Interview: Tom McArdle on Editing Spotlight

In 2002 the Spotlight Team at the Boston Globe exposed how the Catholic Church had hid untold incidents of pedophilia for years. This year’s awards powerhouse Spotlight stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams as the team who reveal how the expose came about. Tom McCarthy, who directed and co-wrote the film, re-teamed with editor Tom McArdle after previous collaborations on The Station Agent, The Visitor and Win Win, among others. I was able to have a brief chat with McArdle to find out more about his work on Spotlight.

What attracted you to Spotlight?

I thought it was a great script. It was very well-researched and smart.

On the editing process 

Editing was eight months, mostly during a long cold winter in New York. I live in LA usually.

On Tom McCarthy’s vision

Tom just sent me the script and we shared some minor notes with each other and that was it. He was busy doing location scouting and dealing with a short pre-production schedule. Spotlight is our fifth film together, so we know how our work process usually will go. We were both just excited to get started working on it.

On considerations of a film captioned: “Based on actual events.”

Well it is all based on what happened to real reporters and real survivors. So we have a responsibility to be as true to what happened as possible. We wanted the real reporters and survivors to support the film. For the viewer, I think it gives it all a lot of weight, to know that things weren’t just made up.

On making sure the right amount of information was included in the film

We had a lot of small screenings in the edit room and we would try to track what information people were following and what they were missing. Then we had to make adjustments. In one scene we changed Mike’s off-camera dialogue while he was on the phone with Robby in order to make things more clear about the importance of the documents. We also dropped some dialogue about past church cases and so forth, to avoid excessive information. Some pickup scenes were shot to help fill in some missing information between scenes. All in all, there were many information-related adjustments that were made.

On whether Spotlight was hard to edit:

In some ways it was. We felt a responsibility to the reporters and the survivors, so there was some pressure there. Also, because it was based on a certain chronology, we couldn’t do too much with moving scenes around or things like that. We also couldn’t cut out too many scenes because they would often have key information that moved the story forward. (We ended up cutting out five scenes in total, plus fragments of a number of others). The main challenge was always to keep it moving and to maintain clarity.

On a typical day close to locking the picture: 

When I am close to locking picture, the hours might not be as long as they were during my first rough-cut work. We like to stay fresh for this late-game decision phase. I might start at 9:30. I go into my edit room, drink some coffee and check out some emails from the post-supervisor and my assistant, and others. If it is, say, two weeks before locking, I call that the pre-locking pass, where we go through each reel and pretend to lock it. So, throughout the morning, I would sit at the Avid and go through every cut in a reel, making sure they are as good as possible, and, in some cases, I might make a tiny adjustment. Then I might go out to lunch somewhere near the edit room. When I am finished going through the reel, Tom, and his dog Georgia would come in and we would review the reel. Not Georgia. She would just sleep in the corner. Sometimes, this close to locking, there are still discussions about whether certain scenes or moments should stay in the cut. So we might have some conversations about all the reasons for keeping or dumping certain moments. Then, since time is running out, we have to make a decision, and go with our gut (and pray…).”

On seeing his film on the big screen:

I am a little weird in that I try to avoid seeing the film once it is done. But I did check out the final DCP (Digital Cinema Package) at the screening room at Open Road. It looked and sounded great. Masa Takayanagi (the DP), Tom Poole (Colorist) and Paul Hsu (Re-recording Mixer) all did really nice work.

I do just want to say how much I love Spotlight and another film of yours God’s Pocket.

Thanks. The reactions to Spotlight have been extremely pleasing to see. I feel like God’s Pocket didn’t quite get the attention it deserved. John Slattery, who plays Ben Bradlee Jr in Spotlight, was the director for God’s Pocket. He is a great guy to work with. Also, Richard Jenkins was in both films. And, come to think of it, Paul Hsu mixed both films too.

On advice for budding editors:

Try to find good scripts. You can’t fix a turkey.