1. Lee Mason - Avid Editor
Lighthouse Media Centre
Films: The Most Unromantic Man, The Asian Connection (BTS), Wash
and Go and lots of Music Videos for Ballistic Productions
1) What route ways did you follow to get into the position of an editor?
When I was 18 years old and having just finished my A Levels, I enrolled in a City
& Guilds video production course at Light House Media Centre Wolverhampton.
Over the nine month course I learnt all the facets of media production, but felt a
natural draw towards editing. Once the course was complete I applied for a job
working in the cinema side of Light House and was successful. Being based at
Light House (although working on the cinema side) gave me the opportunity to
use all their equipment, keep my skills honed and up to date with new technology.
Also enabled me to network with similiar minded individuals and filmmakers
who passed through the centre, and to get involved with as many productions as
possible.
2) How long have you been an editor for?
On and off now for 19 years
3) What made you want to pursue a career as an editor?
Having been a huge fan of cinema from a very young age, I knew I wanted to work
in film and/or video somehow. I just wasn't sure in what role or if I would even be
able to get into the business. Once on the course I felt a natural pull towards
editing. I liked how a project comes to life in the edit suite, and found it exciting
how you could manipulate images in so many ways to tell a story. I also liked
being left alone to create, then reviewing your work with a director and
collaborating with them further. I much prefered this to being on location, having
to deal with the stress of filming i.e. running out of time, bad weather, awkward
actors etc.
4) What is the most rewarding part of working as an editor?
I kind of touched on this in the answer above. How the film takes shape in the
edit. How it's such a creative process and how much you can manipulate shots
and even peoples performances to tell a story. Collaborating with talented
directors.
2. 5) What does your job as an editor actually require you to do?
Firstly I'm expected to capture/transfer all the footage onto the edit suite and
then arrange it in a clear and easily accessible manner. Then depending on the
project I may have to sync the sound with the picture. Once the actual editing
starts, it's my job to assemble the footage in the best way that serves the story and
directors vision. I may also be responsible for basic sound mixing / graphics and
exporting the project in various ways upon completion
6) What was your longest project and how long did you work on it?
Hmmhh. I've mainly worked on short films, music videos and the odd trailer.
They usually take anything from a few days to a week or two. I think the longest
project may have been a 30 minute documentary called 'Natural Born Artists'.
That took around a month as there was so much footage to sift through. Actually
there was another documentary 'Hong Kong Superstars' which was 90mins in
length. That took longer thinking about it as again there was so much footage.
That was maybe 2 months.
7) What kind of software is available to you during editing?
When I first started editing I was using linear tape machine edit suites. Incredible
looking back now. No idea how we did it! First non-linear edit system I used was
Light Works at Pinewood Studios. For a long time I was using AVID Media
Composer and became really proficient with it. Most recently I've been using
Final Cut Pro and very briefly Premiere.
8) How easy is to communicate with your team to complete a project?
Unless you are a big time editor working on huge movies with a team of assistant
editors, I'm not sure most editors really have a team. You will have a director to
collaborate with usually. Depends on the individual though as to how well you
can communicate!
9) What kind of advice would you give to someone who aspires to
become an editor?
Try and learn more than one edit system i.e. Final Cut AND Premiere. I made the
mistake years ago of being an AVID guy. That was fine for a while, but Final Cut
started to gain more and more ground yet I remained dismissive of it. That hurt
me in the long run. You need to be able to adapt, so learning more than one
3. system can only help. However that's not the most important part. Anyone can
learn a piece of software. Most important part is to learn the craft of editing. You
gotta learn pacing, rythm, how to tell a story etc. Try and edit as many projects as
you can. Read books on the craft of editing. The following are two books I highly
recommend.https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Cut-Conversations-Film-
Editors/dp/0520075889https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1879505622/re
f=pd_sim_14_1/253-1455367-
1815627?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9NRQJ7H927QNEFX46Q5Z
10) Do you enjoy working as an editor and why?
I enjoy it mainly because of reasons already stated. It's creative, you help tell the
story etc. I also enjoy collaborating with certain directors who are now good
friends which makes things fun. To be honest though I don't always enjoy it. It
really depends what projects I'm working on. If I was cutting corporate videos all
day long then no I wouldn't enjoy it. I'm not knocking anyone that works in
corporate full time, but it's just not for me. Editing is so time consuming that for
me personaly I have to be really passionate about the material I'm cutting. I did
have a period from around 2009-2013 where I did very little editing. I got more
involved with on set stuff like camera operating, sound recording etc. I think
being sat in front of a computer all day with no natural light took its toll! I'm
doing a little more editing again these days, although I'm balancing it with on set
work as well. Variety is the spice of life as they say!
