There aren’t too many professions still following the apprenticeship tradition. The tried-and-true method of learning a trade at the side of a master workman has largely been abandoned in favor of book learning and on-the-job training. The editing profession, however, is steeped in apprenticeship. Typically, assistant editors are watched closely by their superiors—their cutting skills, knowledge, desire and social graces are monitored by the editor and executive producer who pass along more responsibilities, which lead to more opportunities to shine. Editors share similar stories of lonely months in the tape vault and late nights in the edit bay just to get promoted to an assistant position. From there, anywhere from two to five-plus years spent assisting will eventually bring opportunities to impress the executive producer, the senior editors and the clients—all much-needed allies on the road to becoming a full-fledged spot editor.
Postproduction house Optimus, which houses nine editors in its Chicago office and two in Optimus-owned CO-OP, Santa Monica, employs one assistant editor for each editor, and maintains a healthy internship program of six to eight interns working at any given time. "We grow our own here," says Tom Duff, president of Optimus. "The interns are basically gofers, but we invite them at any point to go sit in the room with the editors, artists or colorists. We also have open boxes and we encourage them to get on there and use the tutorial—learn it, do a school project, come in on the weekends and nights. If you have self-motivation, people notice that and when an opening happens, they will say, ‘What about that guy? I always see him cutting.’ "
Duff feels it takes special individual qualities for an assistant to come up through the ranks, and despite the years it takes to groom an editor, he says he knows almost right away if an assistant has what it takes. "You can tell in the first week or two whether they are going to make it or not," he says. "It is not about mastering the box—anyone can run a computer. You have to have the creative eye, the ability to work a room with clients and not take criticism personally."
Krystn Wagenberg, the New York-based president of Mad River Post, New York, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Dallas and Detroit, noted another quality to which she pays particular attention. "There are a couple of ingredients that help an assistant’s rise in the industry," she says, "but I look for someone who is constantly cutting, someone who thrives on editing no matter what the content is."
Wagenberg’s "young guns," as she calls them, are Jason Macdonald and James Duffy, recently promoted from their assistant positions in the New York office. "Jason Macdonald came from Canada," shares Wagenberg, whose company employs 15 cutters across its five offices. "He was an editor there, but didn’t feel he was at the level he wanted to be. As a cutting assistant to Dick Gordon, Dick started showing the client certain cuts that were Jason’s, and the client fell in love with him. When a client calls me up asking me to work with a certain ‘cutting assistant,’ at that point I would be a fool not to make him an editor." Macdonald is now a full-fledged editor at Mad River, and recently completed work on "Nelly," directed by David Palmer of bicoastal/international Partizan; the ad was part of ESPN’s "Without Sports" campaign, out of Wieden+Kennedy, New York.
Duffy recently edited two Rolex ads out of J. Walter Thompson, New York. Stephane Dumonceau, a former in-house editor at FCB, San Francisco, joined Mad River’s Santa Monica shop last year and is also among the company’s budding talent. Recently, he cut "Coach," also a part of the "Without Sports" campaign; Stacy Wall of bicoastal Epoch Films helmed the ad.
Matchmaking
As Mark Littman, partner/creative editor at Northern Lights Post, New York, points out, oftentimes the reason a client sees an assistant’s work is because there’s someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. "[Putting an assistant with a client] is like two mothers setting up their kids," he says. "We have to be very subtle and hope we get a match."
Recently, Northern Lights signed editor Scott Gorman, who was previously an in-house editor at MTV. According to Northern Lights’ partner/creative editor David Gioiella, matchmaking is a matter of understanding his editor’s talent and his client’s needs. "Scott Gorman came over from MTV with no commercial background," Gioiella explains. "So we know that Scott knows music editing, pacing, documentary footage and how to make things look good from sources that are mediocre. So you take a guy who has immense talent, like Scott, and pair him up with a client who we feel can benefit from that relationship. So far, the response has been great because he has been giving clients very unique looks." Most recently, Gorman cut a series of promos for The Larry Sanders Show for the Bravo network’s in-house agency, and a series of client-direct spots for MAC cosmetics, which were directed by Liz Hinlein of Dogtag Films, New York.
Littman, who has four editors on staff including himself and Gioiella, says he is very aware of the balance his company must strike between producing excellent work and bringing up new talent. "It is a delicate thing that we have to figure out each time," he notes. "That is the trick—identifying talent in someone who is up-and-coming. In the end, it is up to them. I can put an assistant with a client, but if they are not going to impress that client, and the client isn’t calling me to ask for that editor, then we really haven’t done anything."
Many of an assistant editor’s chances come from a sharp executive producer who knows how to seize an opportunity. "If someone calls and says they don’t have a lot of money, I offer that to my senior assistant editors," explains Christie Cash, executive producer at Crew Cuts West, Santa Monica. (Crew Cuts also has offices in New York and San Francisco.)
"If an assistant is almost ready," says Wagenberg, "meaning they have proven ability and they get along with the clients and show a certain level of maturity, I will hand off the job to them once it starts going into revisions. That is an opportunity to work with a client, and sometimes there are even additional spots that come up that they can cut."
