Manhattan Edit Workshop's Blog

  ANNOUNCING THE 2022-2023 KAREN SCHMEER FILM EDITING FELLOWSHIP OPEN CALL Newly Redesigned Fellowship Program Provides Mentorship for Assistant, Associate and Emerging Documentary Film Editors from Underrepresented Backgrounds and Experiences  Open call for submissions begins FEBRUARY 1, 2022 Received-by application deadline is MARCH 20, 2022 The Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship is a year-long group mentorship program for documentary assistant, associate and emerging editors from historically underrepresented backgrounds and experiences. Our mission is to cultivate the careers of an inclusive group of emerging and aspiring documentary film editors through mentorship to help them grow as artists and build their community. By investing in editors, we affirm and strengthen the critical role editors play in documentary storytelling.   Applicants must be based in the U.S., reside there September 2022 – September 2023, have at least two credits as an assistant, associate,...

Filmmaker U ( www.filmmakeru.com ), the online education series that brings the best in the industry to aspiring filmmakers, announced today that acclaimed  Director/Editor Sam Pollard  will teach a course in Documentary film editing. Oscar-nominated and multiple Emmy-winning documentary Director/Editor Sam Pollard   ("Four Little Girls," "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"),   will take students into the edit suite in an intimate journey through his career, techniques, relationships and decision making process from his storied work.  His collaboration with Director Spike Lee and his recent ventures as a Director; will give students an unparalleled look into non-fiction storytelling. Topics include Structure, Directors and Editors Shaping a Film Pacing, Mood, Tone and Texture, Editing Audio, Editing, and much more. “Samuel Pollard is a master filmmaker,” Spike Lee said, with finality. “If you say he’s j...

MEWShop is excited to announce that Oscar-nominated editor Robert Eisenhardt, ACE,  will join our March/April 2019 Six Week Intensive. Bob Eisenhardt is a three-time Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee. With over 60 films to his credit, he has edited documentaries for Barbara Kopple, Maysles Films, Susan Froemke, Matt Tyrnauer, Marc Levin, David Grubin and Alex Gibney. Recent films include  the Oscar nominated Free Solo , Outside the Bubble: On the Road with Alexandra Pelosi , Wagner’s Dream , which received an Emmy nomination for editing,  Valentino: The Last Emperor, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing, Living Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders ,  Dancing in Jaffa . and the HBO film  Everything Is Copy  on the life of Nora Ephron. Click here for more information on our Six Week Intensive or for registration information

Editor Bryan Chang from our Documentary panel from "Sight, Sound & Story: Post Production Summit on June 14, 2018. Bryan Chang is a documentary filmmaker whose award-winning films have been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME Magazine, The Atlantic, MoMA, Sundance Film Festival, and distributed theatrically. His feature-length documentaries include "Brasslands" (director/DP/editor), "Narco Cultura" (editor), "Dark Money" (additional editor) and "Island Soldier" (producer/editor). He was an editor for the Emmy-winning documentary series "A Year In Space," and is currently editing on a Netflix original documentary series about genetic engineering. He is a co-owner of Meerkat Media, a cooperatively-run production company in Brooklyn, NY. "Sight Sound and Story" is an annual event presented by Manhattan Edit Workshop that brings audiences "behind the scenes" with legends of visual st...

Our thoughts go out to the family & friends of Larry Silk, ACE. He’ll be remembered for his incredible kindness and devotion to craft. Some of the stories we were lucky enough to hear while he was Artist in Residence will stick with us forever.  Read more here: https://medium.com/@MEWShop/remembering-film-editor-larry-silk-ace-875850b7aade

In this video from MEWTube, documentary editor Mona Davis discusses the making of Love & Diane . From "Sight, Sound & Story" on June 11th, 2016. Mona Davis is a feature documentary editor based in New York with a passion for verite films with character driven stories. Her credits include the critically acclaimed Love and Diane, which premiered at the New York Film Festival, the Emmy nominated A Perfect Candidate ,  Dream Deceivers , The State of Arizona, and the Academy Award nominated In Our Water and The Farm: Angola USA (Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance), for which she won an Emmy for Best Documentary Editing. She has consulted on numerous films including 51 Birch Street and First Comes Love . Her work has shown theatrically and on HBO, Showtime, CBS, PBS, BBC and Arte. Love & Diane is a 2002 documentary film directed by Jennifer Dworkin about a recovering crack addict and her troubled daughter in New York City as they navigate the obstacles of ...

Cinematographer Jerry Ricciotti discusses shooting on location for "Vice." Recorded at "Sight, Sound & Story: The Art of Cinematography" on September 30, 2015. Jerry Ricciotti is currently a Director of Photography for "Vice," working mainly on our HBO series called "Vice" on HBO and "Vice News." He was nominated for a cinematography Emmy last year and won an Emmy for best informational series. "Vice" on HBO shoots on location with very small teams; so all out work is run and gun where the crew often find themselves wearing many different hats. Prior to "Vice," Jerry was based in California shooting documentaries mainly focused on sports and professional surfing. He currently lives in Brooklyn (which is for about five days a month.)  "Vice" is a documentary TV-series created and hosted by Shane Smith of "Vice" magazine. Produced by Bill Maher, it uses CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria as a...

Clark's timeline in FCPX George Abbott Clark knows that Final Cut Pro X has a cloudy reputation in the editing business. “When it first came out, it was a nightmare,” he says on a phone call from Los Angeles. “But the new updates are remarkable. It’s like power steering - you would never go back to making it more complicated and cumbersome.” In editing Jim Shoe from writer-director Pete Sutton, Clark faced pushback from post-production and industry peers in his choice to cut in FCPX. Amid a series of major studio releases also cut with the controversial program — Focus and Whiskey Foxtrot Tango among them — Clark remains steadfast in his adherence to FCPX, citing the ease of working with the system. “[FCPX] has a rep for being simplified and dumbed-down,” Clark says. “But it’s not. It’s sophisticated, and advanced. There’s a misconception in the community.” In the transition from FCP7 to X, Clark knew the new program was being built on a 64-bit platform from the ground...

Cinematographer Matt Porwoll is based in New York City. His most recent work,  Cartel Land , was nominated for a 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary (feature). Cartel Land was also selected for competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently went on to win the US Documentary Prize for Cinematography. He was one of three speakers on the documentary panel at MEWShop's " Sight, Sound & Story: The Art of Cinematography," 2015  event. We recently caught up with him to ask some in-depth questions about his career and experiences as a cinematographer. Manhattan Edit Workshop (MEWShop): Where did you grow up and why did you want to be a cinematographer? Matt Porwoll (MP):  I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve known that I wanted to be a cinematographer since my freshman year of high school. It’s interesting to try and trace the reason why, but I think a big part of why I took this path was that my dad liked taking pictures. As a kid I loved goi...

Tom Haneke's work includes Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-winning documentary "American Dream" and "My Generation" (which he also co-directed). Tom edited From "Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China," and "He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'", which both received Academy Awards for best documentary. Haneke has also done several projects for HBO as well as Sundance Film Festival nominee "American Teen." Inspired by the studies of Robert and Helen Lynd in 1929 and 1935, this classic six-part series by Academy Award and Emmy winner Peter Davis ("Hearts and Minds") explores both the continuity and the change embodied in the people and institutions of one Midwestern community: Muncie, Indiana. This episode, "Middletown: Second Time Around" Focusing on the wedding arrangements of David and Elaine, each of whom is a divorcee, this program presents the complexities of contemporary marriage in the United States.