest thing about it is when anyone, who had anything to do with that movie, including me and Alexander, got a huge career bump because people saw it. I would say the film launched his [Alexander] career and mine and Ralph Kent's and everyone who was on it.
Girl, Interrupted:
That film...I actually left the end of Election, which wasn't quite finished, because we did some reshoots. We reshot the ending and then I cut the new ending in and then I went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to work with James Mangold on "Girl, Interrupted". That was also a really great film to work on. I loved working with Jim and Kathy, the producer. The film was a full-on drama, which was completely different from "Election", which had dramatic moments, but also really funny. I was on a string of really fun, different movies back then. That was a great ride. "Girl, Interrupted" was great and Angelina [Angelina Jolie].....that was one of her first movies. She was terrific in it. All the girls were terrific in it. Whoopi, she was great. It was a lot of fun. It was a fun movie. The film itself was not a happy story film, but it was fun to edit the film. I met Susan [author of Girl, Interrupted]. She came to the screening. I think she was also on set. I think I met her once or twice during the making of the film.
9. You worked for legendary producer Roger Corman on editing several horror films, how did you get to work with him?
I went down and interviewed with the post production supervisor at his [Roger Corman] studio. He [Roger Corman] had a studio down in Venice, California, which was in an old lumberyard. I was just starting out, I had made a couple of short films at LA City College in Los Angeles. I took my short films to show the post production supervisor. They had a film that they needed someone to recut, fix and finish. So, they hired me to do that. I did a good job on it. They hired me again and they kept hiring me to do his movies. I wound up doing quite a few of them. It was a great place to learn how to edit. You learned how to move fast. It was a lot of fun. It was a great place, because you have to be smarter and faster than Roger, because he had very little patience. If anything was slow or didn't think it was working, he would just cut out a whole scene and you'll be like "No, we need that scene". So, you got to be ahead of the game and be ahead of him. The schedules were brutal. You had to cut a movie like in three days after it was finished filming. It was so fast, but it was also a great place to learn to be an editor.
10. Congrats on getting an Oscar-nomination for Best Film Editing for The Holdovers, where were you when you discovered you got nominated?
I was here at home. I logged on my computer, because I thought it was possible, but not probable. I turned on my computer and watched it live when they announced it. It was pretty exciting.
11. Let’s talk about Oscars night. What was the most memorable moment for you about that night?
It was fun. The Academy does such a first class job for everything. Everyone was so nice and it's just so organized. They had hundreds of people working there.....they were walking you here and helping you here and giving you food...it's amazing. It's really something else. The whole thing was fun and I was super nervous. I was pretty sure Jennifer [Jennifer Lame, fellow nominee for best film editing] was going to win. But again, I was like "Well, it's possible that I could win." Anyways, it was great to be nominated. There are a lot of events that happened before (the ceremony) with the editors. So, we got to know each other really well, which was fun. They were all such great group of people. So, the whole thing was fun. I can't think of one thing that was the best moment...I thought the show was terrific. I thought Jimmy Kimmel [Oscar host] did a great job. It was funny and it felt like it was really moving. The whole thing was wonderful.
12. Did you dance during “I Am Just Ken” segment? Also, could you describe the energy of room during Ryan Gosling’s performance for us that weren’t physically at the Oscars
I didn't.... My jaw just dropped open because it was hilarious. It was so funny and I didn't expect it. I had no idea what they were going to do, but it was quite a show. People were clapping and laughing.....it was hilarious. It was so well done.
13. Which celebrity did you converse with that night?
I saw Paul Giamatti in the men's restroom. That was funny. I talked to him briefly. I talked to people, but I can't remember which celebrities. I can't remember right now.
14. Did you talk to Da’Vine Joy Randolph after she won for best supporting actress?
I did not. I actually saw her and I was going to say congratulations to her, but there were a lot of people around her congratulating her. This was at the Governor's Ball, which is the after-party of Oscars. I was gonna go say hi to her, but she was surrounded by people, so I didn't get a chance to. But, I met her at a couple of screenings beforehand. She's a sweet lady.
