A BAFTA Tribute to Terry Rawlings

A BAFTA TRIBUTE TO

TERRY RAWLINGS 7 DECEMBER 2O14

Half the battle is doing something that the audience may not realise or notice. They perhaps don’t even know why they enjoyed a particular scene…

When I’m working on a film, I feel like I’m creating my own symphony. You are creating a work of art that will last forever.”

T e r ry R aw l i ng s

BA F TA TRI BU TE

OVERVIEW

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s we peer into many alternate futures our pulse quickens at what we see: the merciless advance of an alien beast; a cop chasing down replicants in a city both familiar and strange; a journey to the very heart of our planet.

We witness past and imagined worlds: athletes racing along a beach; a young man battling evil in a fantasy land; a lonely woman noting the slow passage of time in her Dublin boarding house. Piecing together these images and performances, shaping each scene, is the skilled hand of the four-time BAFTA-nominated Terry Rawlings.

He began as an assistant editor on films such as The Mark of the Hawk (1957) and Indiscreet (1958), before moving on to sound editing and dubbing. He helped capture the emptiness of Leslie Caron’s bedsit existence in The L-Shaped Room (1962) and the vibrancy of a very different, hedonistic London in The Jokers and Bedazzled (both 1967).

Sound and music merge perfectly with stark and sometimes shocking images in Rawlings’ remarkable work with Ken Russell, beginning with Women in Love (1969), for which he earned his first BAFTA nomination for Soundtrack. The 1970s would see America portrayed with grit and grace in collaborations with Karel Reisz (The Gambler, 1974) and Jack Clayton (The Great Gatsby, 1974), while his ongoing partnership with Michael Winner saw The Sentinel (1977) credited as Rawlings’ first as editor. In the same year, Rawlings took on his last role as sound editor for a young filmmaker named Ridley Scott, on The Duellists.

Scott’s second feature, Alien (1979), with its blend of science fiction and slasher film tropes, is a stunning showcase of Rawlings’ editorial instincts, earning him another BAFTA nod.

by Ian Haydn Smith

He deploys pace with aplomb, allowing the drama room to breathe in its early stages, before all hell breaks loose in a tense labyrinth of twists and turns – a trick that Rawlings would return to more than a decade later with Alien³ (1992).

A race against time also marks the key moments of Rawlings’ third BAFTA-nominated work, Chariots of Fire (1981). Contrasting the scenes of politicking in 1920s’ Britain are the breathtaking races; it is a credit to Rawling’s innate understanding of rhythm and suspense that even those with little interest in sport are caught up in the thrill of the competition.

The art of great editing lies in knowing when not to cut as much as it does what to cut to. The opening of GoldenEye (1995), featuring Bond’s vertiginous dive off a dam, is all the more thrilling for the way the sequence is pieced together. The musical sequences in Yentl (1983) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004) draw us into the angst-ridden worlds of their main characters through subtle shifts in proximity. And the unexpected death of the first crewmember aboard a probe heading towards the centre of the Earth in The Core (2003) is all the more surprising for the matterof-fact way the scene plays out.

Rawling’s work on Blade Runner (1982) is perhaps the finest example of his remarkable skill, and earned him his fourth BAFTA nomination. The film is constructed in such a dizzying way that Deckard’s sense of remove is tangible, yet it never becomes so lost that we disengage from its powerful emotional pull.

For some, the finest editing is the editing never seen. Francis Ford Coppola described it as “a kind of alchemy”. It is an alchemy, an invisible magic, and one that over the course of a 50-year career, Terry Rawlings has simply mastered.

Ian Haydn Smith writes on film and the arts, and is the editor of Curzon Magazine.

TERRY R AWLI N GS

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AN

INTERVIEW

WITH

TERRY RAWLINGS

What inspired you to start working in the film industry?

I can quite honestly say it wasn’t inspiration.

At the time, I was seeing a girl whose sister’s boyfriend was a film editor. We would meet when we took the girls home, and he asked me one day if I would like a job in the film business. I thought, ‘How much are they going to pay?’ I wasn’t being paid very much money at the time; I was working for Sainsbury’s as a stock clerk.

