Christina “Chris” Innis and husband Bob Murawski laid claim to an Oscar for best editing on the best picture hit film “The Hurt Locker,” as directed by best director Kathryn Bigelow. What makes this unusual? Innis attended Point Loma High School as a student in teacher Larry Zeiger\u2019s theater-arts program. She moved on to Hollywood after attending University of California, Berkeley and CalArts. Innis snared the honor during the March 7 Academy Awards gala and recently made time to answer some Hollywood-oriented questions for The Peninsula Beacon.<\/i> Does winning an Oscar for “The Hurt Locker” now give you carte blanche in selecting your next films?<\/b> Innis:<\/i> “I don\u2019t know how it is going to change my life and my career yet. What I do know is that an Oscar is the highest honor that a person can receive in filmmaking, and I hope to live up to that. The best thing about it is that I know that we, that is my husband and co-editor Bob Murawski and I, did some of our best work on a film that will hopefully stand the test of time and be remembered for decades to come. It\u2019s a dream come true and the best ending for a difficult independent film that might not have ever seen the light of day.” You and your husband are “breakout” editors and two of the few who have become famous. How do you look at fame, what does it mean to you and do you feel it will help your careers?<\/b> Innis:<\/i> “Most people watch movies and are totally unaware that film editors even exist. It\u2019s the movie stars most people want to meet. So the best thing about winning the Oscar for film editing is not any momentary \u2018fame\u2019 that we might achieve, it\u2019s the knowledge that we did some of our best work on a film that will be remembered and which is now a part of film history. We are avid film enthusiasts and moviegoers too, so that means a lot to us. Hopefully, all of these awards are an indication that \u2018The Hurt Locker\u2019 won\u2019t soon be forgotten. With any luck, those who haven\u2019t seen it, but who have heard about it or it\u2019s Oscar wins will seek it out. It\u2019s the best possible outcome for the film and for us. It was a brief chance for editors to be treated like royalty, and we were. It has been an amazing journey on this film, from start to finish, and one that we won\u2019t soon forget.” How much influence does editing have on the success or failure of a film?<\/b> Innes:<\/i> “Editing has a tremendous influence on the success of a film. That\u2019s why film enthusiasts and Oscar historians have long noted that there is a direct link between the Academy Award for best picture and best editing. I think that is because film editing is the craft that defines and is unique to cinema. We are linking images, story points, character arcs, ideas, thoughts, words, music, text, movement, acting, photography, music, visual effects all in one craft in which the infinite possibilities of juxtaposition determine a film\u2019s outcome. Editing alone can\u2019t make a film a success, but it can bring a film to life and it can help focus and sharpen the story, the action and the characters.” Film editing has always, more or less, been a man\u2019s game. Does being an award-winning editor now open up the field to more women?<\/b> Innes:<\/i> “From what I gather, women have traditionally done pretty well as film editors, and I\u2019m certainly nowhere near the first woman to receive an Oscar for film editing. The numbers of women directors are far fewer, though. Then again, it wasn\u2019t our goal while making the film for it to be a historic “women\u2019s film.” We were just trying to make the best possible film. Even so, I wouldn\u2019t mind if the award wins on \u2018The Hurt Locker\u2019 opened up the eyes of agents, producers and studio heads to seeing the potential of women filmmakers.” Does being a role model for women suit you, or would you rather shy away from being a hero to young girls\/women who are thinking about becoming editors?<\/b> Innes:<\/i> “I don\u2019t think \u2018The Hurt Locker\u2019 is a traditional \u2018chick flick.\u2019 So if we changed that definition and the characterization of what kinds of films women can and should make, then cool! The more often we women filmmakers can surprise \u2018the suits\u2019 with our results, the more often we won\u2019t be second-guessed as artists. Eventually, women making films won\u2019t be seen as an anomaly. If the success of our film inspires other women to stick with a career path in filmmaking, rather than giving up after they leave film school, then that\u2019s all the better, too. We do need more films made by women. The studios need to hire more women filmmakers. Too few major films are helmed by women, and there are too few female department heads.” You took theater arts classes from Larry Zeiger, a man who is very proud of you.<\/b> Innes:<\/i> “It\u2019s nice to have the support of my former teachers, such as Larry Zeiger, who e-mailed to congratulate me right after the Oscar win. I remember his class as the first place I saw Orson Welles\u2019 great film \u2018Citizen Kane.\u2019” You attended Point Loma High and are a “hometown girl.” Any fond memories of going to school in San Diego?<\/b> Innes:<\/i> “San Diego will always be my home town. A cruise along Sunset Cliffs harkens back to my high school days lazing around the beach and hanging out with friends. Zip by the flagpole at Point Loma High and you will find the spot where my friends and I all hung out and ate lunch each day \u2013 every creative misfit in that school was there. San Diego holds a lot of good memories for me and I still have a lot of friends and family here. It will always be home.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christina “Chris” Innis and husband Bob Murawski laid claim to an Oscar for best editing on the best picture hit film “The Hurt Locker,” as directed by best director Kathryn Bigelow. What makes this unusual? Innis attended Point Loma High School as a student in teacher Larry Zeiger\u2019s theater-arts program. She moved on to Hollywood […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":257286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"PLHS graduate snares Oscar for \u2018Hurt Locker\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}