Jerry Fried is an editor who believes in being emotional, especially when it comes to cutting an effective spot. "The main focal point of what I’m hired to do is to figure out how the spot is supposed to make you feel when it’s over, how it takes you through that journey," explains Fried, who cuts spots out of Red Car New York. (Red Car also has offices in Santa Monica, San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas.). "Storytelling is the essence of what I get hired to do a lot. Lately that’s been comedy, because comedy has become so dominant in advertising."
Fried’s editing talents are currently on display in two spots for The Gay Financial Network (GFN), "100% Heterosexual" and "Nervous Banker," both directed by Jeffrey Fleisig of bicoastal Villains via Mad Dogs & Englishmen, New York. ("Nervous Banker" was recently included in "The Best Work You May Never See Gallery," SHOOT, 8/25, p. 15.) The editor also worked on "Burger Boy" for TheStreet.com, helmed by Jesse Dylan of bicoastal Straw Dogs, out of DeVito/Verdi, New York.
GFN.com is a Web site that provides financial services and advice to the gay and lesbian community. The two GFN commercials concern the discrimination that a gay couple faces while attempting to finance a house through a "straight" bank. "100% Heterosexual" features a homophobic loan officer disposing of any feminine touches in his office and opening a credenza that displays a neon sign reading "100% Heterosexual," so that there can be no mistake about his sexual orientation when the gay couple comes to call. "Nervous Banker" is a dialogue-driven spot that depicts the banker desperately trying to find any explanation other than the obvious for why two men are applying for a joint loan.
Given that "100% Heterosexual" is more complicated production-wise, it’s logical to assume an editor would favor it over "Nervous Banker." Fried chose to use the latter on his show reel because he admires the way the spot creates discomfort. "It leaves the viewer with a more unsettled feeling," he says, "even though it’s comic, which I find unusual in advertising. That’s what I’m drawn to in many cases."
TheStreet.com’s "Burger Boy" tells the tale of a young fast-food burger flipper who rises to own a restaurant, then loses it all in one fell swoop because he invested in a tech stock without consulting TheStreet. com, a site that offers financial news and analysis. The last shot is of the former burger tycoon reduced to flipping burgers in someone else’s hamburger joint, as a voiceover warns, "TheStreet.com. Ignore us at your own risk."
"It’s a sort of post-dot-com frenzy spot," Fried explains. "There are so many dot-com spots that are bad and are really nothing more than a gag sponsored by a company. They don’t really make any connection to the product. This one does, because it takes [off] on the downturn in the market. It’s poignant and different and there’s actually a point to the spot."
TheStreet.com work is also different in that Fried and his Red Car New York colleague Beth Cramer both cut spots in the package. Fried did the aforementioned "Burger Boy," and Cramer cut "Disorientation" and "Viagra." "It was one of those situations where they had a bunch of spots and a really tight deadline," relates Fried. "It was convenient for Beth and I to split the package because there was so much work. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens at Red Car every now and then."
Making a point is what Fried the editor is all about. What registers on Fried’s radar is a quality concept with the potential for emotional impact. Ask him about his favorite spots and he’s likely to discuss those that evoke emotion, rather than those that were technical feats. "Heart Attack," an older spot for the American Heart Association, directed by Murray Bruce of Murray Bruce Productions, New York, via now defunct Lowe Marshak, remains on Fried’s reel simply because he loves the ad’s emotional impact. The commercial shows a man ignoring the warning signs of a heart attack and paying a heavy price. "I leave that on my general reel because I feel very close to that spot, even though it’s quite old," Fried notes. "It’s a spot that leaves you feeling something in your gut. It’s powerful, and I admit that I still get chills from it because of its message: You’re feeling something, you’re in denial about it, but you’ve blown it at the end."
While "Heart Attack" was serious, most of Fried’s work these days tends to be comedy. He has edited several of the duck commercials for the Aflac Insurance campaign, out of Kaplan Thaler Group, New York. One of his most recent efforts in this series, showing a duck that quacks "Aflac" at people discussing supplemental insurance, is "Park Bench," directed by Tom Routson of bicoastal Tool of North America. Fried has also cut "Bedroom" and "Steam Room," also helmed by Routson. The editor is currently working on a new Aflac ad, as well as on a spot for ITT.
After graduating from Harpur College, Binghamton, N.Y., in the late 1970s, Fried returned to his native New York City and discovered that there was no ready-made entry-level job for a filmmaker. "I was quite naïve," he says. He wound up as a chef at a New York bistro, a job he says he liked. After teaching filmmaking at The Door, New York, he took the plunge, quit the restaurant and began working as a freelance editor. He came aboard Red Car in ’91.
"I was working my way up through the craft, getting better work and building up my reel; having a wife and making kids—all that stuff, too," Fried recalls. "It took me a while to work my way up to Red Car. At the time, there were only a couple of places that really were artistic, that were focused on the art of editing. One was Red Car New York." a
