Advisor Studio: Éva Gárdos (AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY) on the Editing Process
About this Advisor Studio
In Advisor Studio sessions, Sundance Collab Advisors share field experiences and insights into their specific areas of craft, including writing, directing and producing for TV and film.
In this intimate conversation with film editor, writer and director Éva Gárdos (AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY, BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA, BARFLY) we dive into the process of film editing. The event begins with a feedback session where Gárdos comments on a current Sundance Collab member’s work-in-progress short film. Gárdos then reveals how she gets started working with footage, the process she uses to craft a compelling scene and how she integrates notes and handles creative challenges. We also learn how to navigate the collaborative relationship between editor and director, get Gárdos’s guidance on editing your own project and hear about her transition to directing.
Artist's Chosen Interview:
Artist's Work:
Inspirational Resources/Recommendations:
Tools that I use for brainstorming and developing ideas:
- Museum exhibits
- Flicker - great source for images
- Google - great place for starting research
- The New Yorker
- People’s stories - everyone has one!
- Movies of all kinds
- Music! "I'm really liking a lot of rap these days, plus Trent Raznor and Franz Liszt."
Advisor StudioTeam
Éva Gárdos
Advisor
Éva Gárdos is an award-winning film director and editor born in Hungary. Francis Ford Coppola gave Gardos her first job in film, working as a production assistant on APOCALYPSE NOW in the Philippines. She went on to establish a career as a film editor (VALLEY GIRL, MASK, BARFLY, BASTARD OF OUT CAROLINA), working with distinguished directors such as Barbet Schroeder, Peter Bogdanovich, and Anjelica Huston.
Éva’s screenwriting and feature film directorial debut, AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY, starred a young Scarlett Johansson. The film won many prizes on the Festival Circuit and was released by Paramount Classics. The producer Andrew Vajna (RAMBO, TERMINATOR, PLATOON) was an Executive Producer on AMERICAN RHAPSODY. When he was appointed Minister of the Hungarian Film Fund she worked with him as his Creative Consultant rewriting scripts, working with directors and editors on their films.
After discovering the bestselling Hungarian novel, Budapest Noir, she developed and directed the film version, Set in 1936, when Hungary was on the verge of embracing facism, the film resonates the politics of today. It premiered at the Chicago Film Festival, and has played at many other festivals such as Palm Springs, Denver, Shanghai. It will be on VOD April of 2020.
Amongst her current projects, is CINDY IN IRAQ, inspired by the true life events of Cindy Morgan, a truck driver from Arkansas who, having fallen on hard times, left her home and children to work as a contractor for Halliburton during the height of the Iraqi war.
Éva has taught Thesis Film Editing and Directing at NYFA for 6 years and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Sundance Institute.