CB: I had an early interest in film, which was born out of an interest in theater. When we were kids, we were always endeavoring to get a part in a play and to see plays. And we put on plays at the ripe old age of seven years! One day I was visiting my grandfather, who was an artist and a painter. He had cameras that he used to take reference photos for his paintings. So that really began an interest in photography. And eventually the light bulb went on in terms of the connection between theater, photography, and cinema.
TO: Were you also going to a lot of films?
CB: Yes, this all manifested itself as my mother was taking me to see films by Ray Harryhausen and the early Hammer films. And then somewhere around age eleven I did a lot of odd jobs and saved up forty bucks and bought an 8mm film camera. I wanted the single frame capability so that I could emulate the stop-frame animation of Ray Harryhausen. And eventually through my teens, I was making films with my friends and eventually graduated to 16mm. And in the ‘60’s I was being bombarded with these great films that were coming out.
TO: Which films come to mind?
CB: Darling by John Schlesinger. Morgan! (Karel Reisz). Far from the Madding Crowd by Schlesinger. This Sporting Life by Lindsay Anderson. And all of a sudden, my tastes changed and I gave up my interest in visual effects and I was very much interested in cinematography and not in editing.
TO: When did editing come onto your radar screen?
CB: In the late ‘60’s when I saw Bullit. Not as a career, but as an appreciation of the contribution of the editor. So I went to Pasadena City College but I got drafted and ended up in the Navy. I wound up in Washington, making films for the Office of Information. We had a small, 8-10-person group and we made documentaries.
TO: It sounds like a great training ground.
CB: I was able to experience all the technology and equipment of filmmaking. We had Steenbecks and Arriflexes and it became my film school.
TO: Before your first picture editing credit, you worked on many groundbreaking films in the area of visual effects as a visual effects editor and editorial supervisor. Films such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “The Empire Strikes Back”, and “Ghostbusters”.
CB: After the Navy, I spent five years working in high-end commercials for clients like United Airlines and Budweiser. And in those days, commercial editorial was all film. And, frequently, the commercials had a lot of complicated effects work, all of which were composited on optical printers. But, after five years, I wanted to move on.
TO: But you had all the visual effects compositing experience.
CB: Right, and one day I got a call from someone who asked me if I knew anyone who knew about optical printing and visual effects. And I said, ‘Me’, without knowing what it was for. I ended up working at Industrial Light and Magic when John Dykstra was running things. This was right after they had done the first Star Wars and they were doing Battlestar Gallatica for television. And that was really my transition to features. And while I was there, an old friend—Dennis Muren—who I had known since I was a teenager—was working there as was Richard Edlund. They said they were moving up north to establish ILM in the Bay Area and were going to do The Empire Strikes Back. And they asked me if I would run the editorial department.
TO: And ILM grew very rapidly.
CB: The company was very successful and then Raiders of the Lost Ark came along and I worked on that. Then Poltergeist and then E.T., and I had a minor hand in all of them. Then, when George Lucas decided to do the last of the Star Wars films, I asked if I could move into live action as an assistant and they agreed, which was wonderful. And that really was my initial break. And my desire at that time had really grown into wanting to be an editor. Marcia Lucas was editing as well, and she was quite amazing. She was very influential and helped my appreciation of what one can do with the craft. It wasn’t just about assembling what you saw—it’s sometimes completely reengineering a scene. That was quite enlightening and made me want to do more. I was fortunate to meet Sean Barton, who was Richard Marquand’s editor, and that’s how I wound up on Jagged Edge.
TO: Jagged Edge did very well at the box office. I love that John Barry score.
CB: I did too. I was Sean’s assistant on Jedi and he called me. I was just finishing Ghostbusters and I was first hired as an assistant editor. But, really, I only cut a few scenes and Sean cut that movie with Richard. However, it allowed me to share a credit with a friend and it catapulted me into being able to do a film on my own. And the apprentice was Billy Goldenberg who then went on to do a lot of work with Michael Kahn. It was a great transition for me into the editing world.
TO: When I went to see Training Day, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Denzel Washington is just scary.
CB: Training Day was one of my favorite experiences as an editor. Denzel was so shot out of order that it wasn’t until very late in the game that I had enough material to begin to connect scenes. I liked the script, I liked Antoine Fuqua, the director very much, but I didn’t know if it was gelling. When I connected the scenes, I ran out my cutting room and across the patio at Warner Bros. to my assistant’s room. And I said, ‘This is actually a really good movie!’ And there was a real joy and excitement about that one to me.
TO: What were some of the challenges on the film?
CB: Editorially, the performances were a challenge because I had a huge amount of material. And there were so many choices to make. Denzel was experimenting wildly from take to take. There were variations physically, emotionally, and there were hours of material with these actors who spend a lot of time being towed in their car. So, you had the ebb and flow of performances and it was a real challenge. I’m quite possibly more proud of that movie than almost anything else I’ve worked on. I know I had a big contribution in making it work as a film.
TO: It did very well with audiences.
CB: Yes, but its success was a bit of a surprise. We tested it at screenings and it never tested all that high.
TO: Really?
CB: Yes, no matter what reengineering we attempted. And Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who was running the studio at the time said, ‘You know, I like this movie. I don’t care what the numbers are. Let’s release it.’
TO: You made the transition from film to digital editing on The Getaway.
CB: A lot of my friends in the commercial world were using the Avid on a daily basis. I was interviewing for The Getaway and the studio had an accelerated post schedule. They suggested using Montage, with the multiple tape decks. And I said, no, either I’m going to edit this on film or I’m going to edit it digitally. So I gave Roger a demonstration and he loved the idea.
TO: And then after The Getaway you went on to True Lies.
CB: And I never went back to film. I introduced Avid to Jim Cameron on True Lies and he was dubious but then decided yes—because he’s intrigued by technology—and came to appreciate what it could do for him.
TO: You’ve done a lot of films where there have been multiple editors. How do you approach that?
CB: Both The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day were edited on film. I still very much like T2. Jim has a wonderful ability to shoot beautiful material and write very compelling pieces that are great movies. What I most appreciate about him is that he does so much homework. He is not winging it when he’s out there and hoping it’s
