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Leo Nominations 2020

2020 LEO Awards Banner Feature Image

Leo Award Nominations 2020



Congratulations to our members who were nominated for a 2020 Leo Award!


Best Picture Editing: Motion Picture

Franco Pante (plus one other editor)

Daughter

Best Picture Editing: Television Movie

James Ilecic, CCE

The College Admissions Scandal

Lara Mazur, CCE

The Knight Before Christmas

Best Picture Editing: Short Drama

Cindy Auyeung

Sisters of Sorrow

Best Picture Editing: Documentary Series

Patrick Carroll

Mind Set Go: Kristen

Greg Ng

Punk: Episode One

Best Picture Editing: Dramatic Series

Jon Anctil

Van Helsing: Together Forever

Lara Mazur, CCE

Virgin River: Under Fire

Daria Ellerman, CCE

Virgin River: Carry On

Nicole Ratcliffe, CCE

You Me Her: Episode 510

Best Picture Editing: Information, Lifestyle or Reality Series

Megan Oravec & Brent J. Rubin

Worst To First: Lyndsay & John

Best Picture Editing: Youth or Children’s Program or Series

Daria Ellerman, CCE

Malibu Rescue: With a Little Kelp from My Friends

Full List Available Here

Best Picture Editing: Short Documentary Program

Elad Tzadok

Hayashi Studio

Sarah Hedar

Now Is The Time

Best picture Editing: Feature Length Documentary

Stephen Leck (plus 1 other editor) 

Eddy’s Kingdom

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Easy Land Q&A with Chris Mutton, Devin Rintoul and Sanja Zivkovic

Q&A with editor Chris Mutton Easy Land Feature Image

Easy Land Q&A with Chris Mutton, Devin Rintoul and Sanja Zivkovic

Easy Land is a raw, engaging, and heartfelt story about a mother and daughter as they struggle to navigate the many obstacles facing newcomers to Canada.

Sanja Director of Easy Land
Sanja Zivkovic

director

Chris Mutton editor
Chris Mutton

editor

Devin Assistant Editor
Devin Rintoul

assistant editor

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019. The CCE heard from Editor Chris Mutton, Assistant Editor Devin Rintoul, and Director Sanja Zivkovic about their creative and technical process during post-production.

Q&A with editor Chris Mutton Easy Land
Chris, Devin and Sanja

Q: How did you first become involved in the film? What drew you to the project?

Chris

My involvement began as far back as the early writing process. Sanja sent me a short outline of the film. I stayed involved through the writing process, giving her feedback over multiple drafts of the script. By the time Easy Land went to camera, I already had a great handle on the material. Sanja and I met at the Canadian Film Centre and found we pohad similar taste in films. We worked together on her short Cleo which also premiered at TIFF. It only made sense to continue the collaboration on her first feature.

Devin

Having worked on a feature with Chris before I was lucky enough to be invited to join Easy Land for our second round as a dangerous duo. I was definitely drawn to the film by how relevant its theme of immigration and related struggles are to many Canadians and for people across the world. It’s a blessing to have worked on a film with such an important message.

Q: Did you hire Devin or was he already on board the project when you started? What qualities/experience do you look for in an assistant editor?

Chris

Devin was on board months before editing began. When I needed an assistant for a previous feature, Luba, I asked my Sheridan film professor for recommendations. He gave me one name – Devin. It is important to build a trustworthy team. If you know you can depend on someone it reduces part of the natural pressures around editing a film. Devin and I have developed a solid workflow as a product of cutting Luba. For Easy Land, we knew that all we had to do was repeat what worked and half the battle was won. For me, it freed up more time in each day to focus on the creative work of editing. A good assistant should have top-notch communication skills. On a small film like Easy Land, keeping all relevant parties up to date is an enormous task and often gets downloaded to the edit suite. You have to make up for the fact that there isn’t a post supervisor helping you out.

Q: It seems like this story was a very personal one for writer/director Sanja Zivkovic. How did you navigate the director/editor relationship knowing that it was such a personal story?

Chris

I was also involved in editing the Easy Land pitch video that was submitted to Telefilm and that helped immensely. In order to create a clear understanding of why the story was important for Sanja to tell cinematically, we had to discuss her personal connection to the material. It also helped that we’d become friends while editing her short Cleo. I didn’t feel like I had to worry too much about crossing boundaries and I was comfortable having those conversations. Plus, it’s just part of Sanja’s personality that she’s not shy about the more autobiographical story aspects, which I appreciate.

