NEW YORK– The first annual Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) Editorial Awards competition is historic on several levels. But each level is tied to a prime AICE mission– namely to heighten the awareness of the contributions that the editor makes to a project.
The awards show gala– slated for Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York on Nov. 7– will honor the 10 best-edited commercials of the year. For this inaugural event, however, that year has been stretched to 18 months in light of the six-month-long actors’ strike against the advertising industry (May through October 2000). In order to qualify for the AICE competition, work must have debuted on air between Jan. 1, ’00, and June 30, ’01.
This body of the best-edited work in the ad industry was culled from 247 entries. AICE company editors from across the country screened those entries and assigned point totals to each. Based on those scores, the field was pared down to 30 finalists. Then a blue-ribbon panel of judges viewed and scored the finalist spots, determining the 10 best.
In an interview with SHOOT, AICE Editorial Awards chairman Arthur Williams put this collection of spots– the finalists as well as the winners– into historical perspective.
Williams– chairman of the board at New York-headquartered Editing Concepts Inc., and a past AICE/New York chapter president– described the competition and the body of work as being of "great significance to the editing community. Editors have always been on the backburner as far as awards are concerned," he contended. "There are shows that at most have but one category for editing, and that doesn’t do justice to the amount of deserving work and the number of deserving artists who are out there. It’s time for us to honor our own, and in doing so help to gain recognition for the art and craft of editing."
The AICE Editorial Awards were not broken down into product categories (e.g., best-edited automobile commercial, best-edited packaged goods). The quality of the editing was the only consideration for judges. The work can be local, regional, national or international. However, commercials must have been cut by editors from AICE companies. Only AICP shops were eligible to enter spots into the competition.
"The time has come– it’s probably past due– for editors to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions and excellence by a jury of their peers," assessed AICE national president Jeanne Bonansinga. "There are editing awards within other commercial award shows, but [until now] no show that highlights editing. Our mission at the AICE is to make more people aware of what the editor brings to the work. The AICE Editorial Awards will go a long way toward helping to realize that goal."
The historic recognition comes in the tangible form of the Ace Award especially designed by The Award Group, New York. The statuette’s design consists of a wand of film that rises from a base and supports at its apex a medallion. The AICE logo, surrounded by a laurel wreath, appears on the face of the medallion. On the reverse side of the medallion are three embossed images: a synchronizer, a TV monitor and a rewind shaft and crank. At the base of the statuette is a plaque on which will be inscribed the name of the winning editor and commercial.
The individual editor of each honored commercial will receive an Ace Award during the night of the gala ceremony. Other artisans involved in the honored spots can order their Aces from the AICE.
MOT&R
The AICE honor extends far beyond the physical award itself, however. The Museum of Television & Radio (MoT&R), New York and Los Angeles, for example, has agreed to include in its archives both the 30 finalists and 10 winners of the AICE inaugural competition. This, too, has historical implications.
Williams noted that the MoT&R recognition is "a tremendous coup, … Making the finalists and winning spots part of the permanent museum collection in perpetuity is a significant acknowledgement and honor." He added that the MoT&R is visited not only by industry folk, but by the general public– meaning that awareness of the editor’s contributions to advertising can potentially reach the community at large.
MoT&R television and advertising curator David Bushman explained, "One of the criteria for TV programs or commercials we take into this museum is excellence as determined by the curatorial department here or by peers of a particular craft." He observed that the latter prerequisite is clearly satisfied by the AICE Editorial Awards, since editors from around the country have judged a significant volume of entries, culling them down via a scoring system to 30 spots.
An AICE blue-ribbon panel of judges– consisting of 16 editors, 15 agency creatives and/or executive producers, and four directors– then screened and assessed those finalist commercials. The scoring of the blue-ribbon panel was then independently tabulated to arrive at the 10 winning spots.
Bushman noted that the decision to enter into what he envisions will be an annual relationship with the AICE Editorial Awards is in line with the museum’s desire to secure leading spots. He cited, for example, MoT&R’s longstanding association with the One Club, whereby each year’s One Show finalists and winners are placed in the museum’s archives. Visitors to the MoT&R in Los Angeles and New York can access the One Show fare and will be able to do the same for AICE-honored commercials.
"We are happy to be the repository for the winning [AICE] spots and finalists," related Bushman. "We at the Museum of Television & Radio are big believers that advertising reflects society and is evocative of certain eras, desires, values, preoccupations and so on. We feel it is important to collect advertising in general– and certainly top-of-the-line advertising."
Noting that the MoT&R has conducted seminars on ad campaigns and spotmaking disciplines, Bushman sees an ongoing annual relationship with the AICE as possibly evolving into museum sessions in which editors discuss the art and craft of commercial cutting.
COMMUNITY
The AICE Editorial Awards and the MoT&R involvement also advance what the AICE is looking to realize through its formation of additional chapters. The AICE currently consists of seven chapters, including two, Atlanta and Minneapolis, which were started last year.
At its national meeting this past April at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, the AICE decided to set its sights on the possible formation of three more chapters over the next year: in Boston, Detroit and Miami (SHOOT, 5/4, p. 1).
Bonansinga noted that additional chapters expand the sense of community among editors and editorial houses nationally. And serving to deepen that sense of community– as well as fostering greater respect for the craft of editing throughout the industry– will be the AICE Editorial Awards, she opined.
That sense of community takes on a greater significance in light of the events of Sept. 11. As earlier reported (SHOOT, 9/28, p. 1), the AICE national board has voted to donate all profits from its AICE Editorial Awards ceremony to those playing instrumental roles in New York’s recovery efforts. Beneficiaries will be the New York City Fire and Police Departments, according to Williams.
"It was a unanimous decision on the part of the board [to donate the profits]," Williams reported. "We felt the need to do something, given the severity of what the country is going through. As part of the community, we wanted to make this pledge of allegiance to the country."
"It came down to us asking ourselves how we could help the situation in New York in some way," added Bonansinga. "We will be in New York to celebrate the art of editing and the contributions talented editors bring to the work. While it’s exciting to have our first annual awards show, it’s also a matter of perspective and priorities. All of us at the AICE felt the need to give back as an editorial community."
Geographical communities represented in individual chapters have also rallied to the cause. For example, the Chicago editing community raised $20,000 to be donated to the Twin Towers Fund; and an anonymous Chicago-based donor is giving an additional $25,000 to the 911 Fund. Individuals in the Los Angeles chapter organized a drive that raised $50,000, which will go to the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children’s Benefit Fund. These chapter contributions are in addition to the profits generated by the awards gala, and will be formally announced during the AICE Editorial Awards ceremony.
The AICE Editorial Awards committee consists of chairman Williams; Bernadette Quinn, business manager of Moondog, New York; AICE/Los Angeles chapter president Steve McCoy, editor/principal in FilmCore, which has operations in Santa Monica and San Francisco; AICE/San Francisco president Jon Ettinger, executive producer of FilmCore, San Francisco; AICE/ Chicago chapter president Bob Carr, an editor at Red Car, Chicago; AICE/Dallas president Richard Gillespie, editor/principal of Fast Cuts Edits, Dallas; and AICE executive director John Held. McCoy, incidentally, is slated to begin a two-year term as national AICE president, succeeding Bonansinga, in 2002.
