Behind The Edit: Richard & Colleen Halsey, ACE (Part 1)
I’m extremely excited to announce a new series that I will be doing, Behind The Edit, where I will be interviewing Hollywood Editors, Producers, Assistant Editors, Post-Supervisors/Coordinators, and Post-PAs and writing my thoughts/insights on our conversations. I think now is about the right time for Ask The Fonz to include other Hollywood professionals’ stories and experiences to better assist you in learning how this industry works. I also love hearing how Editors rose from their humble beginnings, to their claim to fame in Editing and being a consistent player in the industry so it will be an exciting adventure for me to interview working professionals and get to know their story. One thing I know for sure is that everyone has their own path and I’m here to explore their process.
Let’s begin with our first guests ever in Ask The Fonz history. They were my very first Editors that I assisted and have edited the most incredible films of our youth… Edward Scissorhands, Sister Act, D3: The Mighty Ducks, Beaches, So I Married An Axe Murderer, Dragnet and the Academy Award Best-Editing/Best-Picture winner in 1976, Rocky…! It is with great honor that I get to write my first Behind The Edit blog about Richard and Colleen Halsey, ACE.
Let’s get right into it. In my YouTube interview with them in Part I (which can be seen here), they explained their experiences working on hit films such as Edward Scissorhands, Sister Act, and Rocky. We started with…
Editing on location for Edward Scissorhands.
It was a dream show to work on for The Halsey’s because they were put up on location in Tampa, Florida at the Saddlebrook Resort. And fun fact, Richard is an avid tennis player and there were 15 tennis courts along with a golf course - it was heaven for him to say the least. They also hired a husband-wife assistant editing team, Cathy Best & John Chibnall to help them out - it was just a wonderful family experience.
They also shared the story of actor, Anthony Michael Hall, feeding steaks to the alligators that would come say hello to them during the shoots. And also the time when their daughter, Caitlin, around four years old at the time, wanted to meet the cast of the movie and ended up meeting Johnny Depp but with his full Edward Scissorhands makeup on. She couldn’t get away from him faster (Haha!). It truly was one of the most memorable experiences for The Halseys.
Working with Director Tim Burton.
Colleen reminisces how well storyboarded Tim Burton’s vision was for the movie. “Tim [Burton] knew what he wanted”, she says. They would watch dailies after each film day and relay what takes he liked and didn’t like and it was mostly straightforward.
“Tim [Burton] knew what he wanted.”
-Colleen Halsey, ACE
Richard recalls that the biggest editing decision they made on Edward Scissorhands, involved scenes with Vincent Price. The script originally had all of Price’s scenes at the beginning of the movie, when Tim Burton said that it was too good to have all of his scenes at the top. Richard brought up the idea of spacing him out throughout the movie and it turned out to be more effective because his performance really served as the backbone of the movie and carried the momentum. It was the biggest editorial decision that Richard was very proud of. And it also benefitted the audience because you felt like Price’s character was in the entire movie and not just the beginning. It was a win-win for the film.
Another huge editorial decision they made was pushing up the film for a Christmas release (originally slated for the following year in March 1991) and the Halsey’s made it happen. Richard adds that with the exception of the haircut scene that Colleen edited, Tim spent no more than 24 hours in the editing room and was mostly hands-off in the editing process. To go back to what Colleen said, he knew what he wanted and it made it a dream to work with him.
Editing Sister Act.
Fast forward a couple years later, Richard and Colleen were blessed (pun totally intended) to work on the 1992 comedic classic, Sister Act. Directed by Emile Ardolino, Sister Act was the most profitable movie of the year, beating out Batman Returns because of how much it cost to make. Another great anecdote was that Sister Act was edited at the Halsey’s Hollywood Hills home. Pretty awesome.
Richard retells that Sister Act was originally written for Bette Midler. She however turned down the film and then the studio took a chance on Whoopi Goldberg. He said, “The minute they casted Whoopi Goldberg as the nun, the film immediately became funnier.” Colleen adds that Midler regretted turning down the film after she saw a screening of it at the Academy. It was well received and became an extremely popular film that did very well in the box office.
“The minute they casted Whoopi Goldberg as the nun, the film immediately became funnier.”
-Richard Halsey, ACE
One of the scenes that Richard was very proud of (that Colleen edited together) was the prayer scene, as shown below:
It was an incredibly funny scene that he really loved because of how well-timed comedically it was edited together and Whoopi’s performance in it. I love calling these things out because as Editors we always have that one scene in every show or content we make that we really love and it’s just something I want to praise. For Richard, it was this scene.
Working with Director Emile Ardolino.