Q&A with editor Chris Mutton Easy Land
Sanja and Chris

Q: What is an example of a key change made during the edit process that had a significant impact on the final cut?

Chris

The therapist scene is a gem; you are drawn right in by Mirjana’s amazing performance. Her dialogue clearly lays out a cavalier attitude to her character’s mental health issues and reveals her precarious reliance on Easy Land as a source of salvation. But… it was running long. They say it’s hard to kill your darlings and this was the full realization of that notion. We tried many trims, lifting out various sections of dialogue, but each time the edit would force us to lose a crucial moment. Finally, we found an interesting solution. As Jasna is wrapping up her therapist session she thanks her doctor. I tried starting her “thank you” in the middle of the doctor’s dialogue as he’s laying out his concerns. Next, I hunted for a small sigh from the doctor and placed it with this edit. Now, Jasna effectively ‘interrupts’ the doctor, shutting him down and we have a slight reaction in the form of the off-screen sigh that sells the interaction. In fact, this cut really reinforced the purpose of the scene, which is to demonstrate Jasna asserting herself over the institutional care she’s receiving. It’s one of my favorite edits I’ve ever made.

Sanja

When we started editing the film it was true to what was in the script. After a few months of working with the footage as I had imagined it originally, and after a test screening with an audience who was completely new to the idea of our film, it became clear that we needed to mix things up a little more. I think one of the big turning points for me was when Chris and I tried to cut out a dream sequence (I really loved for the visual aspect of it) to see what it did to the rest of the film. It was just one scene but it completely changed the style and tone. After we said goodbye to that scene, we were able to restructure the rest of the material, and reshoot a few more realistic shots to take the place of the dreamlike segment. I feel that decision made the story a lot rawer, which felt like the right thing to do.

Q: There are many scenes in the film that are in Serbian. Do either of you speak the language, and if not, what were some of the challenges of working in another language? What workflow elements did you put into place to help the editorial process for these scenes?

Chris

Sanja is fluent in Serbian but neither Devin nor I are! Serbian is a digraphic language and can use Cyrillic or the Latin alphabet. So to help with Serbian dialogue scenes there was a dual language script in English with matching Serbian in the Latin alphabet. For the most part, it sounds the way it’s spelled. It didn’t take long to get used to editing in Serbian. Because Nina and Mirjana gave such expressive performance, I was often able to follow along without the script by interpreting body language and facial expressions. So much of editing performance is paying attention to these factors so it was almost a purer form of editing in a way.

Devin

I have no knowledge of the Serbian language unfortunately so we would attempt to follow the script and Chris would ask Sanja to let us know what the actors spoke on set in case there was any confusion. I would try my best translate that into the temporary subtitles.

Q&A with editor Chris Mutton Easy Land
Chris's Edit Suite

Q: Describe your technical setup and your workflow for editorial both during the shoot and then in the later stages of post. What tools and software did you use? Do you have any tips or tricks you want to share?

Chris

The film was cut on Avid, which is my preference for features. Collaboration between assistant and editor is so simple – save the bin and email it. Also, the delivery to audio departments after locking the film has always been seamless. I think it helps that ProTools is owned by Avid. I cut on my aging iMac. That’s another thing I like about Avid. Once you render out the dailies to DNxHD (Avid’s proprietary codec) everything runs solidly and fast. I can scrub from one end of the timeline to the other with almost no lag – even on an old machine. 

My tip would be to take the time to create scene cards (see example) and stick them up on a cork board as you finish each scene. It’s a quick visual reference and it will start ideas flowing for restructuring opportunities.

Devin

Chris thankfully has a very organized workflow that allowed us to move smoothly throughout production. I had the task as the assistant to organize, sync, and log the footage using Avid Media Composer. My main tip to any new assistant is to back up everything on multiple drives as soon as possible, you may think you’re safe but you never know. Also bring candy and snacks to share with the editor, it goes a long way.

Q: What was your experience prior to working on this film? Was there anything new that you learned while working on this project, either from Chris or generally from the project workflow or content?

Devin

I worked on a feature with Chris before but not the same environment, for example this was my first feature working next to Chris in a studio throughout the entire production. It was exciting to see the rest of the team coming in and out and meeting new faces from the industry every day. Sanja would visit frequently allowing me to study the director/editor relationship and the progress they would make by coming up with game plans and bouncing idea’s off each other.

Q&A with editor Chris Mutton Easy Land
Devin & Chris

Q: Did the team do test screenings of the film? As an editor, how do you prepare for and navigate test screenings, and how do you handle the notes that come out of them?

