NBCUni 9.5.23
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Behind the Title: Cut+Run editor Jay Nelson

How early did Jay Nelson know editing would be his path? In his early teens, he watched music videos and tried to predict where the edits would go.

Name: Jay Nelson

Company: Cut + Run, Los Angeles

What is Cut+Run?
Cut + Run is an offline editing house that specializes in cutting short films and campaigns for advertising, promos and other content. We have offices in London, NYC, LA and Austin and offer VFX and finishing via sister company Jogger.

Jay Nelson at work

What’s your job title?
Editor… among other things

What does that entail?
The nuts and bolts of my daily work is editing commercials. But there’s more than meets the eye.

What would surprise people the most about what falls under that title?
Much of what I do came even as a surprise to me when I started doing this job. Welcome surprises, of course. As probably anyone in our business knows, an editor does more than choose takes and put pictures together for a first draft.

Some of the great joys of my job come from shaping the tone of voiceover, helping to re-craft scripts, choosing music to suit both the tone and the style of the times, and doing the sound design. In effect, we get to build the building and put the carpet in and choose the drapes.

What’s your favorite part of the job?
Nowadays it’s the diplomacy — the creative navigation that goes beyond simply building the building. With experience comes a much deeper understanding of the heart of advertising and the goings-on about why a concept was approved and about the folks doing the jobs high up in the tower and the decisions they make.

I enjoy having a far broader understanding of the business and applying that knowledge in the room in unstated ways. It’s a powerful skill in leading people to better work. It has little to do with raw talent and everything to do with time in the chair.

What’s your least favorite?
The politics, which is very different than diplomacy. The politics of it means you can lose really big in spite of doing your job well. It’s entropy.

Doc for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods

What is your most productive time of day?
It used to be when the sun went down. Now it’s before the sun comes up and the people show up.

If you didn’t have this job, what would you be doing instead?
I would aspire to be an inventor or an archaeologist. I love discovering things and unlocking mysteries. And I’ve come to enjoy science and engineering from a distance. I need to re-educate myself.

Why did you choose this profession?
I am convinced that everything I did before choosing to be an editor prepared me for this job. I used to watch music videos and try to predict the edits. I was 13 and had a pretty evolved understanding of the existence of editors. I studied as a writer and a studio artist and I have always been passionate about films and filmmakers. When I got to college and felt like it was time to choose a path, it coincided with the invention of nonlinear editing capabilities.

I also happened to be a whiz on the Mac, so I came straight to LA and got a job as a runner at one of the first boutique companies ever founded here. And I met every editor in town while working there.

Doc for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods

What are some recent projects?
I just completed a short doc for Spike Lee to accompany the film Da 5 Bloods. The focus was on Emory Douglas, who was the minister of culture for the Black Panther Press. It was one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever done. It couldn’t have come at a better time because it properly educated me for the revolution we are now finding ourselves in.

Do you put on a different hat when cutting for a specific genre?
Do I get “method” with it? Yes. And I have to be careful because I become very emotionally rapt when working on certain things. I’m very sensitive to the media. I’ve done some dark films, and they tend to signal some very dark times for me.

Same for immersing myself in music videos, documentaries. I made a doc feature about a town in England that plays the raw pure original form of football, and for two years I dreamed about scoring a goal nearly every night. I was glad when that film was over. It took me five years to finish it.

Have you been continuing to edit during the lockdown? Can you describe that experience?
I have. I have to. When you are as devoted to, and committed to, a career as I am, you sort of need it to wake up in the morning. Much of your daily purpose is defined by that craft.

That said, there’s been a healthy aspect to all of this, such as developing new personal routines, which honestly make me better at my job. And, frankly, one needs to live in order to make better art. Art imitates life as they say. Without doing the business of living, you have nothing to draw upon for craft. Plus, I’ve gotten back to writing and studio art, which I’ve avoided for many years as I immersed myself in editing. I think re-developing those disciplines has made me a better editor overall.

What system do you edit on?
I edit on Avid Media Composer and have done so pretty much since the company released its first piece of software. I miss Final Cut and wish Apple’s big flip had not alienated the professionals. I’ve tried Premiere but can’t make it stick, although there’s a lot of potential there.

I think it’s past time for another revolution of the interface however — we’re thinking very small and there’s really been no innovation in 30 years. The life of linear tape editing was about 20 years in earnest. We are overdue for a revision, and I wish someone would actually step out of the box and give us something new. I have ideas, but I’m not going publish them. I’m hoping someone contacts me and picks my brain so we can develop the next big thing.

The lockdown should have prompted the next evolution, but it hasn’t. Hopefully it will, and I want to be a part of that very badly. As mentioned, I’m an inventor at heart.

What is your favorite plugin?
My assistant. There’s no better resource for another way of doing something than the person sitting next to me, watching and ready to learn, ready to express.

What else are you asked to do other than edit?
Write. And do the voiceover. Thanks to the universe for that.

What are three pieces technology you can’t live without?
My Ninja 6-in-1 pressure cooker (the pandemic and being a single dad has forced me to learn to cook efficiently). My Avalon vacuum tube sound compressor. My Samsung smart TV 4K badass television, which is enormous and worth every penny..

We spend more time in front of the screen than in our cars. Why spend a ton of money on a car I drive two miles to work when I could not drive at all and have an awesome TV?

How do you de-stress from it all?
Domesticate. I like to putter about the house and fix stuff. I need something to vanish into and immerse myself in. I don’t really get stressed doing the work I do, however. I stress about not working. So if I have time to putter around the house, I’m probably stressed about having the time to do that.


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