If an executive producer really believes that an assistant editor is on the verge of breaking through, he or she will try to present the young talent to clients with larger, more high-profile projects. But as many producers will tell you, sometimes it takes a lot of convincing before a client will trust a project with an untested editor. "Being in the position to nurture up-and-coming talent is definitely the most exciting part of my job," says Linda Rafoss, executive producer at Version2. Editing (V2), New York, which has seven editors on its roster. "When I am trying to build someone, I will [work with] loyal clients because there is the trust factor," she says. "Also, I will offer up an experienced editor who can supervise if needed. It is just for their comfort level, but it is pretty successful in terms of getting clients to let go and try the young talent."
Editor Tina Mintus is perhaps the best example of V2’s grooming philosophy. "Tina started off as the assistant to [owner/editor] Vito DeSario, and worked extremely hard," relates Rafoss. "She was able to move very naturally from assistant to junior editor. A good part of my last two years here have been spent building her from junior editor to full-fledged editor in her own right, and she has taken off in the last year."
Mintus recently cut a campaign for And1 via Frank, New York, and spots for Kodak out of Ogilvy & Mather, New York. Dave Herman, another up-and-comer at V2, comes to the company with an agency background—he spent two years at TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, and prior to that, two years at Kovel Kresser & Partners (now Kovel/ Fuller, Culver City, Calif.). Some of his recent spots include a Planters Nuts campaign out of FCB, New York, and Dentyne Ice out of Bates USA, New York.
Rafoss and other executive producers have sometimes had to sacrifice more than resources to break through new talent. "Agencies rely on experienced editors often," she explains, "and sometimes volunteering your services in order to get people to take a chance on you is the only way. They may be willing to take a chance, but not always willing to pay for that chance."
Homegrown
Shops like The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York, with 16 editors, and FilmCore, with eight editors spread between Santa Monica and San Francisco, see opportunity in developing new talent. "The way assistants become editors is an organic, natural transition," observes John Palestrini, president of Blue Rock, which maintains Raw Talent, a division that is staffed with seven up-and-coming editors. "Raw Talent was something that was formed to crystallize that idea."
Palestrini sees his division for young talent as a win-win for Blue Rock, his employees and his clients. "It helps the company," he explains. "If you want to hold onto really good, talented people, you have to offer them opportunities, and you have to provide for them to get experience and spread their wings. At the same time, Raw Talent gives us a new marketing avenue to contact agencies that oftentimes have projects that they don’t have a lot of money for. Ultimately, it sends a message that we are interested in developing new talent, which we certainly are."
Editors who have made the jump from Raw Talent to the Blue Rock roster include Laura Richards, Sewra Kidane and Oliver Wicki. Richards has cut client-direct spots for ESPN, and ads for Kohl’s out of McCann-Erickson, New York. Credits for Kidane include an AT&T campaign through Young & Rubicam, New York, and the Madonna Drowned World Tour promo for HBO. Wicki cut a Hollywood Video campaign for Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, and spots for Panasonic out of Grey Worldwide, New York. Additionally, Aaron Dunkel, another up-and-comer at Blue Rock saw a spec spot for the Federation International de Football Association, "For The Good Of The Game," become a finalist at the Association of Independent Creative Editors’ recent awards show.
Steve McCoy, president of FilmCore, and his executive producer, Jon Ettinger, started the Green division of their company for many of the same reasons. "By calling [assistant editors] ‘Green Editors,’ it allows them to be sold as an editor on jobs that are normally cost-sensitive," he explains. "It also gives them a stature that really helps advance their careers—it creates a fast-track path for up-and-coming talent so they are not weighted with the label of just being an assistant."
"Part of the reason we started Green is because not a lot of talent gets up to San Francisco, making it all the more important to groom from within," adds Ettinger. Green has offices in both San Francisco and Santa Monica, with two editors in the former and three in the latter.
Editors who have made the jump from Green to FilmCore include Rick Lobo (now owner/editor at Revue, Santa Monica), David Becker, Tiffany Burchard and Maura Corey. Becker’s recent credits include a package for golf equipment manufacturer Golfsmith through Breedlove & Partners, Austin, Texas; and Budweiser through Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. Burchard recently cut a package for Microsoft/MSN out of McCann-Erickson, San Francisco; a UPS spot in the "Brown" campaign out of The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; and a Lexus spot for Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif. Corey recently cut a Medicare campaign with Campbell-Ewald—a joint effort between the Detroit and Los Angeles offices of the agency—and spots for Farmers Insurance and Ditech, both out of Campbell-Ewald/ West, Santa Monica.
"This is a very hard industry to break into," notes Linda Carlson, executive producer of five-editor shop Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles. "It takes probably two years for the advertising business to feel secure enough that other people have tried an editor before they’ll do the same. It is a process. You have to work and you have to want it. A lot of the success depends on the tenacity of the editor you are working with." New talent at Rock Paper Scissors includes JD Smyth, who was previously an editor with RSA Films, London. Recent U.S. credits include a client-direct ad for restaurant chain Jody Maroni, and a BMW spot out of Fallon Minneapolis.
"In this business, you can never sit still," notes Wagenberg. "The future is in the youth and the industry keeps getting younger and younger. That’s why I prefer to groom from within. Clients want someone who is going to know about the same kind of music they listen to or go to the same club."
"I think it is critical for building a business that is going to have some longevity," says Rafoss about growing new talent. "Yes, Vito has a very good reputation, and he is always going to be around—and always be talented—but in order for Version2. to succeed, we can’t rely on only the top stars. Times change and we need to grow with the younger creatives coming up through the business. The up-and-coming editor will become the Vito of tomorrow, and that is the only way to keep our business going strong."