Chris

We did one proper test screening in a mix theatre at Urban Audio. Preparation consists mostly of sound work. Larger viewing spaces amplify all the imperfections of a temp mix, so you really have to clean up dialogue and find the right levels of ambiance. An audience, even industry vets, will not look past (or hear past) bad audio. And if they can’t understand the dialogue it’ll create waves of confusion for the test audience. In terms of digesting the notes that came out of the test screening, that was a large discussion between Sanja, Julie, the producer and Matt and Kristy, our EPs. The key is to look for the common notes and prioritize those. Just because a note is given doesn’t mean you have to take it. If it’s easy to try, we tried it. Sanja is a confident filmmaker. She likes to hear lots of opinions, but at the end of the day she knows the film she wants to make and her vision will be preserved.

Sanja

Our test screening was very beneficial for the film. It came at a good time when we felt like we needed the feedback, after two months of editing, and before our reshoot day. I also sent the film to a few trusted friends and colleagues in Serbia who were onboard since the writing process. It was good to get opinions from people of different backgrounds, especially people that understood where Jasna and Nina had come from, and to see if what I had intended was showing in the film.

Q&A with editor Chris Mutton Easy Land
Chris Recording Ambient Sounds

Q: Easy Land is a very quiet film. What kind of sound work did you do during the offline edit (if any)? Did you use temp music? What was your relationship with the composer and sound team?

Chris

It is a quiet film! So much of the aural aspect of the film relies on ambient sound. The Victoria Park neighbourhood where the film is set has a very unique sound. The wind passes through those buildings and courtyards in a specific way. Also, the subway travels outside and is always present in the background. I wanted to make sure we had lots of that ambience collected, so Sanja and I went out with a pair of rented Sennheiser 416 shotgun mics and spent the afternoon recording sounds at the various shooting locations – all before the shoot started. We could have asked the sound recordist to do this, but I know from experience that once production starts the long days and tight scheduling usually mean there’s no time. Doing it separately from the shoot schedule meant we could focus only on capturing the sounds of the neighbourhood.

Sanja

The composer Casey MQ and I had worked together on my previous film Cleo, which Chris edited, so the three of us already had a solid working relationship. It was important for me that the score be in line with the atmosphere, but not to impose on the preformances, which I felt were strong enough on their own and didn’t need to be hightened by music. Casey really got this, and Chris also understood what I wanted so the three of us played a lot with the arrangement, the in and out points , while in the edit. Casey would give us options, we would get back to him and so on. It was a really nice and fluid proccess! As for the Serbian rock music, I imagined it to be a juxtaposition to the score in a way, an escape from the character’s every day reality. While we were shooting, Chris was assembling the film and needed to use some Serbian music in order to make it work so he went online and researched Serbian rock bands from the 80’s. In the end, we actually ended up using one of the songs that Chris hand chosen as a temp – in fact, we loved it so much we fought pretty hard to get copyright on it.

Q: The film premiered at TIFF in 2019. What was your experience of the festival?

Chris

I love TIFF and it was an honour to have our film premiere there. The highlight was the after-party which was hosted by our distributor at Mongrel House. I brought my parents and my partner and they had an amazing time watching live karaoke, hanging out in the whiskey room and chatting with the cast and crew.

Devin

I couldn’t make it to the screening at TIFF unfortunately but was able to make another screening later on, which I was fortunate to see with Chris and my family.

TIFF Bell Lightbox Sign Toronto

Sanja

It was a really great experience to have the film World Premiere at TIFF. It felt like the perfect scenario – not only to premiere at one of the world’s biggest film festivals, but also in the city where the film was shot, so that all of the cast and crew could attend. I’m so glad that we all got to be there to watch it together for the first time on the big screen (and celebrate at Mongrel House after of course!)

Q: What did you enjoy most about working on this film? What did you find most challenging?

David

Working on films has always been a dream and I do really owe a ton to Chris for trusting and allowing me the time and space to learn the ropes as an assistant. Even if I were to begin editing my own films, I’ll probably be calling him often for tips and tricks for a long time to come. I also had a blast assembling some of the scenes, including the fight scene.

Chris

One of the best aspects of cutting Easy Land was working with Maja Bankovic’s footage. Her camerawork is so fluid but still maintains such purpose. Every move feels like it enhances the story. In fact, we could be spare with edits in many scenes because the camera was articulating so much. In terms of challenges, the lead up to the film’s climax took us a while to get right. There was a dream sequence that we recut and recut. In the end, it came out. Sometimes simplicity is best. We had the benefit of one day of reshoots. Sanja shot one reaction with Nina, cheating the apartment location with a crewmember’s house, and that was all we needed to properly set up the climax.

