Writer/Director/ Editor Stephanie Kaznocha Gets Confessional
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood parts of the filmmaking process is the job of the editor. It’s more than merely putting together scenes. There’s a true artistry to the profession that often goes unrecognized. It’s in the editing process that a film’s voice and rhythm come alive to become the piece of art that the audience gets to experience on the big screen. Stephanie Kaznocha has been working as a film editor for over a decade. Most recently, she edited A Nice Indian Boy, one of the best romantic comedies in recent years, but Kaznocha is also stepping outside of the editing suite to take her spot in the director’s chair. Her debut short film, Confessions, is a dark comedy about two nuns (Carol Herman & Eve Sigall) in their golden years who decide now is the time to start living life to the fullest. Confessions premiered at the 2023 Palm Springs ShortFest before playing at the Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won First Prize in the Best Live Action Competition.
Stephanie Kaznocha sat down with Beyond the Cinerama Dome to discuss her career as an editor, the heart of Confessions, and the novel experience of cutting A Nice Indian Boy to the film’s lush, sweeping score. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Courtesy of Stephanie Kaznocha
Beyond the Cinerama Dome: Stephanie, I want to start with your work as an editor. You've been doing film and TV for over a decade, but how did you start?
Stephanie Kaznocha: Yeah, that's a great question. I actually had no interest in editing when I first started being interested in filmmaking. It was the last thing on my mind. Like, you sit at a computer all day, that’s so boring. I want to be on set. I want to be where the action is. Then I got older and I was like, oh my God, I love my desk job.
No, but my access point was actually through making video art. I was doing all of it, but I had the most fun in the edit. It was something I felt I could be really creative with.
Was your first editing out of necessity in college? Like, I need to cut this for a project that's due tomorrow?
Yeah, I was like, I guess I'll just throw this thing together that I have to do. I really didn't feel the inspiration then because it felt like an obligation. At that time, I wasn't a really super-tech person.
I'm gonna date myself, but using computers at that time was still kind of new to me. It felt so foreign. The first thing I edited was for a school assignment, and I was cutting film. I did really like that manual process. I found it very satisfying.
Since making this your profession, have you been able to edit with film or is it all digital?
Everything I've edited has been on a computer in Avid. It's all digitized, but I've never even gotten to edit actual film, even digitally. It's a goal at this point. I really want to edit something shot on film.
I feel the role of an editor is the silent glue that keeps everything together. It's such an unsung, underappreciated art because a lot of people don't really see it as an art. Do you feel like the public, or maybe even your family, understands editing?
It's so funny. I would say largely no, but I can relate because there was a time where I didn't get it either. It wasn't until I did it that I was like, oh my gosh, this is the coolest. You're working on the tone, you're working on the experience of how people receive the performances, the writing, the directing, and the cinematography. All those things you're quietly influencing, and hopefully you're adding to, improving, and respecting them. I think a lot of people really don't know what it is.
I feel like a lot of times people notice really jarring cuts, but they don't notice the slow development of moving the scene around with the characters. It would be very interesting to have two people cut the same movie with the same footage.
Yes! It is really fascinating what an editor can do or change or modify. It's a really fascinating job.
Courtesy of Confessions
It's also not the only job you have. You've also done some writing and directing with Confessions, which is such a sweet little weird, dark comedy that I loved. What inspired you to make that leap from editing chair to directing chair?
I went to school and I studied film. I did think I wanted to be a director at that point. It's kind of a big, full circle. I'd always been writing, but it was something where it was just like my private thing that I do for fun. It's a hobby.
The pandemic hit, and I was just like, I think it's time. I can't keep pushing this off, you know? It felt right. It was going to happen and I just made it happen. I'm really happy I did.
And chose not to edit it, which I found very interesting.
I think that comes from just the large amount of respect I have for what an editor brings to a project. I had already written it, I had directed it, and I partially produced, so I wanted someone else's perspective.
My friend Ali Greer came on to edit and I felt confident that I could trust what we were making in a great way. To just be able to watch the footage together, talk about it, and think it through together. Just the value that adds, I didn't want to shortchange myself.
Comedies are exceptionally difficult, but I feel like the understanding of pace that you have from editing played a massive role in directing. Would you agree?
I would say it really did in writing. A lot of choices, especially when to come in and out of scenes, were so obvious to me in the writing process. Of course, we cut lines and trimmed stuff, but it feels like that was sort of baked into the writing process. It was very visual for me, so that's very true. The directing just made sense. It was like I could already see it in my head.
Courtesy of Confessions
And where did you find the two women for the leads? They're so funny.
I love them! Carol Herman and Eve Sigall are incredible. We worked with a casting director and we had put out a call. They sent in tapes and they just blew me away. From the moment I saw them…their performances were just so nuanced, so sweet, and really earnest. That's exactly what we were wanting.
I want to talk a little bit about A Nice Indian Boy because it kind of connects to Confessions. I saw that you wanted to write something that felt hopeful about the future, which is what inspired Confessions. A Nice Indian Boy gives that same feeling of hope and warmth. There's a feeling that editing is kind of a cold part of the process because people think it’s more methodical than artistic, which I believe is a misconception. How do you feel you add emotion to the edit of something like A Nice Indian Boy?
I love working with Roshan [Sethi] and Karan [Soni] and I saw your interview with them from a little while back! This was our second movie together, and I have an understanding of their sensibilities and they were really in line with mine.
I think a big part in choosing projects is sort of being like, does this vibrate with me? I would argue that it’s a misconception that editing is cold. I think if you approach it in that way, it will be cold. To me, editing is the most human thing.
You’re looking at people's microexpressions. When you have great performances, it’s a playground. I think editing is the warmest job, and if you do think that, then you might be able to be a good editor for something that's heartfelt, feel-good, and hopeful.
Courtesy of Levantine Films & Wayfarer Studios
The last question I have for you is because I also interviewed Raashi Kulkarni, who did the score. She was saying that she was brought on early, and you actually got to cut to her score, which isn’t a very common experience. Can you talk a little bit about how that was for you?
That was my dream way to work. If anybody consulted me about how I want to work in the future with music, I would always want to do that. Even when people don't ask, I always put it out there. I think it's usually a budget thing, which is unfortunate, because there was so much that was added to the movie to have her composing as we were cutting.
We would send her scenes at the end of the day and the next day she would have music in there. It feels so baked into the movie, like it was always part of it. We're intercutting between two separate scenes, and there's no way we could have temped that the way she composed to it. Raashi just brings something very special, and I'm so glad that we got to work this way.
Can I ask…what's next for you?
Writing! I’m writing the feature version of Confessions.
That's exciting! Thank you so much for your time. I’m excited to see what the future of Confessions looks like!
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