Editor Renny Maslow has come aboard Editing Concepts, New York. Maslow was most recently a freelance editor at Invisible Dog, New York.
Upon graduation from Northwestern University, Chicago, where he majored in film, he moved to New York intending to become a director. Maslow got his start there at Mad Media, directing music videos and corporate videos. Because he was required to edit his own footage, he taught himself how to use the Avid. Realizing that more opportunities were available for a young person in this realm, he decided to focus on editing. In 1998 he was offered a job as an editor at Northern Lights Post, New York, where he immediately started cutting longform projects for MTV and VH1. Towards the end of his tenure there, he began cutting commercials such as Knorr Forkfulls’ "ER," directed by Paul Fuentes of Huge, New York, via BBDO New York.
In December ’99 he left Northern Lights, freelancing out of Invisible Dog for the next six months. Spot credits through Invisible Dog included "Diner" for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise directed by Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi Suarez Productions via BBDO New York, and "Golfer," a spot for Bayer Aspirin, also via BBDO New York.
Maslow initially approached Editing Concepts when he left Northern Lights. At the time, Editing Concepts was focused on launching Jesse Reisner, who had just been promoted from an assistant to an editor. Maslow kept in contact with the company over the next six months. Then he got a lucky break: Veteran editor David Dee-whom Maslow had met when he interned at New York-based Even Time Editorial (since renamed Cabana)-learned that he would be inducted into the 2000 Association of Independent Creative Editors’ (AICE) Hall of Fame. Asked to provide a history of his years in the editorial business, Dee commissioned Maslow to produce, direct and edit a short tribute video. The tribute was screened at the annual AICE Editors Hall of Fame award and dinner dance, May 18, at the Copacabana, New York. "It was really nerve-wracking, showing that piece to every editor in New York-but it was also a great creative opportunity to show people the way I think and work," recalls Maslow.
Editing Concepts’ VP/editor Owen Plotkin said that after seeing the David Dee tribute he immediately contacted Maslow and the pair started negotiating on the position. "The way he used technique to illustrate the content, it was audacious…. Renny gets inside the film. He’s got a good grasp of what advertising’s all about. Being a great editor is about seeing what’s not obvious to everyone else, and he has that gift."
Maslow has also edited two independent feature films, including the Steven Cantor-directed Endsville, a mock documentary about a doomsday cult gone awry.
His ultimate goal remains the same as when he started out: to direct commercials and feature films. But for now Maslow enjoys editing. "As an editor you are the gatekeeper for everything that goes into a commercial, from music to graphics to visual effects. It is the one discipline that truly gives you the chance to understand literally every aspect of filmmaking," he enthused.
Still, while working at Editing Concepts, Maslow will build up his directing reel. He recently directed and edited a pair of :30 spec spots for Fat Cat Ale-two darkly comical spots which played on the beer’s tagline, "Kill a Fat Cat."
"Responsibly" shows a man carefully buckling a cat into the back seat of his car-checking behind him to make sure no one is watching, before pushing the car off a cliff. "Best Friend" shows an agitated dog tied to a tree. The chain stops the dog just short of a cat sunning itself in a chair. A man walks over to the tree, glances at the cat and frees the dog.
Nelson Leonard rounds out Editing Concepts’ roster of editors. The company is repped nationally by Ilene Silberman of Silberman Productions, New York.