15. Which party did you go to after the ceremony?
We went to Universal Focus Party, which was at the SoHo House on Sunset. And that was great. That place is so cool. You take the elevator up to the top. We had fun up there and we were exhausted. You know, it's a big, long day, you start early....I think we left there around 12:31 P.M. I think we got home around 1.
16. Are there any novella, novel, short story, or even article that you would like to see made into a film or TV series?
I always wanted to see "Go Dog Go" made into a movie. It’s a Dr. Seuss book. I tried to make it with a movie I directed once called "Crash Pad".
17. Out of the entire film that exists in the world, besides the one you worked on, which film would you have loved to be involved when it comes to editing?
Great question. So many great movies. Maybe Chinatown? I love Los Angeles and its sordid history.
18. What piece of advice do you have for aspiring film editors starting out?
Keep on cutting. Anytime... any place.
19. If you have your own talk show, who would your first three guests be (dead or alive)?
Barack Obama, because he's so funny. If I have a talk show, it would be a comedic talk show. It would be great to have Steve Jobs...and maybe, Francis Ford Coppola. Those would be fun people.
20. Last question, if you could pick a day to relive over and over again, what day would it be and why?
The first day of dailies of Election. So, the footage came in, we sunk it up. I watched it on the cam. They were exciting--I can't remember what scene though. But I remember it was exciting. It was three in the afternoon, I packed up my bags and ran home. I picked up my wife and went to the hospital and we had my son---she had him, I was there. That was pretty special day. It was the beginning of our life with our son, which was amazing. It was also beginning of my career taking off. I didn't know either things happening was going to happen. I didn't know what the future was, but it was very exciting.
1. Could you list three adjectives to describe your long standing collaborator Alexander Payne?
Let's see....fun, generous, and collaborative.
Yeah, He's great. He's a great person and he's great to work with. I always say when he starts up a movie, it doesn't even feel like going to work. I mean, it's work, we work hard, but we have such good time. It doesn't feel like work.
2. What was your favorite scene to edit for The Holdovers?
It's hard to say. One of my favorites things, that I wasn't sure was going to work, was where they all go to the Christmas party. I really liked how that all came together. That each character got a moment at this Christmas party that was either happy or sad. I think that's not just one scene that's like three scenes, but I I liked that one a lot. That was fun to see. Anything with Paul Giamatti is a lot of fun. He's such a good actor so when you're working with his footage or Da'Vine's too and Dom's, it was all fun.
3. Did you experience any technical challenge on the film? And if so, how did you resolve it?
Technical challenges? No, it was a fairly straightforward movie. Alexander shot it fairly simply. Challenges like sound challenges or something like that, we always had some of those things. Like the kitchen where Mary worked, had a lot of noise in it, but that's not a big deal with especially now we got a great sound designer on mixer and they were able to clean up all the tracks.
The snow was a tricky thing, because in a lot of scenes, it would snow on one side when we were shooting and then when they put the cameras around to get the other stuff. There was no snow, because just weather changed. So, technically, you call them out a problem. We had to add snow to match here, digitally with visual effects, so there were a couple scenes that we did that up. But, there weren't any other big tech problems.
4. Which project are you most proud of in one in terms of editing?
Gosh, I'm proud of so many of the films I've worked on. There's a movie called "Disconnect" that I was very proud of, because that was a film that had been worked on for a long time and they were having trouble with it. They couldn't get it quite to work right and I did a lot of rejiggering, editorially with stuff. And that went and created storylines that weren't really there before there were there but there were about something else and I, we refined it all in a wonderful, very powerful movie. So, I was proud of that one.
I was proud of all of Alexander's movies. They're all special, unique in their own way, even though they're similar in some respects, but they're all unique. I worked on the "Peanut Butter Falcon" a little while ago, and that was a really fun movie to work on. I was very proud of that. So, I'm proud of all of them. They're all have a special spot in my heart.
