ABSTRACT
Where do editors come from? Why do people become editors? It has been said that the editor is someone
who, if he were more ambitious, enthralled by working with actors, or loved to move the camera around,
would be a director. In this sense the editor was a frustrated director. Many editors have, in fact, become
directors, most notably David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago) and
Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story). But people who become editors do so because they love
the challenge of story structure, the subtleties of character and the sublime experience of rhythm.
