Editor Karama Horne has come aboard The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York. Previously, she was on staff at New York editorial shop mad.house, where her cutting credits included Burger King’s "The Deal/Video" and "The Deal/CD" via Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York. Prior to mad.house, Horne was at the now defunct Hudson River Pictures. While there, she edited such spots as bath and bedding company Fieldcrest’s "Portraits" and ESPN’s "Shameless Stunt," both through Greenberg Advertising, New York.
Raised in New York and New Jersey, Horne received a BS in film and video from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1993. Following graduation, she joined WEHS-TV in Chicago as a master control operator, cameraperson and online editor. Horne went to Chicago’s Optimus in ’94, where she worked for the next two and a half years as an online editor. She taught herself the Avid editing system in her spare time, and cut the short Carmin’s Choice and the documentary Comrade Sister: Women in the Black Panther Party. In January ’97, she relocated to New York to join Crew Cuts as an assistant editor, leaving for Hudson River Pictures in May ’99. The latter "was a tiny two-Avid shop. I did longform, documentaries and music videos there," she remembered.
"Nothing was wrong at mad.house; it was a wonderful place to work," stressed Horne regarding her departure from the firm she had joined in August ’00. However, "Blue Rock has an incredible technical staff, and [sister companies] Blast Digital Audio and [visual effects/graphic design house] Spontaneous Combustion are here, too. Everything is at my fingertips." Horne also noted Blue Rock’s combination of "state-of-the-art technology and creative design [capabilities]. … If I need anything—whether it’s for the Avid or the clients—there’s a team of people. Clients and creativity are the most important thing to me, and I’m working for a company that feels the same way."
Horne’s skill with software programs including Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects is evident in her work. She offered, "I approach every assignment [with the intention] that someone watching the spot will want to stop and take a look at it." One of the people who stopped to look at Horne’s reel was Blue Rock president Ethel Rubinstein, who was first made aware of Horne earlier this year when a colleague mentioned the editor as a young talent to watch. Rubinstein took heed: "I looked at Karama’s reel, and showed it to people here at Blue Rock," she recalled. "Everybody had the same sense of this very tight, alive work. You watch the reel and think, ‘There’s a very intelligent, happening person behind this reel.’ "
In March, Rubinstein contacted Horne, much to the editor’s surprise: "Ethel e-mailed me out of the blue. … I was in shock; I thought, ‘Wow, somebody likes my work,’ " Horne laughed. Rubinstein offered Horne a position at Blue Rock shortly after meeting her.
Blue Rock’s roster also consists of editors David Cornman, Lenny Friedman, Maciek Godlewski, Ilene Hochman, Reb Kessler, Sewra Kidane, Peter Klaus, Laura Milstein, Richard Morse, Vinny Pisciotta, Brent Prince, Oren Sarch, Nico Sheers, Chip Smith, Gregg Suskin, Oliver Wicki, Sylvette Artinian and Sloane Klevin.
The firm’s director of new business development Jennifer Hertslet and head of sales Corey Fenstemacher are the company’s national reps.