The Halsey’s loved working with Director Emile Ardolino and shared that Sister Act in its early stage was originally written as a serious movie without any musical numbers (woah!). It all changed when artist Marc Shaiman, was brought onto the project and created all the gospel songs. Richard adds, “Marc [Shaiman] took the song ‘My Guy’ and switched it to ‘My God’, which was hysterically funny.” Richard pushed the movie to become a musical to Ardolino because it was just so much more entertaining that way. Ardolino agreed and they doubled down on the singing nuns scenes to create this wonderful comedic masterpiece.
Finishing the cut 2-3 weeks after filming was done, they screened it to the Head of Marketing of Disney Studios and after it was over, he basically said, “well, that’s going to be a hit!”. The Halsey’s and Ardolino couldn’t have been more happier with this film and it walked the walk and turned out to be a comedic hit. However, it was no easy task getting the film to it’s final stages…
Richard recalls that the biggest editorial decision on Sister Act was the “Just A Touch of Love” montage when the nuns were sprucing up the church, singing together, and lending a hand to their local community. Richard remembers that he wanted to have a new song in the movie that highlighted all the singing nuns doing God’s work. He proposed C+C Music Factory’s “Just A Touch of Love” to drive this sequence. It was the biggest editorial decision because they had lots of scenes with the nuns doing several activities and they wanted to find a way to incorporate everything without dragging the entire movie down. Richard’s answer was using the montage. So awesome. You can see the montage below:
And speaking of montage, Richard was the person behind creating one of the most famous editing montage of all…
The Rocky Montage.
Richard recalls that the montage couldn’t have happened without Garrett Brown’s invention of the Steadicam. Once he was working with those shots in the market scene all the way through the Philadelphia skyline and ending up at the iconic “Rocky Steps” (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Richard was amazed. He knew that the Steadicam would change filmmaking. And it did. He sees the impact of the Steadicam today and remembers the first model of how heavy the original Steadicam rig was. It was truly groundbreaking.
Garrett Brown & Sylvester Stallone on the set of “Rocky” (1976).
Secondly, Richard hiring film composer, Bill Conti, for the famous theme song that accompanied the Rocky Montage was the other important piece to the puzzle. Without the score, it wouldn’t have been as iconic as it is today. Richard had worked with Bill Conti in previous projects before Rocky (Harry and Tonto, Next Stop Greenwich Village) and knew he was the right man for the job. He was right.
With the shots from Garret Brown and the music from Bill Conti, Richard got to work creating one of the most iconic montages of our lifetime.
I’m always floored by this story because Richard’s work will live forever in the hearts of film enthusiasts and will be studied in every film class. That montage is just simply iconic.
How a USC Film Student’s Screening Changed The Ending of Rocky.
Richard recalls that since Rocky had a small budget, they didn’t have money for a proper screening so he said to Producers Bob Chartoff & Irwin Winkler, to talk to Film Critic Arthur Knight to see if they can screen the movie at University of Southern California (USC) Film School. Knight was a neighbor of Bob Chartoff in Malibu.
Irwin Winkler refused at the idea because he was self-conscious about the film and was worried the film students would tear it apart.
“What are you crazy Richard? What a horrible idea, those students would tear it apart”
Richard was confident that they had a really good movie and not to worry about that. He eventually convinced Irwin to allow it. To make matters even more interesting, they hadn’t even finished editing the ending of Rocky yet since it was a preliminary screening.
So they go and screen the movie at USC… it ends with Apollo Creed knocking out Rocky out and then they just cut the movie off.
Richard recalls that the crowd went hysterical, they went crazy! They screamed for him to get back up, Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! …and they didn’t even have the end of the movie (haha!)
The original ending was Rocky and Adrian walking off into the sunset with a folklore song about Rocky. Richard said it was terrible! After receiving a couple notes from well known writers and producers, they decided to go back for a one day reshoot to film the inevitable ending. Rocky staying up on his two feet going the distance, Adrien backstage, running up to the ring sharing the win with Rocky while boxing announcer faintly commentates that Apollo Creed had won the match.
The main story point that Richard wanted to tell in this ending scene was that Rocky went the distance. He fought, was resilient, and stayed in the match. Rocky went the distance.
If you enjoyed this blog post and want to work in the Hollywood Editing field and work on big studio films like Rocky, Sister Act, and Edward Scissorhands, please sign up for 1-on-1 mentorship session with me and I promise to get your career on the right track. I’ve helped countless of recent film graduates break into this industry and I honestly feel like it’s what I was sent to do on this Earth. Become a Hollywood Editor and help those who want to become a Hollywood Editor. So sign up and don’t forget to subscribe to me on my social media platforms (@askthefonz), YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and LinkedIn. I’m sharing advice on those platforms daily.
Will see you back on Part 2 of the Halsey Interview! Til’ next time.
-Alfonso