Easy Land is now available to stream on Apple TV
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Video Content

Coffee with an Editor – Paul Day

2020_EP01_Coffee With an Editor - Paul Day, CCE
Coffee With an Editor Episode 1 - Paul Day, CCE

Episode 001 - Paul Day, CCE

Coffee with an Editor is a series of friendly one-on-one interviews with editors from Canada and around the world.

Paul Day, CCE graduated from film school in 1991 and started working on set in many areas, including art department, lighting and gripping.

Pursuing his passion for being an editor in 1994, he has worked on series produced for Netflix, AMC, MGM, Paramount, Showtime, and Disney, to name a few.

Credits include Spinning Out, V-Wars, Dark Matter, Into the Badlands, Hemlock Grove, Rookie Blue, Lost Girl, Dead Like Me, Odyssey 5, and The 4400.

Paul also directed episodes of Dark Matter and webisodes for Lost Girl.

One of the co-founders of the Canadian Cinema Editors, Paul continues to pursue expanding the industry profile of editors and elevating the importance of their craft.

Where to watch Paul’s recent work (US & Canada):

“Into The Badlands” – Netflix & Apple TV

“Dark Matter” – Netflix

“The Expanse” – Prime Video

Credits

Edited By

Jonathan Dowler

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Iris Award Nominees 2020

Iris Gala Quebec Awards Ceremony

Iris Award Nominees 2020

Iris Gala Quebec Awards Ceremony

Congratulations to our CCE members who were nominated for an Iris Award.

Best Editing in Feature Documentary

Annie Jean, CCE

Ziva Postec: La monteuse derrière le film Shoah

Best Editing

Myriam Poirier, CCE

14 jours 12 nuits

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Articles

Nominees for the 10th Annual CCE Awards

The 10th Annual CCE Award Nominations

Nominees for the 10th Annual CCE Awards

The 10th Annual CCE Award Nominations

The Canadian Cinema Editors is excited to announce the nominees for the 2020 CCE Awards.

This year will mark the 10th Anniversary of the awards and we aim for them to be bigger and better than ever! While the CCE Awards typically occur in May, due to recent global health concerns we have rescheduled the ceremony to Friday October 2, 2020. 

Congratulations to our nominees! We look forward to celebrating with you at the 10th Annual CCE Awards on October 2, 2020 at the Delta Hotel in Toronto. Tickets for the ceremony will be available in early fall.

Isabelle Malenfant, CCE

The Procession

Joycelyn Poon & Brian Karn

The Most Magnificent Thing

Kevin Pavlovic, David Ian Salter, Ellery VanDooyeweert & Emma DuPell

The Addams Family

Lesley Mackay Hunter

Arctic Dogs

Orion McCaw, Gina Pacheco & Michael Hillmer

Carmen Sandiego: The Daisho Caper

Carole Larsen

She Walks With Apes

Cathy Gulkin, CCE & Kathryn Lyons

Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power

Danny Palmer

Rat Park

Eamonn O’Connor & Daniel Roher

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band

Nick Hector, CCE

Prey

Clark Masters & Chelsea Bennett

White Space

Kyle Sanderson

Pugly

Rachel Guergis

This Ink Runs Deep

Robert Swartz, CCE

The Impossible Swim

Sonia Godding Togobo

Mr. Jane and Finch

Cameron Nixdorf

Vacations of the Brave: Tamika &Cleve

Dave McMahon

Hip Hop Evolution: Pass the Mic

Peter Denes

Children of the Snow: The Darkest Winter

Ben Kaplan & Clark Masters

Dark Side of the Ring: The Last of the Von Erichs

Steve Taylor

Hip Hop Evolution: The Dirty South

Daniel Sadler

Northern Rescue: Making Lemonade

Lauren Brandon

Holly Hobbie: A Whole New Holly

Lee-ann Cass

Christmas Chalet

Michelle Szemberg

 Northern Rescue: Qué Sera

Sabrina Pitre

Kim Possible

Myriam Verreault & Sophie Leblond

Kuessipan

Carina Baccanale & Cedric Coussy

Jouliks Isabelle

Malenfant, CCE

Fabuleuses

Véronique Barbe, CCE & Aisling Chin-Yee

The Rest of Us

Yvann Thibaudeau

Target Number One

Andrew Gurney

Blown Away: Dual Intent

Andrew Gurney, Mike Scott & Michael Tersigni, CCE

The Brigade: Race to the Hudson, All or Nothing

Jonathan Dowler, David Yenovkian, Lisa Barley, Olivia Shin & Michael Tersigni, CCE

