TOP GUN: MAVERICK Editor on How Overwhelming it Was To Manage 800 Hours of Footage
Top Gun: Maverick was a favorite film of a lot of people in 2022. It was just the best movie-going experience ever and it had an amazing run at the box office!
Since the film has been released online, streaming, and Blu-ray, we’ve seen a lot of cool behind-the-scenes footage and learned some awesome details about the making of the film.
During a recent interview with Deadline, editor Eddie Hamilton revealed that there is a whole lot of extra footage from the film that was never used, so much of it, in fact, that you wouldn’t be able to watch it all in a month. He explained:
"800 to 814 hours. It was quite honestly very overwhelming at times. There was one day in March, 2019 when they had 27 cameras running because there were four jets up in the air with various cameras on them, and two units filming on the ground, which added up to 27 cameras. And I remember getting so much footage the next morning and just thinking this was going to be very difficult. Also, the days were very long when we were filming the aerial sequences, it was just really intense. And the thing is, when you've got a lot of footage like that and a movie like Top Gun, it has to be awesome from beginning to end, because the whole audience wants it to be awesome."
That seems like it would be so freakin’ overwhelming for an editor! Holy crap! How do you handle that kind of madness!? Well, you’ve got to just stay calm as you ride the storm. Hamilton continued:
"So, I have all the footage broken down and labeled so I can find stuff super fast. But the main thing is to try and stay calm and not get overwhelmed. But, honestly, there were months where I didn't sleep very well and I was just dreaming of closeups of Hangman and Phoenix and Rooster and Maverick. Literally every night I'd go to sleep and all I would see is their faces in my dreams. That's just how engrossed you get in the raw material and in the project that you are doing. Plus, the immense pressure of delivering this sequel after 30 years and wanting it to be brilliant."
That’s wild! I know exactly what he’s talking about, though! Sometimes I write so much that when I fall asleep I dream that I’m still working and writing all this content! Then when I wake up to find that no work has actually been done I get so pissed off because I worked while I was sleeping and I had nothing to show for it!
Anyway, Top Gun: Maverick must have been an insane film to edit, but the team behind it sure did do a hell of a great job! Hamilton should win an Oscar for his work on the movie!