Editorial and postproduction house Final Cut has added independent feature film editor Jim Helton to its international roster for commercial, branded and long-form work. Helton is a longtime friend, collaborator and editor for independent filmmaker and Radical Media director Derek Cianfrance, known for his features Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond The Pines and The Light Between Oceans. Those three features were cut by Jim Helton and Ron Patane. (Cianfrance also earlier this year won the DGA Award for Commercials.)
Helton met Cianfrance when they were both filmmaking students at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The two became fast friends and frequent collaborators over the subsequent 20-plus years. “I was living in my parents’ basement working at a video store, and teaching myself Avid cutting low-budget trailers at night until Derek called and said, ‘You need to quit and you need to come to New York’,” recalled Helton. Once in New York, Helton made a living, and increasingly, a name for himself as an editor of independent documentaries, television shows and in his first professional collaborations with Cianfrance since college, Brother Tied and Shots In The Dark.
“As an editor, it’s my job to serve the work, find the structure, but I also have to read the room, the collaborators, and act as a partner, counselor and an advisor, to help them birth their creative vision. It’s a lot of fun,” said Helton of his role in the edit suite. “I’ve always wanted to make films,” Helton went on to say, “and as an editor, I’ve found a place, a way to do that.”
Stephanie Apt, president of Final Cut, cited Helton’s “ability to understand a narrative and tease out the beats of a story…His love of film and the craft is infectious; it was clear that his energy and joy would be a wonderful presence at Final Cut. We’re really looking forward to being able to bring that talent and passion to our clients, agencies and other incredible directors.”
Final Cut is represented by Denise Blate Roederer’s RHODA on the East Coast, Doug Stephen & Partners in the Midwest, and by Lisa Sabatino Lange’s Ready Set on the West Coast.
