Cindy Nielsen has been upped to staff editor at Chinagraph. She originally worked for the New York shop as a freelance cutting assistant starting in 1999. In February ’00, she became a Chinagraph staffer, serving as assistant editor to editor Nick Martin.
Martin is partnered in the offline editorial house with senior editors Eric Carlson and Kane Platt, and executive producers Rosemary Quigley and Anne Gordon. This contingent initially worked together for several years at the venerable, since closed Dennis Hayes and Associates. They founded Chinagraph in ’97, which also features editors John Mallerman, John Gramaglia and now Nielsen.
"I’m very excited to take this step at Chinagraph," said Nielsen, who had been cutting her own work for some time before making the official transition to staff editor. While other companies pursued Nielsen, she chose Chinagraph based on her comfort level with its editors, creative spirit and boutique working environment.
Her work spans a hip cutting style for Sylvania to beauty for clients such as Maybelline. Beyond spots, Nielsen has been active in documentaries, a prime example being Tribute, which aired on PBS in September ’03. The documentary chronicled the coming together of New York’s art community in order to contribute to the city’s healing process after the Sept. 11 tragedy.
A graduate of The Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., where she received a bachelor of arts in photography, Nielsen later attended New York University’s Professional Program for Intensive Studies in Film Editing. Upon completion, she garnered an apprenticeship at Homestead Editorial, New York, where she became an assistant editor, before hooking up with Chinagraph.
Steve McQueen Shows Wartime London Through A Child’s Eyes In “Blitz”
It was a single photograph that started Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen on the journey to make "Blitz." As a Londoner, the German bombing raids on the city during World War II are never all that far from his mind. Reminders of it are everywhere. But the spark of inspiration came from an image of a small boy on a train platform with a large suitcase. Stories inspired by the evacuation are not rare, but this child was Black. Who was he, McQueen wondered, and what was his story? The film, in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22, tells the tale of George, a 9-year-old biracial child in East London whose life with his mother, Rita ( Saoirse Ronan ), and grandfather is upended by the war. Like many children at the time, he's put on a train to the countryside for his safety. But he hops off and starts a long, dangerous journey back to his mom, encountering all sorts of people and situations that paint a revelatory and emotional picture of that moment. SEARCHING FOR GEORGE AND FINDING A STAR When McQueen finished the screenplay, he thought to himself: "Not bad." Then he started to worry: Does George exist? Is there a person out there who can play this role? Through an open casting call they found Elliott Heffernan, a 9-year-old living just outside of London whose only experience was a school play. He was the genie in "Aladdin." "There was a stillness about him, a real silent movie star quality," McQueen said. "You wanted to know what he was thinking, and you leant in. That's a movie star quality: A presence in his absence." Elliott is now 11. When he was cast, he'd not yet heard about the evacuation and imagined that a film set would be made up of "about 100 people." But he soon found his footing, cycling in and out of... Read More