So I got this job at Rank Screen Services, where I was just a general dogsbody between the art department, the rostrum cameramen and the cutting rooms. Eventually I got into the cutting rooms, but I fell out with the man who ran the department and left.

The union sent me off to Shepperton Studios where I did my very first film, Town on Trial (1957) as a junior sound assistant. That only lasted a few weeks, so I went back to the union. I was so new, I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do. They sent me to Elstree Studios and Associated British Picture, which was a really wonderful film school. I was put in the cutting rooms as a junior assistant. I always remember Charlie Crafford, the sound editor who ran the cutting rooms, saying to me, ‘You see this corridor? Learn to walk down this corridor before you run down it’, which I thought was a great thing to say.

I was badgering them all the time to give me a break and a producer finally said all right, and my first screen credit was on The Pot Carriers (1962). I went from there to The Dock Brief [aka Trial and Error, 1962] with Richard

Attenborough and Peter Sellers. I found out that Richard Attenborough was about to produce The L-Shaped Room (1962), so when I was in a looping session with him I asked, ‘Any chance of doing your film?’ And he said, ‘Sorry, we have a crew we always work with.’

So I thought fine. Then I was working late one night and Richard came in and said, ‘Dear boy, would you like to do our film because this chap can’t make it this time?’ It’s amazing how luck takes over.

I started freelancing and got into a wonderful period where I was working for Michael Winner, Karel Reisz, Jack Clayton and Ken Russell. When I finished one film, another would be about to start, so I was going from one directly to another. All that time, I kept thinking to myself that I could cut these films. I just felt I knew what I wanted. I thought if I could cut it I could do a better job with my sound.

After working on Ridley Scott’s The Duellists (1977), Martin Rosen called me and wanted me to do the sound on Watership Down (1978). I was doing that when the [film] editor unfortunately died, so I was asked if I’d like to cut it as well.

Then I got a call from Ridley’s office saying he was doing a film called Alien (1979) and they wanted to know whether I’d like to do the sound. I told them no, I’d like to cut it. So I met with producers Gordon Carroll and David Giler and we spent most of the time talking about Watership Down, which they had really enjoyed. In the end, I just asked if I could do the film and they said yes. It was like flying a 747, it felt so good.

I was working late one night when Richard Attenborough came in and said, ‘Dear boy, would you like to do our film because our chap can’t make it?’ It’s amazing how luck takes over…”

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BA F TA TRI BU TE

A LI EN (1979)

TERRY R AWLI N GS

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CHA RI OTS O F FI RE (1981)

Then I did The Awakening (1980), and then Chariots of Fire (1981) and Blade Runner (1982).

It just went on from there. I’ve had a wonderful career working with all these great people.

Did you have any ambitions when you started in the industry?

I never had an ambition to be special at anything, but I knew as soon as I started that it was what I wanted to do. As they say, when you smell the film…

What were your aims when you became a sound editor?

I wanted to create the best soundtrack ever.

I wanted to create something that was real and had imagination. I got close to achieving that with Women in Love (1969), I think. There were subtleties in there that people may not have realised they were hearing. That’s half the battle. You do things that the audience may not realise or notice. They perhaps don’t even

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know why they enjoyed a particular scene, that sort of thing.

I really should have spent more time as a youngster learning music. I was sent for music lessons, but there were other things to do so I didn’t give it all my attention. Now as an editor, I feel when I’m working on a film that I’m creating my own symphony. You are creating a work of art that will last forever.

What skills do you think you need to become an editor?

I think it has to be instinctive. You can’t really teach a person how to edit a film. You can teach them the rudiments of it, but you can’t teach them how to be special, because what makes them special is their individuality. You have to have an instinct or a feeling for it. If you give four editors the same film it will differ four ways because they all see things differently.

They might all be good, but they will definitely be different.

BA F TA TRI BU TE

When you see the really great films, you look at the people who made them and they’re great teams.

These teams work because of trust.”

What’s the relationship between the editor and director like?

It has to be like a marriage. You have to trust one another. The director has hired you and he has to trust you to give him what he wants, to a certain degree. On the other hand, you have to give them something of yourself because otherwise there’s no point you being there.

They might as well just hire an assistant to put it together.

