The marquee names on the film festival circuit often belong to directors and actors, with considerable attention also paid to cinematographers. But somewhat lost in the shuffle are the editors and post artisans whose contributions are integral to the artistic and commercial success of the films selected for festival exposure.
In this installment of SHOOT’s ongoing Editors & Post Series, we look to eliminate that blind spot, profiling an editor whose work graced both this year’s Sundance Film Festival as well as the currently running Tribeca Film Fest, and a colorist who played a significant role in a South By Southwest Film Festival entry.
Additionally SHOOT hearkens to the past with a profile of an esteemed editor who is this year’s inductee into the AICE Hall of Fame.
Here are profiles of editor Richard Mettler, colorist Chris Ryan and editor Jack Tohtz.
Richard Mettler It’s been an eventful film festival season for editor Richard Mettler who’s scored on both the short and long-form fronts, the former being evident at the ongoing Tribeca Film Festival where the Paul Riccio-directed, Mettler-cut comedy short Space Cadet is making its world premiere (for more on this project and Riccio, see SHOOTonline, 3/29.)
The Tribeca exposure comes just three months after Mettler made his official feature film editing debut with the Sean Ellis-directed Metro Manila which won the World Cinema-Dramatic Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Sundance’s World Cinema-Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.
Directors Riccio and Ellis gravitated to Mettler based on their positive experiences collaborating with the editor on commercials. Riccio, whose ad roost is Sandwick Media, first worked with Mettler on an ING New York City Marathon campaign which marked a departure for the director from comedy/dialogue into more visually driven fare.
Conversely, Space Cadet now helps to diversify Mettler, known for editing visual spots, into comedy. The short centers on Paul, a distracted 15 year old who’s asked to help prepare dinner but nearly blows up the apartment in the process, causing his hippie, free-spirit parents to reach the end of their rope. They encourage their son to see a psychiatrist. However, the lad later redeems himself as he inadvertently thwarts a burglary at the family home while having the presence of mind to keep his dad out of legal hot water by hiding a certain incriminating piece of potted plant evidence just before the police arrive. The adolescent’s journey from misfit to being back in good graces is not only comedic but makes for a sweet relationship piece between father and son.
As for director Ellis, who also shot and co-wrote Metro Manila, he and Mettler worked over the years on assorted commercials, including campaigns for Kenneth Cole and fashion fare for K-Mart. In fact, at press time, Mettler, who freelances, was slated to edit an Ellis-helmed Cartier fragrance commercial being shot in Paris. Again, Mettler who’s known for much fashion and beauty ad work, found himself extending his creative reach, this time into narrative, dialogue and actor performances via Metro Manila.
Drawing Mettler to Metro Manila was this chance to spread his creative wings on a feature-length assignment, to collaborate with Ellis (whose commercial roosts are RSA Films in the U.K. and Saville Productions stateside), and the allure of working on a foreign film that was an interesting mix of European and Asian sensibilities with dialogue spoken in the Filipino language (accompanied by English subtitles). The U.K./Philippines movie centers on Oscar and his family who, seeking a better life, move from the poverty-stricken rice fields to the big city of Manila where they fall victim to various inhabitants whose manipulative ways are a part of daily urban life.
“This was a great opportunity,” assessed Mettler, noting that he was attracted to Ellis’ talent and acumen, citing the director’s prior short films Cashback (a Best Live Action Short Oscar nominee) for its visually rich dark comedy, and Left Turn for its psychological horror vibe. Plus, affirmed Mettler, “I felt connected to the Metro Manila story from the get-go. Sean approached me about the movie at the time he was writing it.”
Given the success of Metro Manila, Mettler would like to take on other feature films and has signed with talent agency ICM for that pursuit. “Ideally, I’d like to be going back and forth between features and commercials, maybe doing one movie a year,” he related. “A lot of editors in commercials don’t often cut feature films and if they do, they’re more documentary than fiction. Only a select few successfully do fiction features and commercials. I’d love to be one of them, with features and commercials feeding off of one another.”
Mettler has an extensive track record in commercials, taking as of late a decidedly international flavor. For example, as SHOOT went to press, Mettler was about to go to Shanghai for a Cadillac job, in addition to the aforementioned Cartier shoot in Paris. Meanwhile, he continues to cut spots in New York and L.A. and hopes the agency community will look to him not only for his staple work in fashion/beauty but also for comedy, narrative and dialogue fare.
