Antithesis Journal
- Apr 24, 2019
- 6 min read

Maryann Brandon & Mary Jo Markey

by Paige Brunsen

for Editing II

Editing Research Paper

Throughout film industry history, there has been a significant trend of men outnumbering, and often outearning, women. For this reason, when I discovered that two female editors worked on a majority of director J.J. Abrams’s blockbuster films, I was intrigued and desired to learn more about the duo. Additionally, I did not have much prior knowledge on the processes involved when multiple editors collaborate on a single project, so I was curious to learn how two editors effectively work together with a director to successfully finish a coherent movie. In researching Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey, I aimed to learn more about their careers, the collaborative aspects of editing, and any insights they had about being females in the industry.

Since the time of meeting, the editing pair have built an impressive resume together. Brandon and Markey met while working for Abrams on the T.V. series Alias in 2001; although, they were editing separate episodes and not working collaboratively. Then, in 2006, the duo joined Abrams for his, and also their, first feature film Mission Impossible III. Interestingly enough, Abrams considered giving the position to a seasoned Academy Award-winning feature film editor, but, after Brandon talked to him about working with editors he was familiar and comfortable with and asked him for the position, the director decided to recruit her and Markey for Mission Impossible III. During a Ted Talk, Brandon described this monumental moment as finding her voice: “You have to ask for what you want because nobody’s gonna read your mind, nobody knows your hopes and dreams” (TEDx, 10:08). Since then, Brandon and Markey have co-edited Star Trek, Super 8, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens for Abrams, earning Academy Award nominations for Star Wars.

The duo’s success in the industry can be attributed to their effective and unique

collaborative process with Abrams. From pre-production to post-production, Abrams encourages Brandon and Markey to be apart of every cinematic process and give constructive feedback. In reference to Abrams’s acceptance of criticism and desire for creative input, Markey stated, “J.J. is not precious about things. He is the first person to say, ‘This is not working’...He’s just too smart a filmmaker for that” (CPUG, 9:35). The first thing the editors do when starting a film with Abrams is read the script and make suggestions, an opportunity not typically awarded to editors. Then the pair divides the script evenly by number of pages, action scenes, and dialogue scenes to determine which parts of the film each editor will cut. To encourage creative freedom in editing, Abrams does not discuss his creative vision for the film with his editors before they begin cutting. During production, Brandon and Markey collect dailies and begin to edit their predetermined scenes on AVID, taking note of possible improvements during production.

Sometimes opportunities present themselves for Brandon and Markey to request reshoots or rewrites, such as in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens when lead actor Harrison Ford broke his ankle, halting production. Because of this unique circumstance, the editors were able to work with Abrams to rewrite the scene where the familiar characters Han Solo and Chewbacca are reintroduced to modern audiences. The rewrite not only allowed for a more satisfying reunion of the two characters with the Millenium Falcon but also created a moment for fans in the audience to fondly reunite with the characters. In an interview with ProVideo Coalition, Brandon recounted the reasoning behind the rewrite: “...we figured it could be a bigger, better moment if [Rey and Finn] were hiding and afraid and let Han have this moment where the audience could applaud and give it a breath” (Hullfish). The way that Abrams allows the editing pair to have such an influential voice throughout production speaks to the open-minded and positive environment for collaboration he creates as a director.

After production concludes, the editors finish their respective scenes and begin to work individually with Abrams to refine and recut each one as needed. Abrams has a unique way of going about this process of recutting; he selects random scenes to examine instead of working chronologically or with a predetermined order. Once each scene has been inspected and recut, Abrams, Brandon, and Markey work together to string out all of the scenes chronologically to evaluate the effectiveness of the movie as a whole. Markey describes this part of the creative process as the most collaborative: “We put the film together and watch it for the first time, and that’s when we start working together as a threesome to talk about what works, what doesn’t work, what parts of the film are slow, what characters are not coming across the way we want them to” (CPUG, 4:18). Once the trio has tweaked areas that need improvement in regards to the entire motion picture, it heads to test screenings. Abrams takes the feedback from these screenings as seriously as he does with the criticisms coming from his coworkers, and the feedback received often leads to changes in the original movie. An example of this occurred during the test screenings of Super 8; audiences saw the father character as overly mean and prominent, so Markey recut the scene introducing him to make him appear a little more friendly. Once these changes have been made, the picture is locked for sound and visual effects artists to add the final touches and then released to theaters.

Both Brandon and Markey had interesting insights to share about being female editors and why women are more common as editors than other filmmaking fields. In an interview with NPR, Markey described the advantage modern women have in editing being that women began cutting film from the start of the industry. This was due to editing not being considered a very glamorous job but a tedious one that required nimble fingers and ample patience; “it was considered, like, knitting” (Martin). Because women had their foot in the door from the beginning of the practice, females have continued to enter the field and be successful. Markey believes that the reason women in film school have continued to pursue editing is that females before them have found success, unlike women in other fields of filmmaking. Brandon accounts some of the success women in editing are having to the fact that it is not a glamourized job, whereas directors, actors, and cinematographers are more well-known by the general public; “I think that...women succeed in the cutting room, or they're allowed into the cutting room, because it's not a very ‘on-display’ job. I mean, we're behind the scenes. We kind of whisper in your ear” (Martin). Although female editors are more common than female directors and other positions in the industry, women editors can still face discrimination in the workplace. Brandon described feeling uncomfortable in cutting rooms where men “just really don’t want to deal with women” (TEDx, 10:55). She also said that she has “been fired for wanting to go home early to [her] children or be with [her] family” (TEDx, 10:48). Despite all of this, Brandon’s passion for editing has yet to dwindle. Her advice for female editors is to speak their minds and not let their work be taken advantage of, because, after all, it was when she asked for the job for Mission Impossible III that her career really took off, and, with Markey at her side, they have become some of the most successful editors in the industry today.

Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey’s success stems not only from their talent, effective collaboration, and the creative leeway given to them by director J.J. Abrams, but also from their ability to speak up and have a voice in an industry that can be unwelcoming and ungrateful towards women. Together, working with Abrams, the duo has edited five blockbuster motion pictures demonstrating their talent and success as a team as well as their valuable strategies for collaboration, including welcoming critique and being open to creativity. I hope to be able to employ these strategies for collaboration in my future film projects with peers, and I especially hope that I work with directors who encourage creativity in my career. Additionally, in my career, I plan on taking into account the insights Brandon and Markey provide on being a female in the cutting room, taking advantage of the opportunities paved for me by women editors of the past, and using my voice to speak up for my work and my abilities.

Reference List

CPUG Network SuperMeets. “Amsterdam SuperMeet: Maryann Brandon, ACE and

Mary Jo Markey, ACE (Editing Feature Films).” YouTube, 6 Oct. 2014,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjh7eMHOhZg.

Hullfish, Steve. “ART OF THE CUT with the Editors of ‘Star Wars - The Force Awakens’

. ”ART OF THE CUT, ProVideo Coalition, 13 Nov. 2016,

www.provideocoalition.com/art-of-the-cut-with-the-editors-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens/.

TEDx Talks. “IT IS ABOUT TIME FOR WOMEN TO SPEAK UP | Maryann Brandon |

TEDxCanonDriveWomen.” YouTube, 23 May 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWCM0Biq1X8.

Martin, Michel. “'Star Wars' Editors Defy Hollywood Conventions.” All Things

Considered, NPR, 13 Feb. 2016,