Bennette Deacy Kramer
Several weeks ago I sat down with my brother-in-law Scott Vickrey, who recently retired after 47 years as a film editor. I have known Scott for many, many years, but was astonished at the breadth of his career and the extent of his work.
Scott’s father was the painter Robert Vickrey, whose paintings are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others, and who also painted 80 covers for Time magazine. Scott admired his father but, as Scott explained it, he believed that he did not have the talent to become an artist. Nevertheless, he wanted to do something in the arts.
In high school, Scott was the photo editor of the newspaper and yearbook. He decided then that he wanted to continue in photography, so he looked at colleges with good photography programs. He discovered that all the good programs were in California, except Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, which had everything. Scott enjoyed RIT. In his junior year he took a class in film-making and made a documentary about motorcycle racing that won a national student film award. Scott enjoyed the film-making process, particularly the collaborative aspect of it. He decided that he could make a living in film-making whereas fine art photography did not provide as certain a career path. Scott was sorry to give up the idea of photography as a career, but he has continued to take pictures.
Scott applied to graduate schools in film. Again, most were in California, but he had grown up in New York, Connecticut, and on Cape Cod and did not want to leave the East Coast, so he chose to go to New York University. Most people in film school want to be directors or writers but Scott liked editing, so he edited other students’ films. Editing for Scott was like work in a dark room. He could create the rhythm and storytelling of the movie. While he was at NYU he also worked part-time helping professionals.
After graduating from NYU, Scott had a job working on a low-budget horror movie. This in turn led to working on the first season of Saturday Night Live doing commercial parodies that were filmed. He worked on the first two seasons sporadically as an assistant editor.
Early Career
In the mid-1970s, Scott worked on Annie Hall and the Warriors (a cult film). His big break came when he was the first assistant on an Alan Pakula movie and a Mike Nichols movie. A recommendation to meet with Peter Bogdanovich followed. This led to his first job as the primary editor on They All Laughed starring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, and John Ritter. Scott was not sure he was ready, and he felt he was very tentative, but it all worked out. If the Bogdanovich film had been a big hit, it would have made Scott’s career path a lot easier. As it was, following his work on that film, he had to scramble. The fact that the film was not a huge hit made it hard for Scott to get the next job but he stuck with it and found work on the television series The Equalizer, which was very popular.
About the same time, Scott worked on a feature documentary about William Burroughs, a writer and the author of Naked Lunch, who was called the “Father of the Beat Generation.” The film also featured Alan Ginsberg and other members of the Beat Generation. The film opened the New York Film Festival and was critically acclaimed. This was a big deal for Scott, who was the primary editor. Scott also worked on a dramatic film with Paul Morrissey, who was a partner of Andy Warhol in his movie-making ventures. The film Mixed Blood became a cult classic.
In 1989, to follow the editing jobs, Scott and his family moved to Los Angeles. After The Equalizer, he had an opportunity to work on a television series in L.A. Then, he had the chance to work on the first season of Law & Order. He was the editor for the first episodes. Scott moved on from Law & Order because NBC/Universal was not sure what to do with the show.
In the interim, a director friend asked Scott to edit a movie of the week and that led to a string of movies of the week. Then he edited a mini-series about Frank Sinatra produced by Tina Sinatra, for which he received his first Emmy nomination. The series won the Golden Globe for the Best Miniseries in 1993. Work on the Sinatra miniseries opened more doors, and Scott worked steadily after that in California, South Africa, Vancouver, London, and Nashville until he retired in 2021.
Favorite Films and Series
Scott talked about his favorite films and television series. His most favorite film – a 2014 television movie – is the musical Annie, directed by Rob Marshall, for which Scott received another Emmy nomination. He liked working on Annie because a musical is a lot more challenging to edit because of the music and dance numbers. Also, working with Rob Marshall was a positive experience. The movie was a big hit.
Another favorite was The Company in 2007, about the early days of the CIA, produced by Ridley Scott. Scott enjoyed the challenge of the action sequences and the outstanding acting of Michael Keaton and Alfred Molina.
Scott was editor and co-producer of a documentary about his father, Robert Vickrey: Lyrical Realist, which was made while his father was still alive. The film was well-reviewed by The New York Times and shown on PBS stations around the country. The documentary was created through interviews, paintings, and discussions of his father’s technique.
Scott also liked working on the series The Good Wife, for which he was nominated for four American Cinema Editors awards, because of the outstanding performances by Julianna Margulies and the outstanding writing.
Scott’s least favorite projects included the pilot for The Ghost Whisperer because the subject matter was too far-fetched for him, but it became a huge hit for CBS. He also disliked working on the Chuck Norris movie Invasion USA, which in his opinion had a ridiculous plot with gratuitous violence and questionable performances.
For Scott, the most satisfying aspect of his career was meeting and working with the directors and producers of the films he edited. As an editor, he worked mostly with directors and producers. He also got great satisfaction from forming bonds with assistants and helping them become editors with successful careers. Maryann Brandon and Christopher Rouse were two of his assistants who went on to become Academy Award nominees.
Teaching
For the last six years, Scott has taught editing at the American Film Institute. Scott found teaching very enjoyable and rewarding. The focus of the class was editing analysis. Students watched their fellow students’ films and then expressed what worked and what did not work. Students then would defend their work. The goal was to develop self-confidence in defending editing decisions. This is a large part of being a successful editor.
Scott said that he had no regrets about his choice of career, even though it required him to take chances and to look for a new job every six or eight months. After 47 years, he feels lucky to have had a successful career.