Having its premiere at Sundance this year, Jockey is a story about an aging horse jockey confronting the end of his career, dealing with threats to his legacy and some of his final chances to do what he loves most. It was directed by Clint Bentley (who co-wrote with Greg Kwedar), shot by cinematographer Adolpho Veloso and edited by Parker Laramie, who came on board a few weeks before shooting began.
Let’s find out more from Laramie…
Editor Parker Laramie
How did you work with Clint Bentley? What direction were you given for the edit? How often was he looking at your cut?
Clint works in a way that feels very comfortable to me — he will send a few notes while he’s on set about what is standing out to him, but he really wanted me to experiment and try things and pay attention to my responses to the footage. Since I’m in LA and he’s in Dallas, I would mostly send cuts to him, we would discuss and I would cut on my own, but there were two solid weeks when we worked side by side at my place in LA.
Clint (and Greg) would also cut things themselves, and some of those cuts are in the final cut. I prefer to work that way if a director likes to cut themselves, because it feels more collaborative. As an editor I know the value of being able to play and experiment without having to justify yourself every step of the way. We were always very open and loved to discuss why we were making certain decisions, so trading cuts back and forth felt very fluid and seamless.
Was there a particular scene or scenes that were most challenging?
It’s hard to say which individual scene was the most difficult — the hardest part was the first 10 to 15 minutes. It’s always the trickiest part of any cut for me, and I have to keep reminding myself that it’ll be the last thing I figure out and to avoid obsessing over it too early in the process.
Director Clint Bentley
Clint, Greg and I all tried cutting countless versions, and it wasn’t until Clint moved up the scene that now opens the film from later in the cut that things finally fell into place. And once Bryce and Aaron Dessner wrote that beautiful atmospheric piece, we finally had something that set the tone properly, and it felt like we’d found what we were looking for.
Is the Sundance cut the “final” cut?
As much as I’d love to revisit some sections of the film, I think this is it.
Was the edit done during the pandemic? If so, how did that affect the workflow?
We were in fine cut by mid-March when things got shut down, and we were already editing remotely for the most part. But I think we were figuring we’d have another round of sessions together to finish everything up. We did a little bit over Zoom, but mostly we’d send QuickTimes or project files back and forth and discuss. Not ideal!
What system did you use to cut?
Adobe Premiere. Clint prefers it, and he wanted to be able to jump in and play with things. Working with sound and music is a huge part of my cutting, and audio editing is very fluid in Premiere.
Is there a tool within that system that most people might not know about that you use?
I’m sure most people know about it, but I time-stretch portions of music and adjust pitch quite a bit. Probably more than I should, to be honest.
Is that the NLE you use most often?
I usually use Avid Media Composer, which I taught myself early on because it seemed to be more common on the projects I was working on. And it feels more stable and has stricter media management. But as I’ve learned more about how to make Premiere run smoother, and it’s feature set has expanded recently, I’m starting to choose Premiere more and more when I have the option.
How did you manage your time?
For most of the edit I was working on another project during the weekdays, so a lot of this was cut in the evenings and on weekends. But I also had four weeks when I focused just on this cut — basically to bring it from assembly to rough cut. I actually like hopping between different projects because it helps me keep perspective when I can step away. Fortunately, we didn’t have any ambitious deadlines, so we were able to budget our time based on what was best for the cut.
Did you have an assistant editor on this? If so, how did you work with them.
We had a great on-set editor/DIT, Courtney Ware, who organized everything for me so I could dive right in. But once production was finished, I managed most things myself. Luckily, Clint and Greg are also comfortable with a lot of the editorial details, so between the three of us, we managed through editing and finishing.
How do you manage producers’ expectations with reality/what can really be done?
Everything just takes time. I usually give a rough estimate of how long something will take and stay communicative as things shift or change. I prefer to try things, but I try to explain why I think certain things won’t work.
How do you take criticism? Do you find yourself defensive or accepting of other’s ideas (good and bad)?
I care a lot about my work, and I always take things personally, but I try to remember that it doesn’t really have anything to do with me — I’m first and foremost in a collaboration with the people criticizing the work I’m doing. I also try to avoid being too possessive. I don’t like to hang on too tightly to anything because I find that the best ideas always seem to have a way of coming back.
When someone who is starting out asks what they should learn, what do you recommend?
I think it depends on what they want to work on. Different parts of the industry use different tools. I find that the more I learn other types of tools, the better I am at exploiting the tools I’m already familiar with. And learning how to use DAWs and compositing software is extremely helpful, especially when you’re collaborating with designers and artists throughout an edit. Knowing what they’re working with on their end means you can better anticipate things, both technically and creatively.
