Leave it to film/TV editor John Calhoun to snatch victory from the jaws of the most dismal year for cinema I can recall. To think of the hours we'll never recover, after the time killed at screenings of the likes of Monkeybone, Driven, and The Mexican (we drew a firm line at the onslaught of barrel-scraping teenpix that hit multiplexes earlier in 2001, and so, thankfully, did the teens).
But, while the art of moviemaking is at a low boil, the craft simmers along, as you will read herein. It was with some trepidation that I contacted chief lighting technician Andy Ryan about Pearl Harbor (page 42), figuring a laundry list of gear awaited. Not so: Andy instead stressed a back-to-basics, "simple and elegant" approach, not unlike a number of you (see Letters, page 8). If only the above-the-line talent in Hollywood would heed his advice.