Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536017
P H OT O : C O U R T E S Y A N D I R A L P H 18 C I N E M O N T A G E W H A T O U R M E M B E R S D O ANDI RALPH ASSISTANT EDITOR Q: Where are you currently employed? New York City. Q: Current projects? I recently wrapped up my work on a narrative feature called "Mother, Mother," directed by Somali Canadian recording art- ist K'naan Warsame and edited by Sabine Hoffman, ACE and Geraud Brisson, ACE. While my primary role was first assistant editor, I'm so excited to be receiving my first "additional editing" credit on this project. The film premiered at the Toronto Interna- tional Film Festival (TIFF) last year! Also last year, I edited a deeply personal documentary directed by Hannah Myers called "DADDY," which explores her father coming out as gay at 70 years old. Q: Describe your job. As a first assistant editor, I'm essentially the editor's right-hand man, managing the technical and organizational aspects of the editing process. My role involves prepping daily footage during production, maintaining our Avid project, exporting and quality-checking cuts for screenings, and keeping track of the ever-evolving elements of music, sound, visual effects, a n d a u to m a te d d i a l o g u e re p l a ce m e n t (ADR). While the job is often seen as the left-brain technical side of the team, my favorite aspect is the creative. I handle a lot of the temporary sound design for editing sessions and screenings, and I love watching scenes evolve. Offering a fresh perspective, suggesting the perfect piece of music, or finding an ideal stock footage shot can significantly influence and inspire the final cut. It's incredibly rewarding to see how these small contributions can shape the overall narrative. Q: How did you first become interested in this line of work? When I was in middle and high school, my friends and I would shoot our own movies for either class projects or just for fun on our own. Editing them (on Windows Movie Maker, no less!) was always my favorite part. Even then, I found it exciting that whatever the intention was at the beginning of the process, a film would never turn out quite the way we expected. We'd discover during editing what the film actu- ally needed to be, which was always better and more interesting. I also loved being able to show my friends (AKA the crew) what we all made together. It's still what I love most about editing. Q: Who gave you your first break? After studying film editing at the Uni- versity of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), my first job was in the filmmaking division at the Google Creative Lab in New York City. I contributed to a number of ad- vertising campaigns there and eventually worked on the documentary "Trillions of Questions, No Easy Answers." For the next