At the same time, if you’re a good director, you hire the best cameraman, the best editor, the best production designer, the best composer and so on, and they will give you what you didn’t expect. I think that’s how great films are made. When you see the really great films, you look at the people who made them and they’re all great teams. These teams work because of trust. It means the director can then put all his concentration on what he wants to achieve in getting the film shot, knowing that the editor behind him is doing the best possible assembly of his work.

Impossible choice, but do you have a favourite among your filmography?

It’s very difficult to say. Your films are like your children and you don’t like one more than another. There may be one who is a bit more wayward, but you still love them. That’s how it works. But I do love Yentl (1983), Chariots of Fire and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

I do [watch my own films back]. I look at it and think, ‘I should have extended that shot

TERRY R AWLI N GS

YENTL (1983)

because I didn’t give enough time for that to happen’. But then you also see things that you feel you got right. There are certain sequences in Phantom of the Opera that I think work so well.

What piece of advice would you pass on to budding film editors?

To become a good film editor you have to work in sound first. You have to be a sound editor, because sound motivates a lot of the cuts you make. You can’t learn it. It’s got to be intuitive.

You have to feel everything. My advice would be to try to get the opportunity to work with as many sound editors as you can before you make the jump. And pick the best of the best.

It’s a tough business, and now it’s even tougher.

But I’ve had a wonderful career. I loved it.

I really loved it. You are very fortunate when you get to do a job that you really love. You give up seven days a week and half your nights to do it, but as soon as I went into the editing department I knew it was the right job for me.

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INSPIRATION

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FOUR COLLABORATORS LOOK BACK ON WORKING WITH TERRY RAWLINGS

BA F TA TRI BU TE

BL A D E RU N N ER (1982)

LESLIE HEALEY I first worked with Terry in 1975 on Tommy as his assistant. He was a sound editor then. We stayed together almost 10 years until I decided to make the break as an editor. We had some great times together, as well as working on some great films in amazing locations.

I remember on Alien, Terry’s first feature with Ridley Scott as film editor, he was so keen to start cutting, but there were so many screenings of the rushes with the many producers that we couldn’t find the time to number them. Not wanting to waste time, Terry told me to break down the landing scene so he could start cutting, but it became impossible to find the extension shots on the unnumbered rushes. In the end, editing had to come to a stop.

On Yentl, Terry and I were moved from our Prague hotel to be closer to the location, so it would be easier for Barbra Streisand to view the rushes. We were put up in a cozy one bedroom flat. Terry took the bedroom, and I was on a put-you-up in the main room. It was a very close working relationship. I’m very glad to say we are still talking all these years later…

Leslie Healey worked as Terry Rawlings’ assistant on many films, from Tommy to Blade Runner and Yentl (1975-1983).

He is now an editor in his own right.

TERRY R AWLI N GS

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N OT WITH O U T MY DAU G HTER (19 91)

BRIAN GILBERT In the 25 years since I first worked with Terry – when our close friendship began – his love for film has never diminished.

It is a wide-ranging, deep and passionate attachment, driven by remarkable instincts and a great openness to life. It is as fresh, exuberant and full of excitement as when I first met him.

Terry has the artist’s ability to divine the unique qualities in a film and then use all his talent to edit and shape the story so that it is those qualities the audience perceives. His love of music is of the same depth and intensity as his love of film – indeed, the two are as bound together in his mind and heart as it is in his work. The soul of his editing is music, as is that of the man.

Director Brian Gilbert and Terry Rawlings worked together on Not Without My Daughter (1991). Gilbert has also helmed Vice Versa (1988), Tom & Viv (1994) and Wilde (1997).

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BA F TA TRI BU TE

U.S. M A RSHA LS (1998)

STUART BAIRD Luck is always an important factor in life and it was my great good luck to meet Terry when I was a very young editing assistant working on Women in Love. It was my second film and I was eager to learn everything and anything I could about filmmaking. Once the film was picture locked, Terry welcomed me to help out in the sound editing and so began a relationship that developed from being an admiring apprentice to become one of my longest standing friendships in or outside the business.

