Film editing is not as discussed as much as it should be. Go into the cinema section of any bookstore and you’ll find far more studies and biographies of directors, cinematographers and screenwriters than you will about motion pictures editors.

That’s a shame, because the ability to edit picture and sound, to manipulate time and change performances is what the art of the cinema really is all about. You can write a script, you can film performers acting out that script, but you don’t start constructing the movie until you start cutting. Or, to quote filmmaker Garry Marshall: “Editing is the only process. The shooting is the pleasant work. The editing makes the movie.”

That said, let’s hear it for Bobbie O’Steen, author of the new book The Invisible Cut: How Editor Make Movie Magic and Carol Littleton, editor of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Wyatt Earp and The Manchurian Candidate, among over 30 other films. The pair will be appearing live Sunday, January 10 at The Billy Wilder Theater on Wilshire Boulevard in a program co-presented by The UCLA Film & Television Archive and American Cinema Editors.

O’Steen and Littlejohn will present a screening of Lawrence Kasdan’s 1981 modern noir classic, Body Heat (which Littlejohn edited) and discuss the craft and art of film editing.

Projected frame grabs from Body Heat will highlight the editorial choices made on that movie and Bobbie O’Steen will conduct an interview with Carol Littlejohn that will, we are promised, “cover such broad-ranging topics as gendered perspectives, and the role of editing at a time of evolving production and storytelling paradigms.”

Don’t let that scare you. It’s going to be fascinating.

The big show starts at 7:00pm, with tickets running a mere ten bucks a piece. For more information, click here.

In the meantime, some favorite books on film editing include: When the Shooting Stops…The Cutting Begins by Ralph Rosenblum (editor of Annie Hall and six Woody Allen films), In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch (Jarhead, The Wolfman) and The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje. All are available at Amazon.

Some people seem to genuinely enjoy bashing Saturday Night Live. Not me. I’ve watched the show from the very first season and quickly came to the conclusion that no individual SNL show could or would ever be perfect. Some sketches will always be weaker than others; some musical acts less interesting than others and some hosts will tame the harsh mistress that is live television better than others.

But if you’ve got a spare 65 minutes, a DVR and a dexterous remote thumb, there’s always going to be something fun and interesting during any random edition of Saturday Night Live.

This season, a lot of the fun and interesting have been provided by Mr. Kenan Thompson.

Kenan’s no newbie with the show. He started as a featured player in 2003 (Season 29) and was upped to full cast member in 2005 (Season 31). In the six and a half seasons since, Kenan’s built a character catalog that rivals SNL greats like Phil Hartman and Will Ferrell.

Think I’m kidding? Look at the numbers.During his eight years at SNL, Phil Hartman embodied 21 unique characters and did impressions of 76 different entertainers and newsmakers. Will Ferrell put in seven years on SNL and did 28 characters and 66 impressions.

And Kenan Thompson? Well, he’s been with the show six and a half years (a year and half less than Phil and a half-season less than Will), and he’s already posted 19 characters and 61 impressions. By the season’s end, he could pass Hartman in characters and Ferrell in impressions. Not bad for the former child actor from the Disney Mighty Ducks movies.

But it’s not all about the numbers. What I really enjoy about watching Kenan do his thing three Saturday nights a month is that he appears to be having fun. Whether he’s singing uncontrollably as Diondre Cole, host of What Up With That?, leaping to his feet as French Def Comedy Jam comic Jean K. Jean or just getting horny as the flashy and sassy Virginiaca Hastings, nobody looks more filled with joy in Studio 8H than Kenan Thompson.

And his impressions, too, are remarkably free of mean-spiritedness. Kenan’s done everyone from Al Sharpton to Star Jones, Chaka Kahn to Bill Cosby, Jennifer Hudson to O.J. Simpson, from Aretha Franklin to Tiger Woods and no matter how kooky they might be behaving or how much trouble they might be in, Kenan’s interpretation of them never goes to a negative place. Is he making fun of their behavior and their choices? Oh, yeah. Is he diminishing them as human beings? Not as far as I can tell.

As we head into the second half of Kenan Thompson’s seventh season with the show, we have to consider that it might be closer to the end than the beginning for Kenan on SNL. Yes, there have been cast members who have stayed longer (Darrell Hammond at 14 seasons, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows and Maya Rudolph at 9; Chris Kattan and Amy Poehler at 8), but a lot more have stayed a lot less time. Still, the fact remains that performers like Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Tracy Morgan all left after their seventh season.

So, with that in mind and with Saturday Night Live returning to the air tonight for five more months, I say let’s tune in and revel in whatever joy Kenan Thompson plans to send our way.