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AN IRISH SCREEN EDITORS PUBLICATIONExclusive chat withEmer ReynoldsComposerRay HarmanSpotlight onPiranha BarNUMBER 02 [SEPTEMBER 2022]ASSEMBLED

After such a wonderful reaction to the first edition we couldn’t but produce a sequel. When we first discussed the idea of a magazine we were pragmatic to the point of pessimism as to what we could create, so to see our fledgling issue take to the sky and circle the globe was a source of huge pride. It was also a wonderful opportunity to get together to launch the magazine, and those lucky enough to be able to join us in Foley’s back in April were rewarded with their own limited edition hardcopy of Assembled #1.In this issue we continue to shine a light on editors here in Ireland and further afield. We talk to John Cutler, cutting his teeth in the burgeoning Irish horror sector, about working with Kate Dolan and how he benefitted from the experience of being mentored. Celia Haining takes us inside her incredibly busy edit suite to discuss cutting drama as a freelancer in London. Not wanting to rely on temp score for this issue we went straight to Ray Harman to find out how (media) composers do it, and as her debut feature film goes on cinema release we speak to Emer Reynolds about making the long trip from the Editor’s chair to the Director’s (comfier) chair. We continue our feature on the educational institutions involved in post production training, and take you inside Piranha Bar, one of Dublin’s busier post facilities. Finally, in our new feature Recommended Reading, we endeavour to answer the question “Is there a second book about editing?”On the home front we have updated the Members’ Directory on our website irishscreeneditors.com. Members are now listed with links to their personal websites, IMDB pages and any other information that may be useful to prospective employers. If you would like your information updated please drop us a line at info@irishscreeneditors.comWe are always accepting new members so have a look at our membership page and if you meet the criteria and would like to join us then get in touch.Finally, we want to hear from you our members and readers. If you have any thoughts on what we’re doing or if there’s anything you’d like to see us add to the next issue please get in touch. We also welcome any articles, reviews or opinion pieces; if you’ve anything you’d like to get off your chest then drop us a line. It is, after all, your magazine!So, as we head into the busy season we hope this magazine comes as a welcome diversion, and that you enjoy taking some personal time over the course of your day to read and enjoy!Eoin McDonagh ISE, Chairperson.Hello & WelcomeHello & Welcome2ASSEMBLED

Contributors/WritersEoin McDonaghJeremy BriersJenny RussellTony KearnsDesign & Layout Jeremy BriersThank you to all our particpants and contributors who volunteered their time so generously for this issue.If you would like to contribute, make a suggestion or recommend someone we should feature in the magazine then reach out to jayce@irishscreeneditors.com. If you are considering applying to be a member of the ISE or want to know more information head on over to irishscreeneditors.com or drop us an email at info@irishscreeneditors.comI would like to give a shout out to Alan Miller, editor-in-chief at Freeze Frame Magazine over the pond at the BFE, thanks for the inspiration.No bribes were solicited and we defintely did not use any synthesizers.Jeremy Briers.3ASSEMBLED

Table of ContentsEmer ReynoldsEmer Reynolds, Grierson-nominated feature documentary director and multi-award winning Film Editor, is based in Dublin, Ireland. Credits include 'Here Was Cuba' her documentary directorial debut, which she co-directed with John Murray. Her first solo-directed, award-winning feature-documentary 'The Farthest' made its international premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. A five-time IFTA winning Editor turned Director whose latest film directed by Emer and edited by husband Tony, 'Joyride' stars Olivia Coleman.Celia HainingStarting out as an Apprentice Editor on '12 Monkeys'. Celia has also worked on acclaimed films 'Slumdog Millionaire', and 'The Full Monty'. In more recent years, she has been involved with multiple Television series including, The Crown, Peaky Blinders, Hanna and The End of the F*****g World.18064ASSEMBLED

Ray HarmanRay Harman is a Film and TV composer and songwriter. He has scored Films and TV shows such as 'The Young Offenders' (both the 2016 feature film and the 2018 TV Series), 'The Farthest', 'Love Hate', 'A Dark Song', 'Inspector George Gently'. Before working in film, he was (and still is: Ed.) guitarist and songwriter with Dublin band Something Happens.Technological University of the ShannonWe chat to Simon McGuire ISE about what the TUS, formerly known as LIT has to offer, and how the university has changed to benefit budding Film-makers in Ireland.Recommended ReadingJohn Cutler - EditorAt the Piranha Bar with Marc LongTricia Perrott - Post SupervisorGear Review with our guestsThe Back Page16321012242834365ASSEMBLED