Terry’s high energy, enthusiasm and sheer joy in his work was an inspiration. He believed sound was an equal partner to the visuals and it was his great storytelling gifts with sound that made him exceptional at his craft. His knowledge and passion for the use of music in film was something I gratefully learned from Terry.

TERRY R AWLI N GS

Before he moved to picture editing, I believe Terry was recognised as the premier sound editor in the UK. (Today they are known as sound designers – a much more appropriate description of Terry’s contribution.) But once he did, his outstanding work as picture editor on Ridley Scott’s Alien clearly proved he was in the first rank of film editors anywhere.

There he has unquestionably remained.

I raise my ever-present hat to you Terry, the consummate craftsman, and a valued friend.

Stuart Baird directed U.S. Marshals (1998) with Terry Rawlings as editor. Baird has also been double BAFTA-nominated for his own film editing work, which includes such films as Superman (1978), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Casino Royale (2006) and Skyfall (2012).

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G O LD EN E YE (19 95)

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BA F TA TRI BU TE

TIM GROVER Huge congratulations on an exceedingly well-deserved tribute. For the 20 years that we have worked together, you were always so dedicated to your craft, not only editing but also music and sound design. You always managed to get the best out of whatever footage was put in front of you.

They were extremely special times and I will always look back very fondly as I’m sure the rest of your team will. You looked after us all so well for so long. Happy days, well done, thank you, and I hope you and Louise very much enjoy this special day.

Tim Grover is a post-production supervisor on such films as Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and Les MisĂŠrables (2012). Before this, he assisted Terry Rawlings on 10 films in the editorial department, including The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), GoldenEye (1995) and Entrapment (1999).

TERRY R AWLI N GS

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WATERSH I P D OWN (1978)

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BA F TA TRI BU TE

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECT) As editor unless stated: 2004 The Phantom of the Opera 2003 The Core 2001 The Musketeer 1999 Entrapment 1998 U.S. Marshals 1997 The Saint 1995 GoldenEye 1994 Trapped in Paradise 1994 No Escape 1992 Alien³ 1991 Not Without My Daughter 1990 Bullseye!

1989 Slipstream 1987 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne 1987 White of the Eye

1986 1985 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1977 1975 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1971 1970

F/X Legend Yentl Blade Runner Chariots of Fire The Awakening Alien Watership Down The Sentinel The Duellists * Lisztomania ** Tommy **** The Great Gatsby ** The Stone Killer * The Mechanic * The Devils * Lawman * The Music Lovers *

1969 1968 1967 1967 1965 1964 1962 1962 1962 1961 1958 1957

Women in Love * Isadora ** Bedazzled * Our Mother’s House ** The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders ** The Bargee ** The L-Shaped Room * Trial and Error ** The Pot Carriers ** Petticoat Pirates *** Indiscreet *** Town on Trial ***

* as dubbing editor ** as sound editor *** as assistant editor **** as music editor

AWARDS BAFTA NOMINATIONS 1983 Blade Runner (Film Editing) 1982 Chariots of Fire (Film Editing) 1980 Alien (Film Editing) 1970 Isadora/Women in Love (Soundtrack) ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION 1982 Chariots of Fire

TERRY R AWLI N GS

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SPECIAL THANKS

EVENT PRODUCTION

Terry Rawlings Louise Rawlings

Event Host Ian Haydn Smith

THANKS Ray Butcher Kieron Butler Dick Guttman Rachel Hipkiss Nancy Ryan Imagery courtesy of BFI Stills and Rex Features.

Cover portrait by Jonathan Birch

CONTRIBUTORS Stuart Baird Martin Campbell David Fincher Ted Gagliano Brian Gilbert Tim Grover Leslie Healey Hugh Hudson Ray Merrin Larry Mirisch Lord David Puttnam CBE Sir Ridley Scott Barbra Streisand

Event Producer Cassandra Neal Film Programmer and Producer Mariayah Kaderbhai Event Coordinator Julia Carruthers Director of Learning & Events Tim Hunter Event Assistants Evan Horan & Ciara Teggart Production Manager Laura Rees Photography Director Janette Dalley Event Photographer Jonathan Birch Brochure Editor Toby Weidmann Graphic Designer Adam Tuck

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