From Breaking Bad to The Goldfinch, editor Kelley Dixon's job is to 'paint with everyone else's art'
During a picture editing panel at TIFF, Dixon talked about her work on the Donna Tartt adaptation
Coinciding with the Toronto International Film Festival, DGC Ontario and CBC Arts staged a full day of panel discussions featuring industry professionals who work behind the scenes to bring some of the hottest tickets to life. The series of talks were hosted by Amanda Parris and Johanna Schneller of The Filmmakers, covering topics from directing to production design
Kelley Dixon — an editor who spent years working on Breaking Bad and its spinoff Better Call Saul — sat on the picture editors panel and spoke candidly about her craft and the experience of editing her first feature film The Goldfinch, which had its premiere at TIFF before opening in theatres this past weekend.
Here's what Dixon had to say.
Painting with 'everyone else's art'
Dixon explained that when it comes to editing, her role is to put the pieces she has been handed together.
"We [editors] pretty much paint with everyone else's art," she said. By the time Dixon starts her process, the filming is complete. Most of the team has already done their jobs and she is very respectful of this aspect.
"I'm here to help my director make the movie he wants to make. He is not here to make the movie I want him to make."
Working with John Crowley, director of The Goldfinch
While working on The Goldfinch, Dixon said she spent most of her days with director John Crowley engrossed in "two or three hours of conversation" before cutting scenes. "He is so on top of the narrative and this is a very very dense narrative."
The Goldfinch follows 13-year-old Theo Decker, who survives a bombing that kills his mother, through to an adulthood of addiction, grief and the criminal underworld of art forgery.
But making the film came with its challenges and Dixon and Crowley didn't always see eye to eye.
To resolve matters and to make sure both herself and the director were aligned, Dixon would ask pointed questions like: "What do you think the main character feels at this point?" or "Where do you think his head is at?"
This allowed for critical conversation where Dixon could present her experience of the scenes, so her and Crowley could finally come together. "We would really talk it through," she said.
Look out for more highlights from our TIFF panel discussions coming later this week.