“The editor's fundamental job is to think. The editor's head sees what he has to do and what not"
Carolina Martínez Urbina met with the students of the Film Degree, specializing in assembly, and Master in Film and TV Editing on April 26 to talk about his career in the film industry.
Martínez Urbina is an editor and post-production coordinator. In 2020 she was nominated for Best Editing at the Goya Awards for While the war lastsby Alejandro Amenábar. Previously, she worked as an assistant editor on the film Ágora (2009) and has co-edited Regression (2015) with Geoff Ashenhurst. Between his latest works, it stands out La Fortuna (2021), the first fiction series by Alejandro Amenábar.
"Maybe not everyone thinks the same but for me I believe that there is never anything that cannot be mounted"
During the meeting, he told that he studied Audiovisual Communication in the Basque Country. At that time, he was clear that his passion was photography. In fact, she applied to do an internship in the camera department. However, all the places were already covered and she ended up as an editor in a Carlos Saura film. Her tutor was Julia Juani, who made the conditions clear from the start: "If you do it well you stay, if you do it badly you leave". After that, he worked with her for 10 years.
“It was a bit by chance, but I discovered that the assembly was a fascinating world”
The editor recounted how on that first shoot she sat in a chair and watched Julia work, analyzing each step she took. "Life teaches you that you don't know everything and that you learn it little by little". He also commented that with Juani he learned that the perfect cut is achieved after thinking and analyzing.
A grade student asked him if it is advisable for the editor to be on the set or in the preproduction to see if what is being done will work or not in mount. “Personally, I don't like going to filming. I think it's not good because the editor is the first viewer and has to let the images do the talking. And if the editor goes to filming, the subjectivity that this entails will influence him when it comes to editing”, answered Martínez Urbina.
"I judge what I see and that is what is important. You have to give that objectivity to all the subjectivity that surrounds the shoot"
She also told how an essential part of being an editor is to have patience and know how and when to say what you think. She also stated that it is essential to listen and understand the director, to know how to give him your opinion without being annoying and without implying that her vision is not good. In the end, an editor's job is to make the best film possible with the material that arrives. Carolina Martínez Urbina maintains that the entire team should row to the same side.
“Try to keep the first feeling of the images throughout the project”
Martínez Urbina defended the importance of giving editing its place, in the sense of preserving the rhythm and essence of the narrative. He used the term “kill your baby” to explain that “Actually, it doesn't matter what it cost you to make a shot, if it took you many hours or money, if it doesn't mount it doesn't work”.
Then, they talked about the role of the Editing Assistant, which is not usually taken into account and which is key in the post-production phase of a film or series. According to Martínez Urbina, this figure is not valued enough. “In my case, I loved riding. When Nacho Ruiz Capillas gave me the opportunity, I didn't believe it. At first he scared me because I was an Assistant Editor and I loved that, but he convinced me and I thank him from the bottom of my heart ”.
Another of the questions that the attendees asked was whether the goal of the assistants is to become assemblers or not, and Carolina had no doubts when answering: “That it happened to me does not mean that all the helpers want to ride. There are some assistants who are very good at their job and that is what they want to do”.
“You have to keep in mind that without the helpers we are nobody”
Regarding the filming and the brutes that arrive, Carolina Martínez Urbina assured that what works for her is to be as close to filming as possible, that is, to mount what comes her way. Basically, because if there is something that does not work and if it is mounted close to filming, it can be communicated quickly so that they have the ability to shoot it again or not.
“What is filmed in a day, I have to assemble in a day. If you are riding and you are missing something, it is better to have the ability to communicate it to the team so they can change it. They have room for manoeuvre. That is why it is very important to ride as close to the shooting as possible. If you let time pass, it may be that when you go to report, the set has changed or the actors are no longer there.".
The role of women in the industry is another of the issues that undergraduate and master's students were interested in. The editor said that:
"The industry continues to be and will be a representation of society, and unfortunately we are in an eminently masculine"
“Yes, there are a lot of men in the industry. Editing has always had a large presence of women, because historically the editor had the role of secretary to the director. Like a good woman, she was in charge of cutting and pasting ”, lament.
Regarding the difficulties one faces when riding, Carolina Martínez Urbina said that "In the scenes with VFX, with a chroma, you have to imagine what is going to happen and then have to make as little changes as possible." And that "a dialogue scene can be very complex, especially to create certain sensations, play with silences, times, looks, even repeat or omit phrases".
"Cinema is a team effort and everyone's time is very valuable"
At the end of the meeting, the editor encouraged the editing students to practice and not be afraid of making mistakes because it is the way to learn. In this sense, she assured that it is very important to ask everything that is not known. Likewise, she said that it is important for an editor to have clear ideas to know what he has to do and how to convey it.
“To work, first of all, don't be afraid. Beginnings are never easy. I find it interesting to go through the different steps and thus get to know the industry from the inside. In the long run this helps you."