Film Editing necessitates a story being told at a reasonable length with smooth transitions and, of course, applicable structure. Some genres, such as action films, musicals and non-linear stories, naturally tend to be opportunities for an editor to really show their stuff. But such an opportunity does not make the task exceptional in and of itself. It can even prove itself distracting at times.

On the other hand, films that flow seamlessly can be demonstrative of some of the best editing in the field. Less is more is by no means out of style. I recently had the opportunity to speak with two editors whose subtle work was integral to the success of two 2006 awards hopefuls: Lucia Zucchetti, who concisely and gracefully pieced together Stephen Frears’s “The Queen,” and Leo Trombetta, charged with the task of blending satire, drama and suspense in Todd Field’s “Little Children.”

Zucchetti’s career has been on the rise for a number of years. She began her career in the usual fashion, taking on shorts and independent films. This year she finds herself in the hunt for Oscar recognition on one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

“I can say I’ve been lucky,” Zucchetti says. “If I look back I’m very pleased with the choices I’ve made and the people I’ve encountered.”

”The Queen” marks Zucchetti’s third collaboration with Stephen Frears, following television’s “The Deal” in 2003 and last year’s Oscar-nominated “Mrs. Henderson Presents.”

“Meeting Stephen has been very marking experience,” she contends. “He focuses a lot on performances, so that’s his number one interest in the cutting room. He will sometimes have an opinion on certain concerns, such as rhythm, and he makes that known to you. Though he will say ‘You’re the editor, it’s up to you; you figure it out.’”

Zucchetti greatly appreciated this independence, adding, “He will allow you to use your skill, and he does so with all department heads.”

Leo Trombetta (who can be seen briefly in “Little Children” in the role of a documentary editor) also found the highest profile film of his career to date in Todd Field’s latest effort.

“Every other feature I’ve worked on was independent,” he begins, “in the sense that it had no distributor from the beginning. But New Line was amazingly hands-off.”

It becomes clear that Field had a different approach in his relationship with his Trombetta than did Frears with Zucchetti, but he is equally appreciative of the experience.

“Others like to give notes and let you execute,” he says. “Todd’s not that way. He was very, very hands-on. He’d be in at nine and stay until eight and was with me every step of the way.”

Length is always an issue when it comes to cutting a film. Both editors acknowledge as much, but do not overstate it.

“I think we always said the film should be the length that it needs to be,” Zucchetti says. With respect to the film’s conciseness (it runs just 97 minutes), she notes, “Stephen prefers to be concise rather than overstay his welcome, and we knew from the script that this wasn’t going to be a long movie.”

“Length is a concern,” Trombetta offers. “We knew New Line wasn’t going to release a 3-hour movie, and the first assembly was 3 hours and 20 minutes. But my feeling was not to focus on the time element until the end. It wasn’t until around mid-way through that we had to ask ‘How long is it now?’”

Both “The Queen” and “Little Children” are notable for blending light moments into serious material. Zucchetti and Trombetta each remark on the importance of achieving an appropriate balance of these tones.

“I think it was one of the challenges,” Zucchetti says. “I remember the word ‘tone’ was a very important word in the early stages as we were finding out what it should be. I’d like to think we succeeded in getting it right. It was a process of discovering, because obviously it’s a serious film with a light, humorous touch.”

“The forty minutes after the title are satirical,” Trombetta affords. “It starts to change when Ronnie enters the pool. From that point on, it was a big challenge to keep these tones balanced. And the hardest thing was to realize a scene you really love had to be sacrificed to maintain the tone.”

In addition to length, each film was met with rather unique elements of structure. For Zucchetti, it was the integration of archival material, which she says made the experience particularly memorable.

“It was one of the reasons I felt it would be interesting to cut,” she states frankly. “Archive can affect storytelling so much. It opened up a number of possibilities which enormously affected our story and opened up debate among the filmmakers.”

For Trombetta, the challenge of structure came upon receipt of Field’s work on the page.

“The film had a completely different editing structure in the script,” he says. “We were originally supposed to have many scenes on screen at the same time in boxes, but it was sad to admit it didn’t work. I had to put my ego aside, and we decided to do it more straightforward.”

With the highest profile films of their careers bursting onto the cinematic scene last month, it is quite apparent Lucia Zucchetti and Leo Trombetta are approaching their futures in the business with optimism and openness.

“The success of ‘The Queen’ has been so wonderful, beyond any expectations,” Zucchetti explains. “I feel the past three years have been very exciting, but every single project I did taught me something different and challenged me in different ways. If you go for something you’ve done before, it might not pique your interest as much.”

“There’s no genre that I don’t want to have anything to do with,” Trombetta concludes. “I’m still at a point where I’d love to do every kind of film.”

And wherever they go from here, it seems certain that the experiences of “The Queen” and “Little Children” will stick with both editors forever.