The Amazing Race Canada: Clamageddon Continues

Michael Tersigni, CCE & Andrew Gurney

The Brigade: Race to the Hudon, Against the Current

Mike Scott

Blown Away: Body Parts

Aren Hansen

Kims Convenience: Cutie Pie

Christopher Minns

Cavendish: House of Wax

John Nicholls, CCE

Little Dog: Round Eight

Jonathan Eagan

Workin’ Moms: Birth Daze

Matthieu Bouchard & Olivier Binette

Like-Moi: Episode 35

Ana Yavari

The Handmaid’s Tale: Witness

Carina Baccanale

Les Pays d’en haut: #37

Christopher Donaldson, CCE

The Handmaid’s Tale: Night

D. Gillian Truster, CCE

Anne with an E: A Strong Effort of the Spirit of Good

Wendy Hallam Martin, CCE

The Handmaid’s Tale: Mayday

James Ilecic, CCE

The College Admissions Scandal

Lara Mazur, CCE

The Knight Before Christmas

Matthew Anas

Cardinal: By The Time You Read This: Sam

Richard Rotter

Damaged

Stephen Roque

Mary Kills People: Wolf, Meet Henhouse

Amélie Labrèche

Jaeborn by Numbers

Mahi Rahgozar

Wiisgaapte (Bitter Smoke)

Maureen Grant

It’s Nothing

Pauline Decroix

Ma Dame au Camélia

Yvann Thibaudeau

Delphine

Ben Lawrence

Tokens: Episode 3

Colin Waugh

Renewable: Youth for Climate

Micah Rix-Hayes

The Ninth: The Balk

Sam Thomson & Thom Smalley

Save Me Season 2: Birdie’s End

Thom Smalley & Sam Thomson

Save Me Season 2: Animal

The CCE is pleased to announce the recipient of the:

Lara Mazur, CCE

The CCE will proudly present this honour to Lara at the 10th annual CCE Awards, at the Delta Hotel in Toronto on October 2nd, 2020. Lara Mazur is an award-winning Canadian film and television editor. Lara approaches the craft of editing as a collaborative effort, weaving artistry and performance into the fabric of the story. She began her career as an apprentice editor with the National Film Board of Canada in Winnipeg, and, for over three decades, has moved seamlessly between documentary and scripted stories. 

Lara has collaborated with some of Canada’s top directors and producers, bringing stories with universal themes to audiences around the world on shows such as: Chris Haddock’s “DaVinci’s Inquest” and “Intelligence”; “Strange Empire” and “Arctic Air”; Norma Bailey’s “Daughters of the Country”, “Bordertown Café” and “The Pastor’s Wife”; “No One Would Tell” and “Van Helsing” – all receiving award nominations for editing. On the television series “Flashpoint, Lara received a DGC Award and a Gemini nomination. On Anne Wheeler’s feature film “Suddenly Naked”, she received a Genie award, and three nominations for editing on Rachel Talaley’s television movie “On the Farm.” 

In recognition of her body of work, Lara received an award from Women in Film and Television. Lara continues to mentor many emerging filmmakers and give valued advice to many seasoned storytellers. 

Currently, Lara is editing a movie for Netflix.

Fred Brennan

The CCE is pleased to announce the recipient of the Career Achievement Award for 2020 — Fred Brennan. This award is presented to a non-editor who has shown great support for Canadian editors and the editorial profession over the course of their career. 

The CCE will proudly present this honour to Fred at the 10th annual CCE Awards, at the Delta Hotel in Toronto on October 2nd, 2020. In a career that has spanned over forty years, Fred Brennan has become one of Canada’s preeminent dialogue and supervising sound editors. He has worked on many Canadian feature films, major international co-productions and hundreds of hours television. His many awards include Genies and Geminis, recognition by The Director’s Guild of Canada and the Motion Picture Sound Editor’s Guild in Los Angeles. 

Some of Freds credits include Littlest Hobo, American Psycho, Call Me Fitz, Barney’s Version and Pompeii.

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L'art du montage

Episode 001: Ziva Postec, The Editor Behind the Film Shoah

Ziva Postec
Ziva Postec

Episode 1: Ziva Postec, The Editor Behind the Film Shoah

Meeting with Annie Jean, CCE, and Catherine Hébert, hosted by Paul Ruban

Épisode 001: Ziva Postec, la monteuse derrière le film Shoah, Ziva Postec

We are pleased to present the first episode of L’art du Montage.

On November 7, 2019, the CCE hosted a screening of ZIVA POSTEC, THE EDITOR BEHIND THE FILM SHOAH, at the Alliance Française of Toronto, with director Catherine Hébert, and editor Annie Jean, CCE. The evening was hosted by Paul Ruban. We are pleased to share with you this beautiful evening of discussion around this film.

 

 

 

Watch the movie here

Listen Here

Subscribe Wherever You Get Your Podcasts

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What do you want to hear on L'art du montage?

Please send along any topics you would like us to cover or editors you would love to hear from:

podcast@cceditors.ca

Credits

A special thanks goes to

Laetitia Delemarre, Mélissa Cuvilliez, Marin Stemmelen de L'Alliance Française de Toronto

Sarah Taylor

Annie Jean, CCE

Catherine Hébert

Paul Ruban

Clotilde Vatrinet et les Les Films du 3 Mars

Claire Pochon

Isabelle Malenfant, CCE

Claudia Hébert

Maud Le Chevallier, at Bam Library

Moderator

Paul Ruban

Podcast Host

Myriam Poirier

Editing

Pauline Decroix

Main Title Sound Design by

Jane Tattersall, adapté en version française par Pauline Decroix

Mixed and Mastered by

Tony Bao

Music generously offered by

Bam Library

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EditCon Raffle Winner 2020 – Jon Anctil

EdiCon 2020

EditCon Raffle Winner 2020 - Jon Anctil

EdiCon 2020

One crisp December morning, I woke up to a constant pinging sound as my phone started going off. Bleary eyed, I check my notification screen – I had won the CCE raffle to go to EditCon! This came as a surprise, as I haven’t even won a scratch-and-win in about fifteen years. But hey – free trip to Toronto? Meet other edit-cave dwellers and talk shop all weekend? Sounds good to me!

So I packed my bag, kissed my wife goodbye, and left chilly Vancouver to arrive in… warmer Toronto.

EditCon 2020 logo

I was expecting The Center of The Universe to be a city of snow drifts, parkas, and traffic chaos. Instead it was pleasantly mild, everyone wore toques, and you have Uber here! Sweet mercy.

TIFF Bell Lightbox Sign Toronto

Uber is a revelation to me, having come from the land where ride sharing had been verboten until about a month ago.

Anyways, I digress.

I landed, got settled at the hotel, and found a few old friends and met some new ones at the Out of Towners gathering Friday night. After some jibber jabber, a few beers and a pit stop at a shawarma place for a wrap the size of a trashcan Mac, it was time for bed. Big day tomorrow!

I slept in. Well, not for too long, but enough to have to miss breakfast at the hotel. Fortunately, I was right next door to the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre (dare I say, The Center of the Center of the Universe?) so I scurried over and had time for some coffee and snacks and met up with some of the other Vancouver crew that had come all this way. Van City represent!

Fueled up on caffeine and pastries, it was time for some educama—edimicat—some learning. The first panel, expertly moderated by Jonathan Dowler, focused on reality and factual editing and featured four editors – Elianna Borsa, Jenypher Fisher, Baun Mah, and Ian Sit – who are all much braver than I.

Why do I say that?

Well, if I wound up with 1600 hours of dailies across a whole season as Jenypher does on her series Jade Fever, I would run for the hills. These four shared great stories about working on fast-paced and exciting reality and factual productions, trying to balance incredibly tight deadlines (like delivering with a few hours to air kind of tight) with pulling the best stories out of so much footage.

There was a common theme from all the editors that you need to get very creative with your footage to tell the true stories of what’s happening. Jenypher showed a scene from Jade Fever and described it as, and I’m paraphrasing a bit but it’s true, something like 90% true and 80% fake.

The story was correct – a buyer visited the work site and bought a chunk of Jade – but the shots needed to tell that story were pulled from many different sequences across two shooting days.

Or, in a similar vein, Elianna Borsa and Baun Mah described taking sequences from The Amazing Race Canada where an event happened over some 45 minutes and condensing that to 45 seconds on-screen without losing clarity of story.

It was incredible stuff. To be honest, reality/factual is not a genre I am keen to work in that much, but this turned out to be my favourite panel of the day.

2020 EditCon Panelist 1 group
2020 EditCon Panelists #1
2020 EditCon Panel 2 no script no problem on stage at TIFF
2020 EditCon Panelists #2

The next panel was This Year in Dramatic Film, featuring three editors with recent critically acclaimed feature films: Mathieu Bouchard-Malo, Lara Johnston, and Sabrina Pitre. They all shared anecdotes about their career paths that had led them to feature work, and some of the challenges and successes working on their latest films. One interesting tidbit they all discussed was the use of test screenings. Freaks which Sabrina edited had 14 test screenings between Canada and LA!

The directors didn’t always take the screening notes as gospel, but they were great opportunities to help find the flow and tone of the stories that resonated with the viewers. Lara screened her film Mouthpiece with editor friends for many of the same reasons. All the editors agreed that it was an occasionally painful but always important part of the process.

Also, as a random aside, Mathieu spoke en français (moderator Justin Lachance translated) and my high-school French teacher would be pleased to know that even though I haven’t opened my Bescherelle since 2003, I could still mostly understand him.

After a lunch break and more coffee we dove right into the third panel, Timing is (Almost) Everything. Canadian comedy treasure Elvira Kurt moderated and spoke with James Bredin (Schitt’s Creek), Jonathan Eagan (Workin’ Moms) and Marianna Khoury (Baroness von Sketch Show). These three editors all have worked on a wide variety of comedies, but the goal is always the same: make it funny.

I found the discussions around workflow on sketch-coms like Baroness very interesting. The editors don’t work on specific episodes but instead would grab a sketch they wanted to do. Later, once the sketches were cut together, only then would the producers/CBC decide which sketches would go into which episodes. Cool!

2020 EditCon Panelist 3 group
2020 EditCon Panelists #3

I’ve heard it said that talking about comedy isn’t funny, so it’s a good thing Elvira Kurt kept cracking wise across the panel and kept the discussion fast and flowing. She also inadvertently nailed a great point: she would ask questions around the challenge of making something funny, or finding the comedy in a certain moment, and all three panelists kind of had the same answer: you just sorta do.

Jon Anctil

Associate member of the Canadian Cinema Editors

Comedy is subjective, personal, and tricky, and it really boils down to experimenting with different scenes in different ways and getting feedback from lots of different people to really pull the best laugh out of a bit. As an example of challenging comedy, Marianna showed a sketch from Baroness von Sketch Show called Unfounded. The sketch is hilarious but also revolves around police processing of sexual assault cases – not exactly a laugh-a-minute topic. She went into detail about how they addressed such an intense and important topic and used humour to shine a light on a real problem.

It was immensely fascinating.
2020 EditCon Panel 4 no script no problem on stage at TIFF
2020 EditCon Master Series

The last panel was a one-on-one conversation between moderator Sarah Taylor and Susan Shipton. Susan has cut eight films with Atom Egoyan, has recently worked in television on Burden of Truth and The Expanse, and now working the Netflix series Ginny and Georgia. It was a fun, casual conversation about Susan’s career up to this point and her experience working across a variety of different projects.

I’d love to go into more detail, but my notes for this panel have been lost in the shuffle of moving apartments and my memory is just fuzzy enough that I’d probably start making things up.

Things wrapped up with some draw prizes, then we stretched our legs and found some bevvies in the lounge and discussed all the gems we had heard today.

It was a long day, but I found myself walking out of the Lightbox invigorated and excited about what we do for a living. It was great to hear stories across all different genres and formats and reminded me that there is so much more to learn still. But reassuringly, my main takeaway was that no matter the subject, genre, schedule, or format, we’re all still trying to tell the best stories we can.

As a Vancouver resident, time and money to travel east to Toronto are not always easy to arrange, so I’d like to thank the CCE for their generous gift of bringing me to EditCon this year.

I am very grateful for the opportunity and I hope that the CCE continues to hold fantastic events (and raffles!) like EditCon to bring editors from all over Canada together.
Jon Anctil EditCon Raffle Winner 2020
Jon Anctil in the middle with CCE Board
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Career Achievement Recipient 2020 – Fred Brennan

Fred Brennan Career Achievement 2020 recipient

Career Achievement Recipient 2020 - Fred Brennan

Fred Brennan Career Achievement 2020 recipient

The CCE is pleased to announce the recipient of the Career Achievement Award for 2020 -- Fred Brennan.

This award is presented to a non-editor who has shown great support for Canadian editors and the editorial profession over the course of their career. The CCE will proudly present this honour to Fred at the 10th annual CCE Awards.

