Sean Barton Interview

In another exclusive interview, we speak to editor Sean Barton. After working in commercials for several years, he went on to cut Quadrophenia and Return of the Jedi.

This is just an excerpt of the full interview, which is available to our pro subscribers...

Did you realise what sort of impact Quadrophenia would have as the rushes came in?

I just knew it was great fun, it was part of my own past and I got along with Franc very well and liked the way he made films. From that, I met Richard Marquand, who I ended up doing six films with. It was a very nice part of my life where I had two or three directors who I would work with regularly, and it’s very satisfying not having to start a new relationship on every film.

Is forming a new relationship with a director a hard part of your job? 

It can be. I’ve been teaching at the National Film School and I tell students that it’s the directors film, not yours. You can try and persuade but it’s their film. Also, you have to be able to get on with them and make the relationship work, you spend so much time together, just the two of you that it’s miserable if you don’t get along well.

Is there a big difference between directors that you began working with at Cutting Edge and those you work with now?

Now I seem to work with an lot of directors who are making their first film, it seemed easier because the directors back then had one eye on the next project. The Financing of film has changed a lot, there was much more money spent by the American majors on smaller to medium budget films in England, around $10m and they don’t really do that now. If they are using an American director, they tend to bring the editor and the dop over with them.

Do you like working with new directors now, is that part of the challenge?

New directors are often in there 30’s and some don’t really want their film to be cut by someone who’s old enough to be their father, which I can understand. Most new directors though can see the value of an older editor, with a lot of experience. It varies from person to person

You had worked with Richard Marquand on several projects before ROTJ, how was the dynamic with him and working with George Lucas? 

I had worked with Richard Marquand on a film called Birth of the Beatles, which was great fun and then another called The Eye of the Needle, with Donald Sutherland. We showed George Lucas a print of that and it seemed to clinch the deal. Richard was signed up to direct Return of the Jedi. Richard said to me, “I’d love you to cut it, but I’m not going to not do it, if you don’t get it!”. So I paid for myself to travel out the states and met with George. He liked Eye of the Needle and Quadrophenia and it was a very successful relationship, we worked very closely together for over a year over in Marin County. I did some of the second unit directing as well. The way of working was very good, there was enough money in every department and they weren’t saving pennies everywhere.

When did you learn about getting the job of editing Return of the Jedi and how did you feel about the honour of handling the third part of a beloved trilogy?

You just sorted of dive in and tackle it all head on, you never had time to worry. The whole machine was very impressive. ILM (industrial light and magic) was next door and we could walk through all of the stages of the visual effects, which was fascinating. George was a very easy, gentle person to work with and quite shy, it was quite a jolly, pleasant atmosphere. I don’t think we were under the gun for the most part, but towards the end of it all, he did say ‘people might be tired of this by now’. He was wrong but I could see what he meant.

See a sample of Sean's work in this set peice from Return of the Jedi.....

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