Kirk Baxter (born 1972) is an Australian

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

. He has worked with director

David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. Often described as one of the preeminent directors of his generation, David Fincher filmography, his films, of which most are psychological thrillers, have collectiv ...

and editor Angus Wall several times, winning

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

for ''

The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book '' The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networkin ...

'' and ''

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' (original title in ) is a psychological thriller novel by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in 2005, translated into English in 2008, and became an international bestseller. ''T ...

''.

Early life

Baxter grew up on Sydney's Northern Beaches and attended Pittwater High School. At age 17, Baxter's school gave him the chance to undertake work experience with a local production company, Ross Wood Productions. The company had a range of departments in both production and post-production, allowing Baxter to see how directors, cinematographers, editors, focus pullers, grips and gaffers operated. Baxter quickly fell in love with the editorial process and dropped out of school to pursue a career. Baxter was a full-time assistant editor by the age of 18.

Career

Due to a scarcity of work in the Australian film industry, Baxter focused primarily on editing commercials. He was an early adopter of Avid, a

non-linear editing Non-linear editing (NLE) is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by speciali ...

software. Due to his family's Scottish heritage, Baxter was able to secure a British Passport and moved to London at age 23. Baxter worked for the post-production house ''Final Cut'' (not to be confused with the software). He soon begin flying to the United States for projects with British directors abroad. Preferring both the lifestyle and wages, Baxter decided to emigrate to the US after six years in London. He led the newly opened ''Final Cut'' offices in New York. Baxter co-owns editorial company Exile Edit. In 2004, Baxter joined Angus Wall's firm Rock Paper Scissors, which specialised in feature film and commercial work. Baxter then worked with Wall as an "additional editor" on

's film ''

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

''. When Wall began to prepare to edit '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'', he proposed to Fincher that Baxter be the co-editor. Baxter and Wall were nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Film Editing The Academy Award for Best Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. For 33 consecutive year ...

, the BAFTA Award for Best Editing, and the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for their work on ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button''. For their work on ''

'', Baxter and Wall won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

and a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

in 2011. The following year, they won a second Oscar for ''

''. Baxter refutes that Fincher does "a thousand takes", saying "it is not the same angle getting repeated a thousand times, it is coverage. So there is always somewhere to be in the scene...It’s the volume of angles that really differentiates how information is presented in David’s work." In 2014, Baxter edited '' Gone Girl'', his first solo editorial credit with David Fincher. It was the first Hollywood film to be cut entirely in Premiere Pro. Baxter said they chose the software "to bring all the After Effects closer. Shots could be stabilized, have split screens done perfectly, all the editing within scenes of inside monitors. There’s VFX in every couple of shots... It’s about speed and working with the most up to date material immediately. It’s creating the best sort of utopia for a village.” Baxter also has editorial credits for Fincher's TV Series '' Mindhunter'', ''

House of Cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a struc ...

'' and '' Love, Death and Robots''. In 2023, Baxter edited '' Dumb Money'', his first non-Fincher feature film.

Approach to Editing

Typically, Baxter joins the production early, starting to cut after the second or third day of shooting. He starts by treating each scene as a sole entity, a unit he will extensively fine cut even before the whole film is assembled. Baxter likens editing to a headgame, similar to writing. When working with Fincher, Baxter will initially cut and align

dailies In filmmaking, dailies or rushes are the raw, film editing, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term "dailies" comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was dev ...

as they are positioned in a scene, allowing quick changes between takes and camera angle for every line of dialogue or action. The method allows Fincher to quickly review Baxter's choices for coverage and understand why he has chosen one angle over another for each moment. Baxter prefers not to visit the set, having stated that his workload and a desire to be at a distance from the shooting process keep him away. The separation helps to keep Baxter's eyes fresh and prevents his editorial choices being biased by what he experiences on set. When asked if he was a "tech head", Baxter replied that he has "no curiosity in the technology at all. It just allows me to do my work efficiently."

Filmography (as editor)

Television

References

Further Viewing

David Fincher’s Editor Reveals The Key To Make ANY Edit Work

External links

*. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Kirk 1972 births Living people American Cinema Editors Australian film editors Best Editing BAFTA Award winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners