Editor Karen Kourtessis, whose diverse and expansive work has earned Cannes Lions, Clios and an Emmy nomination, among other honors, is coming aboard the roster of Union Editorial. Recent projects edited by Kourtessis include ads for Android, Google and HelloFlo. For the latter, she cut “Faking It” (aka “First Moon Party”), a two-time Webbie honoree and winner in the Comedy category at the 14th Annual AICE Awards, held last week. Directed and written by Jamie McCelland and Pete Marquis of Hayden 5, “Faked It” additionally garnered more than 30 million views on YouTube.
“Regardless of the genre, storytelling is at the heart of everything I do, and documentary-style filmmaking seems particularly prevalent these days,” Kourtessis observed. Judging by the awards and the views, Kourtessis’ work is on target, not surprising for an editor who began her career as a sharpshooter in the US Army. It was during her four years in the military that she shot and edited training films and news stories. After concluding her service, Kourtessis landed in NYC where some time later she was invited to be a Partner at Crew Cuts. She held that position until early 2013, and was most recently at Beast where she cut many notable jobs, including “Faking It.”
Kourtessis’ commercial filmography includes work for clients and agencies such as IKEA (Ogilvy), Olay (Saatchi) and Google (72andSunny). In addition to McCelland/Marquis, Kourtessis has collaborated with directors Alison Maclean, Henry Lu, The Fines and Carol Denis, among others. Her work also includes music videos, award-winning shorts and documentaries.
For Maclean, Kourtessis edited the Sony Dreams short titled Intolerable. The piece made an impression on Union editor/partner Sloane Klevin who recalled that she has been a fan of Kourtessis ever since she saw it. Klevin recalled that Intolerable “blew my mind…it was beyond anything anyone else was doing in advertising. I didn’t know her but I decided I wanted to be like her….She is a game changer.”
Kourtessis met Klevin a couple of months ago for the first time. She said of Klevin, “Here’s someone who also takes on this crazy hard documentary work, helping to shape stories from absurd amounts of footage. The whole Union family and dynamic is in line with my own sensibilities, and the decision to join the company was a natural one.”
Union Editorial has offices in Santa Monica, Calif., New York City, Austin, Texas, and London, where it maintains an alliance with Marshall Street Editors. Union is presided over by partner/managing director Michael Raimondi and partner/executive producer Caryn Maclean. The Union roster is comprised of partners/editors Jim Haygood, Einar, Jay Friedkin, Sloane Klevin and Marco Perez, and editors Nico Alba, Jinx Godfrey, Nicholas Wayman-Harris, Rachael Waxler, Daniel Luna, Jason Lucas, Paul Plew, Ben Longland, Laura Milstein, Eric Argiro, Mike Colao and Kourtessis, as well as select projects with Tim Thornton Allen, Patric Ryan, and Ryan Boucher.
