Hugo - A Tribute to Editing

The perception of the normal person is that a movie is simply shot in chronological order and then showed on the screen, as if the audience was in the eyes of the camera. The reality is that a movie is shot over several months, with many hours or even days of film to sort through and edit together to make a cohesive and meaningful experience for the audience. It is also important for the editor to work extremely closely to the Director in order to not lose the aesthetic and other qualities that the director was trying to capture during the filming of the Movie. The Editor for Hugo is Thelma Schoonmaker, Schoonmaker has worked with Scorsese on many films, notably Woodstock, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street. This close working relationship between Schoonmaker and Scorsese could be part of the reason the consistent aesthetic of Scorsese’s Films.

Hugo is an Important film because it is a tribute to film making and the silent era of films and the original camera “tricks” and special effects. Schoonmaker is quoted in Editor’s Guild Magazine as saying “You actually see him (Melies) at work and it’s stunning the way Marty’s (Scorsese) done it. We see what silent film making was like”. This tribute to the original camera “tricks” are actually editing cuts that make the imaginary real. Such as during the scenes where Melies is creating the skeletons he “pauses” the actors in place then removes the skeletons and continues shooting, which is an early version of editing.

Throughout Hugo the cuts and edits are very scenic but personal, Schoonmaker would begin the dialogue of a scene with a scene shot that highlighted the part of Paris that they were in and would then pull in too the characters that were containing the dialogue. As well as the scene where Isabelle and Hugo get separated in the crowd the edits and haste in the scene makes it feel like you are almost lost in the crowd with them. One of the most pivotal editing works in the film is the scene where Hugo get the automaton to start drawing, The movement from the Computer generated images of the robotic hand drawing to the faces of Isabelle and Hugo as they try and figure out what the automaton is drawing shows the emotion and excitement that has been building since the audience is introduced to the automaton.

Overall, It is apparent that the Editor and Editing is very paramount to an aesthetic of a movie. The obvious evidence that Scorsese has worked with the same editor throughout the years shows how much he values her work in portraying his visions. The editing also helps build and enhance the emotions of the characters as well as driving the story home to the audience.