Oscar winning Best Editors Who Capture Emotion Galvanize Jingxi Zhu

Oscar winning Best Editors Who Capture Emotion Galvanize Jingxi Zhu

Oscar winning Best Editors Who Capture Emotion Galvanize Jingxi Zhu

Jingxi is an invaluable editor because of her artistic views and amazing skill to grasp emotions and inject them into storytelling.

Suno Chen, award winning documentary director

One of the recent films, After, that Jingxi Zhu has edited, screened at the Cannes Film Festival, while another one Latchkeys was an Award Winner at the Kaffny Infinite Cinema festival. Additionally, Jingxi has been inspired by legendary Hollywood editor Joe Walker who has earned multiple Oscar nominations (Arrival, and 12 Years a Slave) and won a Best Editor Oscar for his recent work on Dune.

And, one of the major reasons she looks to Walker’s editing excellence is the “emotion” he brings to his work—similar to what Suno Chen says of working with Jingxi. Admitting she has a lot to learn before she’s at Walker’s level, she nevertheless says of capturing “emotion” in movies:

“After seeing the movie, Arrival, editor Joe Walker has become one of the editors I admire most. I think people tend to appreciate the fast-paced, fancy editing style, but I prefer the kind of editing that conveys the emotion of the film. I will always remember the long shot of the main character (Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon) hanging from a tree in 12 Years a Slave. It was a brilliant editing decision. The editing did not choose to end the shot quickly, and it was this unusual long shot that brought the audience into the world of the characters and made us feel the endless despair of the character.”

Now, that is capturing emotion. And, Jingxi feels it’s one of her goals and assets, explaining, “My strength is that I have a very deep understanding of acting, and this understanding of acting and character helps me make better editing choices. I do everything to help myself relate to the story. I don't like to resort to tricks to edit. I think each piece has its uniqueness, and it's up to me to find that uniqueness through editing to bring out the emotion.”

With a MFA degree from Dodge College of Film and Media Art where she had to work closely with other talented filmmakers, Jingxi has always had a passion for storytelling, which she considers the job of a film editor, as much as a director and scriptwriter: “I think of editing as part of the writing process. Growing up in China, I wrote and directed all my plays—but most of time, my directing was primarily to provide acting direction for the actors, my friends and family. But, I had a very precise vision of the performance, down to how the actors should deliver each line. I would draft my scripts over and over again, reorganizing the story and cutting lines, and that was probably my initial experience with editing.”

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She also admits the recognition she and the filmmakers got from their film, After, especially at Cannes, was a huge vote of confidence. In fact, it reminded her of the satisfaction she got from her time travel drama called A Journey Above Time, which she produced for school back in China. She recalls:

“Even though I went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and that MFA from Chapman in California, I was never seen as a good student growing up, and in the Chinese education system it was hard for me to feel a sense of accomplishment. But that time travel drama was probably the first time in my life that I experienced the joy of having my artwork recognized and loved by so many people. We were only performing on a school stage, but when we got so much applause at the curtain call, it felt completely different from when we performed for our families at home. It wasn't a high-class stage, but I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling of accomplishment in my life.”

Apart from being influenced by Walker, she has also been inspired by Icelandic editor Valdis Óskarsdóttir who worked as editor on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Jingxi suggests, “I was so inspired by Valdís Óskarsdóttir describing her way of working, saying that she would forget the script when she started editing, because editors should build the connections with the characters from the footage. That when you spend a lot time with the footage, the characters become close to us like a friend or a family, and then you’ll be able to make the right editing choice and make the audiences see the characters come alive.”

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As for examples of Jingxi’s work, there is Latchkeys, a sweet short film about a young woman who transforms her experience of solitude into an expressive gift. The film features two outstanding Asian American actresses in the lead roles. Jingxi says, “During the editing process, the director and I sometimes had to go off from the script to a non-linear narrative due to the footage. The editing process for this film was very similar to the way documentaries are edited, we spent a lot of time re-structuring the film to accommodate the performance patterns of the child actors.”

Indeed, Jingxi notes a couple of fun facts for both the Latchkeys and After films and the impact of music on editing choices: “I got the music before I started editing, so the music influenced me when making editing choices. Personally, music is always an approach for me to convey or understand the emotions.”

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Then for the short film To Kern, which was adapted from a work of the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, Jingxi says, “Adapting a famous literary work into a film was a new challenge. I was given very little time to prepare, but I still deeply researched the poem's backstory and literary value. As an editor, I wanted to make this short film present the moral of the poem through an experimental combination of shots and music.”

With the short film, Gift, Jingxi joined very early in its production. The film has been chosen for several film festivals—Chicago Indie Film Awards, Amsterdam World International Film Festival, Top Shorts, Best Short Fest, and Los Angeles Film Awards. And, its appeal, in large part, relies on the performances of its child actors and the emotion they reveal, prompting Jingxi to say, “The audience must first understand the plight of the characters in order to understand their motivations, connect with them, and feel the warmth at the end.”

Along the way, Jingxi has worked on a variety of other projects. She’s been working as an assistant editor at Bond Marketing for Under the Banner of Heaven and Shining Girls trailers and TV spots. Earlier this year, she was part of the social media campaign team for Academy Awards 2022. She’s also edited several music videos for the new generation pop star Chrisen Yang. Additionally, she says, “I worked on Human Resources an animated Netflix TV series where I cut two radio spots released on Spotify.”

Not resting on her laurels, super-busy Jingxi is excited for the upcoming film North Country, which features women as main characters, which pleases Jingxi to no end: “We've already received very positive reviews at private screenings. It's a film that takes place in 1960, but in the current social environment, I'm sure it will also resonate widely.”

As for the future, she admits, “I always look forward to working on projects or stories that I can get excited about. As a filmmaker you always want to tell your own story, and directing is something I'd like to try in the future. Ultimately, my dream is to win an Academy Award.”

With her enthusiasm and work ethic, you wouldn’t put it past her.

 

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Drop in on Jingxi Zhu’s website, on YouTube, on Instagram, and on her IMDb page.

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Ashley Jude Collie

Entertainment Expert

Ashley is an award-winning journalist/author/blogger who has written for Playboy, Toronto Star, Movie Entertainment, Sports Illustrated, Maclean's and others. He's interviewed various "leaders" in their fields, including: Oscar winners (Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lawrence, Alicia Vikander, Jane Fonda, Mira Sorvino, Geena Davis, Anthony Hopkins); Grammy winners (Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Ice Cube, Pete Townshend); MVPs in sports (Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Kobe Bryant); and, business leaders (Amazon's Jeff Bezos). He has an upcoming novel, REJEX, coming out on Pulp Hero Press. And he has written several episodic TV shows, appeared on CNN, and blogged for Mademan, Medium, GritDaily and HuffPost.

   
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