ABOUT IAIN

Film and television editor specialising in drama, comedy and genre cinema.

Noteworthy information:

BA (Hons) in Film Studies
British Film Editors (Guild)
Rep'd by Intrinsic, London
Fluent in Avid and Adobe
in-home cutting room
willing to travel anywhere

Experienced:

drama, comedy, animation, commercials, genre cinema
editing in a foreign language
collaboration with additional editors
managing additional editors
edit suite maintenance

BLURB

I care about visual style, pacing and above all else the economy of storytelling.

My career trajectory to date is as follows: video shop clerk, cinema projectionist, camera trainee, DIT, assistant editor and, finally editor. I’ve also directed shorts and produced a feature so, I’m comfortable calling myself a filmmaker; this helps me understand and respond to the needs and expectations of other people in the cutting room (rather well).

I've edited about 40 hours of broadcast drama and several feature films. I would say I specialise in straight drama, comedy and genre-specific forms: horror and action primarily.

QUOTES TO EDIT BY

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Less is more."

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

Roy H. Williams

“There you go, giving a fuck when it ain’t your turn to give a fuck.”

William “Bunk” Moreland

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

Anton Chekhov

“Good editing makes a film look well directed. Great editing makes a film look like it wasn't directed at all”

Victor Flemming, director Gone With the Wind

CASE HISTORIES

September, 2010

I'd been editing for about 5 years on a variety of corporate videos and short films when Case Histories arrived in Edinburgh. I was extremely lucky to be offered the position of assistant editor by Line Producer, Brian Kaczynski. I'll always be very grateful to him and to Simon Cull and Brendan Reilly at Serious Facilities for giving me a crash course in AVID Media Composer (yes, I'd never used it before). I was delegated the job cutting the episode recaps which turned out to be my broadcast debut. I also debuted off-screen in a temporary voiceover which somehow remained; still waiting for my cheque.

THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE

March, 2011

Working on Case Histories I had the great fortune to meet several experienced film editors including William Webb. William was the editor of The Inbetweeners tv-series and asked me if I'd like to work on the new feature film. This took me to London where I gathered tremendous experience in Soho managing two edit suites and liaising with other institutions like Deluxe, De Lane Lea, BBFC and Film4.

I worked the project from cradle to grave and the experience gathered here would set me up for the rest of my life.

HALO 4

May, 2012

My first foray into animation came on Halo 4: Spartan Ops (the multiplayer story mode to the main game). Every week after the games release a team of players would watch a 5-6 minute animated cut-scene to progress the story and then play a level. This content ran for approximately 60 minutes and represented a daring step into long-form content for Axis Studios, who have gone from strength to strength. I've continued to collaborate with Axis on a variety of projects ever since.

STARRED UP

April, 2013

I came onto the project quite late as an assistant editor to Nick Emerson and Jake Roberts whom I'd met on an earlier David McKenzie film called Tonight You're Mine (2010).

It was on this project that I began to fully understand the mechanics of drama editing; watching rushes and recutting intense scenes (in my own time) between Ben Mendelsohn and Jack O'Connell was a big step in my development.