Early in The Godfather‘s filming schedule, editor Aram Avakian, who had co-directed the groundbreaking 1960 concert film Jazz on a Summer’s Day, became displeased with Francis Ford Coppola’s work. He let the studio know about it. In his memoir Infamous Players, Paramount exec Peter Bart recalled, “To my astonishment, [exec Jack] Ballard announced on a conference call that Coppola ‘wasn’t up to the job,’ that he wanted to designate Aram Avakian, the editor, as the new director. [Producer] Al Ruddy had warned me that Avakian had been hovering around Ballard in a conspiratorial manner and that something dire was afoot.” Both Coppola and Paramount head of production Robert Evans claim to have fired Avakian following this turn of events. Coppola (seen above with Brando, out of makeup) brought in two editors to work on the film — Peter Zinner, who worked on the second half, and William H. Reynolds, who worked on the first.