5. From your previous film projects, which one was the toughest to edit and why?
Probably.... It might be "Disconnect", because there was a storyline in the movie. It's like it was really good. It's a really cool movie. It's kind of came out late, it was at the beginning of when the internet was just going crazy, about 10 years ago or a little longer (the Internet was already going crazy) but it's followed the different storylines. There's this couple that at the end of the movie do something really radical like entering into somebody's house with a gun and it wasn't motivated at all previously in the movie. So, what we did was creating the backstory with computer screens because we didn't have anything typed into it, that they had lost the child and they were so devastated from that and made them vulnerable to being hacked by somebody on the internet. Anyways, that gave the motivation for the couple to go off the rails at the end of the movie. That was all created with editing. That was a super challenge. But it worked, which was amazing. That's a problem that we had. That was a big one.
6. How did you handle changes to a script or story during your edit process?
Well, normally you kind of just you get all the footage there and you follow the script to start with. And then you kind of say, "wait a minute, this actor's expression is doing such a good job. You don't need that line that he says", you know, it's doing the work for you in doing what the work with the line would do. So that you say, "Oh, take away that line." And then all of a sudden you say "Oh, well if we take away that line, we actually don't need this either". We don't need that or you do need something else. It kind of keeps evolving and changing. You try different things in places and that's the part about editing. You just keep trying different things and you see what you need and what you don't need and you show it to people. People say "oh yeah", this is what they noticed. It doesn't work in there.... A lot of people say editing is the last rewrite of the script and in some regards, that's probably true.
7. 2024 marks the 20th anniversary for the book-based film "Sideways". Could you talk about any interesting moment working on that project? And did you ever meet the author, Rex Pickett?
Yeah, Rex was around a lot when we were making the movie, so I got to know him fairly well. I haven't seen him for years. It's hard to believe that it's 20 years that it came out. It was a lot of fun to work with him. That was a lot of fun. I loved working on it, and we did a lot of fun, editorial stuff. We solved a lot of problems in editing. And people loved the movie. So, it was like a wonderful experience.
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. There was a 10th year reunion, which was very nice. People, outside of Santa Barbara, and some of the winemakers and Frank from the Hitching Post, they had a party for us. The party was part of a fundraiser too, but it was a lot of fun. They treated us really well. Their businesses got a big boom from the movie. People would start going up there for wine tasting on the weekends. It was so popular that they started doing it a lot. People also started buying Pinot Noir.
8. This year also marks the 25th anniversary for the book-based films “Election” and “Girl, Interrupted”, could you talk about any memorable experience you had with either of those incredible film?
Election:
I can't believe it's 25 years. We were editing when my son was born. He was born on the first day of dailies, which is so wild. So, I watched dailies and ran to the hospital with my wife to have our son on the first day. Election was a great movie to work on. We cut forever to get Election right. We did so many fun things editorially. We did freeze frames, split screens, slow motion dissolves, rear screen projection. We did all sorts of stuff in that movie, which was so much fun. But, the biggest thing about it is when anyone, who had anything to do with that movie, including me and Alexander, got a huge career bump because people saw it. I would say the film launched his [Alexander] career and mine and Ralph Kent's and everyone who was on it.
Girl, Interrupted:
That film...I actually left the end of Election, which wasn't quite finished, because we did some reshoots. We reshot the ending and then I cut the new ending in and then I went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to work with James Mangold on "Girl, Interrupted". That was also a really great film to work on. I loved working with Jim and Kathy, the producer. The film was a full-on drama, which was completely different from "Election", which had dramatic moments, but also really funny. I was on a string of really fun, different movies back then. That was a great ride. "Girl, Interrupted" was great and Angelina [Angelina Jolie].....that was one of her first movies. She was terrific in it. All the girls were terrific in it. Whoopi, she was great. It was a lot of fun. It was a fun movie. The film itself was not a happy story film, but it was fun to edit the film. I met Susan [author of Girl, Interrupted]. She came to the screening. I think she was also on set. I think I met her once or twice during the making of the film.
9. You worked for legendary producer Roger Corman on editing several horror films, how did you get to work with him?
I went down and interviewed with the post production supervisor at his [Roger Corman] studio. He [Roger Corman] had a studio down in Venice, California, which was in an old lumberyard. I was just starting out, I had made a couple of short films at LA City College in Los Angeles. I took my short films to show the post production supervisor. They had a film that they needed someone to recut, fix and finish. So, they hired me to do that. I did a good job on it. They hired me again and they kept hiring me to do his movies. I wound up doing quite a few of them. It was a great place to learn how to edit. You learned how to move fast. It was a lot of fun. It was a great place, because you have to be smarter and faster than Roger, because he had very little patience. If anything was slow or didn't think it was working, he would just cut out a whole scene and you'll be like "No, we need that scene". So, you got to be ahead of the game and be ahead of him. The schedules were brutal. You had to cut a movie like in three days after it was finished filming. It was so fast, but it was also a great place to learn to be an editor.
