Famous film editor Mary Stephen was at TNUA from April 29 to May 3 giving an in-depth look into the art of editing to almost 30 students in a workshop.
The Hong Kong-born Stephen, who now lives in Paris, has worked closely with one of the greatest French New Wave filmmakers, Eric Rohmer. She was the editor and music composer for many of Rohmer's works, including "Conte d'hiver," "Conte d'ete," "Conte d'automne."
She has also worked with some directors from mainland China and Hong Kong, including Yang Li in "Mang Shan."
For each of the five sessions of the workshop a specific film was selected for discussion. The films, each of which lasted less than 25 minutes, had been made by the students themselves and previewed by Ms. Stephen before the workshop began.
Ms. Stephen and the students discussed the films during the workshop, after which all were re-edited and screened openly.
Ms. Stephen noted that one of the best things working with Rohmer was that the director had deep respect for each member of his film crew. But Rohmer's film crews were typically small, usually consisting of less than 10 people even when he was making a long film.
She said she always admired Rohmer for his passion for filmmaking, shown in the fact that he was still making a film at the age of 85.
Ms. Stephen noted that the job of an editor is to clearly understand the message that the director wants to convey to the audience, and then edit the film in an interesting and precise way to present the story.