For editor Tad Dennis, a prime lesson learned from his ongoing experience on Fear the Walking Dead (AMC) has simply been, “No matter what genre you’re working in, it’s all about the characters. Even in the horror genre, in the midst of heavy visual effects, what really has to be working to connect with an audience is the character arc. It’s all about characters and story.”
Taking that lesson to heart has served Dennis in good stead on the series. He has cut multiple episodes of Fear The Walking Dead, with the finale of season 2 thrusting him into the awards season conversation. Though it didn’t yield an Emmy editing nomination, the finale has been widely lauded. “The story coalesced and characters came more into their own in the finale–while keying up what would be happening in season 3,” he assessed.
Dennis is grateful to have gotten the opportunity to work on the show, noting that he has always been drawn to the horror genre. Helping him get the gig was his working relationship with Fear the Walking Dead director and co-executive producer Adam Davidson. The two had collaborated earlier on the NBC series Parenthood. “When Fear the Walking Dead was picked up as a series, Adam reached out to me,” recalled Dennis. “It’s been a great experience, very gratifying, and creatively challenging.”
Among the challenges is the perennial element of time. “Most of our episodes come in really long,” said Dennis. “Paring the time down while not losing the integrity of the episode is always the challenge.”
Inspiring compatriots
Making his job easier, though, is the caliber of his colleagues on the show. “The writers do a marvelous job, providing interesting points of view. And getting to work with composer Paul Aslinger on the series has been very exciting," said Dennis. "What he creates is so interesting, something that you don’t normally hear in terms of music on television.”
Thus far for Fear the Walking Dead, Dennis has to his credit a pair of episodes in season one, five in season two, and he’s in the throes of eventually cutting five in season three.
Dennis’ body of work as an editor is extensive–among the highlights being work on Parenthood, WGN’s Manhattan and of course, Fear the Walking Dead. Once he wraps his current season commitment on the latter, Dennis is slated to take on the hour-long dramatic series Rise. The midseason NBC show centers on a passionate theater teacher under whom the high school drama department and its students come to life, helping to lift an entire town.
Editing became Dennis’ calling in film school, though that wasn’t his original intent. “I wanted initially to become a director,” he related. “But I found myself holing up in the Avid area hours upon hours. I loved being a filmmaker in front of a computer monitor. It’s the intersection of music and filmmaking–and that’s what drew me deeply into editing.”