Mettler got his start in editing–after working as a music producer and composer/engineer in the record business–at a couple of New York houses, Cabana and Consulate. He then went freelance for a six-year stretch, forging relationships with directors and agencies on jobs that were run through different editorial companies. One of the shops he brought editing gigs to was Peep Show in New York, the stateside shop for the U.K.-headquartered company. He was on staff there for a year and a half followed by a couple of years at jumP. It was during his jumP tenure that Mettler cut Space Cadet and Metro Manila. For the latter, he went to the south of France for about three-and-a-half months to cut and work directly with Ellis.
Over the years, Mettler has edited commercials for such clients as L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, Christian Lacroix, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Infiniti, MasterCard and 7UP. Mettler observed that his spotmaking experience served him well in the long-form discipline as he brought certain visual, pacing and observational skills to Metro Manila. Since he doesn’t speak Filipino or Tagalog, Mettler’s approach to selecting actor performances was centered on visual elements, including body language.
Chris Ryan A leading colorist known for his spot exploits at Nice Shoes, the New York shop in which he’s partnered, Chris Ryan is also no stranger to the festival season. Last year, Asad–directed by Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man–won top short film honors at Tribeca. Ryan did the color grading on Asad, which went on to earn an Academy Award nomination.
Fast forward to last month’s South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin and we find Ryan’s color savvy gracing These Birds Walk, a feature documentary which documents the resilience of a six-year-old Pakistani runaway as he grapples with defining his home–is it the streets, an orphanage or with the family he fled in the first place? The film chronicles the struggles of street children in Karachi, Pakistan.
Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick directed and produced These Birds Walk, with Mullick also serving as DP. Tariq is a sr. copywriter at BBDO New York. His colleague there, executive creative director Don Schneider, introduced Tariq and Mullick to Ryan. Schneider and Ryan have worked on varied projects over the years, mostly for GE and Pepsi.
“Don told me he knew these two guys who did an amazing documentary but needed some color grading,” recalled Ryan. “I trust Don’s opinion and agreed to meet Bassam and Omar. Their [Canon EOS] 5D [Mark II digital camera] footage had already been shot and pretty much edited. What I like to do with these long-form pieces is sit with the directors and discuss the work, hearing about what they envision, the tonal color shifts they want to support their story. Then I like working on it alone for a while–a day or two by myself without distractions.”
When he met next with Tariq and Mullick, Ryan handed them a DVD. “This was their first film and the tendency of first-time filmmakers is to be too nice and too apologetic about asking for favors,” said Ryan. “They’re afraid to ask too much of someone who is helping them out. But I told them to go home, watch the DVD and make a clear judgment based on the direction they wanted to go in for this film. They did and realized that the initial direction they wanted hurt the overall feel of the film.”
Ryan explained that the co-directors originally wanted a cool blue tinge, making for cool shadows and warm highlights. “It looked good but it made the mood of the film seem a little depressed,” said Ryan. “Yes, the story is sad but they also wanted to convey hope. It’s not all dour. Pakistan is a place of exciting, vibrant colors and street life. We wound up using what was there, letting the natural colors come out.”
Co-director Mullick related, “We learned about nuances in the film given certain choices, and Chris’ experience proved invaluable in providing insights, but more specifically balance, as to how far to push certain decisions for the ultimate feel of the movie. In particular, the treatment of nighttime shots that alternated between rescuing information from the shadows and then also punching certain colors in the bustle of the city brought Karachi to life. Equally, the emphasis on a warm but subtle realism in the children’s skin tones and daytime interactions helped make the characters both accessible and human. Chris’ work helped realize a vision of people and a place that was, up to then, just an idea. His work was crucial in bringing the film to completion.”
Ryan was lead colorist on These Birds Walk, heading a Nice Shoes team of colorists which also included Gene Curley and Ron Sudul.
While the lion’s share of Ryan’s workload has been in commercials, with recent endeavors spanning such clients as State Farm, Ragu, Empire State Development and CitiBank, the colorist does have a long-form pedigree. Years ago, prior to Nice Shoes when he was at Manhattan Transfer, Ryan worked for client Criterion on such titles as Gimme Shelter and 8 1/2.
Additionally, Ryan was colorist on the Martin Bell-directed Alexander, a moving short film about special needs children in Iceland. Ryan has more recently been working on a new version of Streetwise, Bell’s signature feature documentary providing a gritty look at teenagers living on the streets of Seattle.
Among Ryan’s many notable spot credits is American Express’ “Curtain” starring Conan O’Brien, which earned an HPA Award nomination for Outstanding Color Grading.