10. Congrats on getting an Oscar-nomination for Best Film Editing for The Holdovers, where were you when you discovered you got nominated?
I was here at home. I logged on my computer, because I thought it was possible, but not probable. I turned on my computer and watched it live when they announced it. It was pretty exciting.
11. Let’s talk about Oscars night. What was the most memorable moment for you about that night?
It was fun. The Academy does such a first class job for everything. Everyone was so nice and it's just so organized. They had hundreds of people working there.....they were walking you here and helping you here and giving you food...it's amazing. It's really something else. The whole thing was fun and I was super nervous. I was pretty sure Jennifer [Jennifer Lame, fellow nominee for best film editing] was going to win. But again, I was like "Well, it's possible that I could win." Anyways, it was great to be nominated. There are a lot of events that happened before (the ceremony) with the editors. So, we got to know each other really well, which was fun. They were all such great group of people. So, the whole thing was fun. I can't think of one thing that was the best moment...I thought the show was terrific. I thought Jimmy Kimmel [Oscar host] did a great job. It was funny and it felt like it was really moving. The whole thing was wonderful.
12. Did you dance during “I Am Just Ken” segment? Also, could you describe the energy of room during Ryan Gosling’s performance for us that weren’t physically at the Oscars
I didn't.... My jaw just dropped open because it was hilarious. It was so funny and I didn't expect it. I had no idea what they were going to do, but it was quite a show. People were clapping and laughing.....it was hilarious. It was so well done.
13. Which celebrity did you converse with that night?
I saw Paul Giamatti in the men's restroom. That was funny. I talked to him briefly. I talked to people, but I can't remember which celebrities. I can't remember right now.
14. Did you talk to Da’Vine Joy Randolph after she won for best supporting actress?
I did not. I actually saw her and I was going to say congratulations to her, but there were a lot of people around her congratulating her. This was at the Governor's Ball, which is the after-party of Oscars. I was gonna go say hi to her, but she was surrounded by people, so I didn't get a chance to. But, I met her at a couple of screenings beforehand. She's a sweet lady.
15. Which party did you go to after the ceremony?
We went to Universal Focus Party, which was at the SoHo House on Sunset. And that was great. That place is so cool. You take the elevator up to the top. We had fun up there and we were exhausted. You know, it's a big, long day, you start early....I think we left there around 12:31 P.M. I think we got home around 1.
16. Are there any novella, novel, short story, or even article that you would like to see made into a film or TV series?
I always wanted to see "Go Dog Go" made into a movie. It’s a Dr. Seuss book. I tried to make it with a movie I directed once called "Crash Pad".
17. Out of the entire film that exists in the world, besides the one you worked on, which film would you have loved to be involved when it comes to editing?
Great question. So many great movies. Maybe Chinatown? I love Los Angeles and its sordid history.
18. What piece of advice do you have for aspiring film editors starting out?
Keep on cutting. Anytime... any place.
19. If you have your own talk show, who would your first three guests be (dead or alive)?
Barack Obama, because he's so funny. If I have a talk show, it would be a comedic talk show. It would be great to have Steve Jobs...and maybe, Francis Ford Coppola. Those would be fun people.
20. Last question, if you could pick a day to relive over and over again, what day would it be and why?
The first day of dailies of Election. So, the footage came in, we sunk it up. I watched it on the cam. They were exciting--I can't remember what scene though. But I remember it was exciting. It was three in the afternoon, I packed up my bags and ran home. I picked up my wife and went to the hospital and we had my son---she had him, I was there. That was pretty special day. It was the beginning of our life with our son, which was amazing. It was also beginning of my career taking off. I didn't know either things happening was going to happen. I didn't know what the future was, but it was very exciting.
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