Editing JFK (film) (section)

=== Editing ===
''JFK'' marked a fundamental change in the way that Stone constructed his films: a subjective lateral presentation of the plot, with the editing's rhythm carrying the story.<ref name= "Salewicz, Chris7">Salewicz 1998, p. 85.</ref> Stone brought in [[Hank Corwin]], an editor of commercials, to help edit the film. Stone chose him because his "chaotic mind" was "totally alien to the film form."<ref name="Salewicz, Chris7"/> Stone also commented that Corwin "had not developed the long form yet. And so a lot of his cuts were very chaotic."<ref name="Salewicz, Chris7"/> Stone employed extensive use of flashbacks within flashbacks for a specific effect. He said in an interview: {{blockquote|I wanted to do the film on two or three levels – sound and picture would take us back, and we'd go from one flashback to another, and then that flashback would go inside another flashback&nbsp;... I wanted multiple layers because reading the Warren Commission Report is like drowning.<ref name="Crowdus, Gary2"/>}} Because of being shot on various sized film stocks, conventional 35mm film editing was impossible.  Although digital editing was in nascent form, LightWorks and [[Avid Technology|AVID]] were still not available as editing systems when editing began on ''JFK''.  For that reason, all the footage was transferred to 3/4" videotape and edited on videotape. The 35mm film negative, along with the other sized film stocks were then conformed to match the videotape edit.

Years after its release, Stone said of the film that it "was the beginning of a new era for me in terms of film making because it's not just about a conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. It's also about the way we look at our recent history ... It shifts from black and white to color, and then back again, and views people from offbeat angles."<ref name= "carnes">{{cite news | last = Carnes | first = Mark C | title = Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies | work = [[Cineaste (magazine)|Cineaste]] | date =Fall 1996 | volume = 22 | issue = 4 | url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pastimperfect.html | access-date = September 9, 2008 | archive-date = October 16, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171016145737/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pastimperfect.html | url-status = live }}</ref>