Jack Tohtz The predecessor organization to AICE in Chicago was CAFE (the Chicago Association of Film Editors). And many years ago, just when CAFE was about to become the AICE, graduating to national and then eventually international organization status, a pair of CAFE members, editors Jimmy Smyth and Jack Tohtz, met with editor Dennis Hayes from New York at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas where they cobbled together what was to become the AICE editorial bid form. For this and other industry achievements as well as their body of work on the creative and artistic fronts, Hayes and Smyth were inducted into the AICE Hall of Fame in 1998 and 2004, respectively. Joining them in the Hall of Fame will be Tohtz whose formal induction will take place during the AICE Awards ceremony on May 16 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
Tohtz is not one to talk in grandiose terms about the drafting of the standard AICE bid form. Instead he cites the practicality of that pursuit. “It was like found art. It came out of necessity,” he recalled. “Something had to be done. No one was comparing apples to apples until we got the bid form going. It just made things much easier from a business standpoint.”
Tohtz’s career spanned some 30-plus years. He started just when the prevalent practice of production houses having in-house editorial arms had faded in Chicago, the only company to retain that setup being FilmFair. Tohtz began at an independent edit house called VPI in 1967 at the age of 20, breaking in as an assistant to editor Jerry Weldon who was on a talent roster that also included cutters Bob Sinise, Bob Blanford, Frank Romolo and the newest addition, Smyth.
“As an assistant, you did everything,” said Tohtz. “First you had to run a can of film over to the agency and then when you got back, you’d assist on a cut or be an apprentice editing film. You wore many hats as an assistant and it was a great education.”
Then came a brief stint at a Chicago edit shop called Wilding followed by a five-year-plus stay at Editor’s Choice with Tohtz continuing as an assistant editor and ghost editing, reuniting with Blanford and Romolo.
Next up was a reunion with Sinise (and later Weldon) at The Reel Thing, a shop launched by Sinise in Chicago. There, Tohtz became a full-fledged editor with his own room and Moviola. He cut for an array of agencies, from Foote, Cone & Belding to Grey and Needham Harper & Steers. He hired as his assistant a youngster named Tim McGuire, who is now CEO and president of Cutters Studios.
McGuire recollected, “Jack was one of The Reel Thing’s young, hot-shot editors. He was popular and winning awards with McDonald’s and other clients. He was lightening fast as an editor. He encapsulated everything that an editor needed to be–he was very astute, understood the project, understood the clients, their needs and what he had to do with the film to make it interesting and creative. He was able to manage all that throughout his career–being able to come up with great artistic product yet at the same time get that commercial sold, keeping the integrity of his original cut through all the changes the clients threw at him and the real needs they had. He managed to retain creativity throughout the edit process.”
Describing Tohtz as a mentor to him, Tohtz said of the newest AICE Hall of Fame inductee, “There was no job too tough you could throw at Jack. He had great creativity to go along with a workman’s mentality–‘let’s get this done.'”
After The Reel Thing, Tohtz had a brief stopover at the Chicago shop of the L.A.-headquartered The Film Place. Then through a friend, Tohtz met editor David Szabo who had a two-room editing shop on Michigan Avenue. “David was working for a production company that went out of business,” recollected Tohtz. “They gave him a KEM instead of his salary due so we had this one machine we could share. Shortly thereafter we started Szabo Tohtz Editing. We quickly had more business than we were capable of handling with one machine. We got a bank loan to buy another KEM.”
Szabo Tohtz became an industry mainstay, turning out top drawer work for agencies throughout Chicago. The company then diversified, launching a finishing house, Skyview, which brought in talent from the venerable Editel. Both Szabo Tohtz and Skyview were long-term success stories, the former enjoying a run of some 25 years, with Skyview running for about a dozen or so years before shuttering in 1999. Besides turning out lauded work, Tohtz during his long tenure at those companies had a hand in assorted landmark accomplishments, including Skyview becoming the first Chicago house to go nonlinear with Avid, his helping to form CAFE, and then playing an integral part in AICE.
“I had the privilege of working with astonishing talent–on the agency side, directors and production houses, and editing colleagues in Chicago,” said Tohtz whose work garnered assorted awards over the decades, including a Cannes Gold Lion-winning McDonald’s spot titled “Hot Stuff” from Needham Harper and Steers (which later became DDB Needham and then simply DDB), Chicago. Among the leading directors Tohtz cut spots for were Howard Zieff, Joe Pytka, and Leslie Dektor.
