I was called in to interview with Spencer Averick (editor on “Selma,” “When They See Us”), who was hiring an assistant for the Ava DuVernay documentary “13th.” I instantly knew it would be a special project. It was a fantastic experience that I’ll never take for granted, and it motivated me to continue to grow as an editor.Įarly in my career, I was struggling to get assistant editor jobs. ![]() They placed me in the editing room for the film “X-Men: Days of Future Past” where I had a chance to meet and absorb knowledge from editor/composer John Ottman, editor Mike Hill, and assistant editors Steve Bobertz, Erik Jessen, and Pearce Roemer. I had always gravitated towards post-production, but during film school, I got an internship on the Fox lot where I had an opportunity to learn from some terrific people. The film got accepted into a few film festivals and helped me get into film school at Chapman University. I was fortunate enough to have access to a video production class in high school and made a short documentary about the United Farm Workers. When I was a teenager, I started filming little skits, short films, and documentaries on a Digital Video (DV) camera. My eyes grew wide and I exclaimed, “You can make these?” That’s when the fire was ignited. When I was about three or four, my mom took me to see the movie “Free Willy.” When the film finished and the credits started to roll, my mom pointed out that her longtime friend from college, Lauren Shuler Donner, had produced the movie. How did you first become interested in this line of work? We can’t survive without our assistant editors! And there is a constant flow and communication between the editor and the assistant editor. We work closely with composers, sound designers and re-recording mixers, colorists, and pretty much everyone involved in post. This is my favorite thing about editing: I often get to learn from top-notch creatives in the field and then get an opportunity to apply my craft to their vision. Both are highly collaborative, whether it’s with directors, producers, or executives. Inevitably, a lot of things change during production, and my job then becomes to creatively find ways to best present the material.Īt the same time, there’s also a ton of overlapping between working with fiction and nonfiction material. With narrative, I’m typically given a script very early on, which then becomes my “guide” as dailies begin to roll in. Since there’s no script, it becomes a really intricate editing puzzle of seeing how the pieces fit together. ![]() ![]() With documentary work, you aren’t just editing the material you’re also a writer. ![]() I’ve edited both narrative and documentary, and in some ways, they are vastly different animals. I’m working on a feature documentary called “Understanding Autism.” I’m excited about this project because not only is it an emotional journey into autism education and awareness, but it’s also directed and produced by people who are on the spectrum and have firsthand experience with the topic. My employer, Stone Village Films, is best known for “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Chef,” and “Empire Falls.” Like many of us these days, I work remotely from home.
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