In a career that has spanned over forty years, Fred Brennan has become one of Canada’s preeminent dialogue and supervising sound editors. He has worked on many Canadian feature films, major international co-productions and hundreds of hours television.

His many awards include Genies and Geminis, recognition by The Director’s Guild of Canada and the Motion Picture Sound Editor’s Guild in Los Angeles.

Some of Freds credits include:

Littlest Hobo
American Psycho
Call Me Fitz
Barney’s Version
Pompeii
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Winner for Best Editing at VSFF 2020 – Hayley Sawatzky

Hayley Sawatsky Editor won best editing at Vancouver Short Film Festival

Winner for Best Editing at VSFF 2020 - Hayley Sawatzky

Hayley Sawatsky Editor won best editing at Vancouver Short Film Festival

The Canadian Cinema Editors were proud sponsors of the Vancouver Short Film Festival and were honoured to present the Best Editing Award.

Hayley Sawatzky was the recipient of the award for her work on the short film Laura

Laura, a young half Indigenous woman undergoes a conversation with her lawyer Mr. Wilson to determine how to present her case before the court. Mr. Wilson attempts to keep the process positive, but his ignorance begins to make Laura question her identity and her place in society.

Congratulations Hayley for your win!

We are pleased to introduce you to Hayley below:

Q: How long have you been an editor?

Just under two years! 

Q: What genres have you worked on?

Mostly dramatic shorts, however, I’m very excited to be working on a few comedy projects this year!

Q: What has been an interesting/favourite project so far?

“Laura” was a wonderful project to work on and I learned so much from the director Kaayla Whachell. It was daunting to work on such an important story but I am so proud of the final product.

That said, the most recent project I worked on was a Crazy8s film by Andy Alvarez called “Sol“, as anyone who has participated in a Crazy8s will tell you, it was defiantly an experience I’ll always remember. Working with Andy was so wonderful, she and Studio 104 did an incredible job prepping for all stages of production, I can’t wait for everyone to see it!

Q: What are you currently working on?

I am working on another project with Kaayla Whachell and two Telus Storyhive short series. I will also be a consulting editor on an animated short, I am very excited to explore animation!

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Canadian Screen Award Nominations 2020

2020 CSA Trophy Awards Feature Image

Canadian Screen Award Nominations 2020

Canadian Screen Awards 2020

Congratulations to our CCE members who were nominated today for a Canadian Screen Award.

Here is a complete list of our CCE members who were nominated today for a Canadian Screen Award:

Cam McLauchlin

Disappearance at Clifton Hill

Simone Smith

Goalie

Lara Johnston

Mouthpiece

Bruce Lapointe

Invisible Essence: The Little Prince

Eamonn O’Connor (plus 1 other editor)

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band

Nick Hector, CCE

Prey

D. Gillian Truster, CCE

Anne With An E: A Strong Effort of the Spirit of Good

Lisa Groontenboer, CCE

Anne With An E: The Summit of My Desires

Matthew Anas

Cardinal: Sam Best Picture Editing, Factual Rob Chandler

Mayday: Deadly Descent

Rhonda Thain

Property Brothers: Forever Home (JD & Annalee)

Jorge Parra

Still Standing: Churchill

Ted Husband

The Accountant of Auschwitz

Greg West, CCE

A Day in the Life of Earth

Pauline Decroix

Engraved on a Nation: On the Line

Carole Larsen

Equator: A New World View: Evolution

Lisa Barley, Michael Tersigni, CCE & Mike Scott (plus 2 other editors)

Amazing Race Canada: Canada Get More Maps

Al Manson, CCE, Ryan Monteith, Eliana Borsa, Andrew Gurney, Baun Mah, Seth Poulin, CCE, Chantale Marentette, Jonathan Dowler (plus 8 other editors)

Big Brother Canada: Finale

Chantale Marentette (plus 1 other editor)

Iron Chef Canada: Battle Holiday Nuts

Al Manson, CCE, Elianna Borsa, Jordan Crute & Seth Poulin, CCE (plus 4 other editors)

Top Chef Canada: Winner Takes All

Mike Fly, Aren Hansen, Nick Wong (plus 2 other editors)

Baroness Von Sketch Show: Humanity is in an Awkward Stage

Drew MacLeod

Letterkenny: Dyck’s Slip Out

Kyle Martin, CCE

Letterkenny: Letterkenny vs Penny

Trevor Ambrose, CCE

Schitt’s Creek: Life Is A Cabaret

Paul Winestock, CCE

Schitt’s Creek: Meet the Parents

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