CELIA HAININGFILM EDITORCecilia has worked on acclaimed lms Slumdog Millionaire, The Full Monty and 12 Monkeys.Celia joins me on a Zoom call from her flat in London. Taking a break between gigs, she is relaxed and sitting comfortably on her green velvet couch waiting for me to stop waffling so we can start the formal part of our call. We shoot the breeze for about 15 minutes and then it's down to business and so what follows is a rather varied look at Celia's rather varied career.Her 1st gig was as a trainee assistant editor on 'When Saturday Comes', starring Sean Bean, Emily Lloyd and Pete Postlethwaite, a job she got because it was filmed in Sheffield where she was attending film school."They came to film school and said, we need some trainees. There was just me and one other guy that went up for it and I was lucky enough to get it. So I was unpaid volunteer on that. The shoot was in Sheffield for five or six weeks and then they said, look, we'd love you to continue with us, so come to London. My M.A. in film and TV production at the Northern Media School in Sheffield was coming to an end so I took a big chance and moved to London, not really knowing anybody and not really knowing London at all. It was very funny because it was like...EDITOR Can you just go to HMV and buy this CD?CELIA Sure, where’s HMV?EDITOR Oxford Street.CELIA Where’s Oxford Street?All I knew was how to get from Picadilly Circus to Dean Street, to the cutting room. I didn't know anything else. But I eventually figured it all out."6ASSEMBLED

With the job coming to an end and facing the real potential of signing on, one day while making tea for the Editors Celia began chatting to colleague Victoria Boydell who was 2nd Assistant Editor on 12 Monkeys.VICTORIA We're doing a Terry Gilliam film do you want to be trainee on it?CELIA Oh my God. Yes?"So that's how I got on that film. It was really lucky. And in fact for the last month on 'When Saturday Comes', they started paying me 200 pounds a week, which was, great and so that was my rate on '12 Monkeys' as well. I just couldn't believe my luck. I would've done it for nothing, even just to make tea for Terry Gilliam would've been amazing. It was a great team, Mick [Audsley - Editor] was absolutely lovely. And because again, it was all 35mm. I had the opportunity to be in the room handing trims to him while the two of them were working together and listening to them work, which just doesn't happen anymore. So I learned a lot really quickly and loved it"After that Celia worked on a string of high profile films, from 1995 on 'The Van' to 'The Full Monty', 'The Serpents Kiss' as 2nd Assistant Editor and then from 1998 as Assistant Editor on 'Mansfield Park', 'Road to Perdition' and 'Calendar Girls' until her first editing job on Shane Meadows' 'Dead Man's Shoes'."My last proper assisting job was in 2002. It took me a while to work through the ranks because I'm the kind of person that wants to feel very confident before I try and do something. So it was eight years of assisting and then in 2003 I got my break. My old flatmate from film school, Barry Ryan was line producing 'Dead Man's Shoes' which was an incredible opportunity and when I got the job and I couldn't quite believe my luck. That was a huge, huge break for me to work on that. And during the shoot, it was, well, this is going be something special. You could feel that it had a really raw power in the ideas and in the performances and everything. It was great"From there Celia went on to be Assembly Editor on 'Slumdog Millionaire' as well landing a few Additional Editing credits and a few short films before making her transition into editing for Television. Her first experience, a football soap that was rather popular in Ireland at the time, 'Dream Team'."There was no money and it was complete chaos. It was like television bootcamp. 32 episodes in a season and I did I think 10 episodes in about eight months or something. The schedule per episode was, shoot for two weeks in which we would assemble and rough cut and then we had one week for the fine cut, including an entire track lay and music edit. So in every three weeks you produced another 46 minute episode. But then sometimes if the Executives got involved and demanded that eight scenes were cut and 10 were rewritten and reshot it ate into the time for the following episode. Which then literally piled episodes up against each other. It was crazy. But, it was amazing training because you had to get very fast and you had to trust your instincts, your first instinct and stick to that."7ASSEMBLED

The Television Industry in Ireland in the late 1990s and early 2000s was still fairly small compared to the growth happening globally, however making the transition from Film to TV Soap/Drama even then was not all plain sailing."Initially my sensibility for the show wasn't there naturally, it was a very bish bash bosh because even though it was essentially shot as a soap, they had aspirations and wanted to make it zingy. I guess my background was much more classical drama. The Director was this older guy who had a similar feel for it that I had. So we ended up with an overlong assembly with all these meaningful looks and pauses and glances and whatever. My first screening, oh my God... all the way through the Producer's writing furiously and we got to the end and I had nine pages of notes. It was all, take out all the gaps between the words, we just want the words, just take out all the gaps. But then once I got into it and got the feel of it I really enjoyed the process. I think also I had a slight feeling of not wanting it to beat me."Then came the period of horror in Celia's career. Doing some additional editing work on 'Seed of Chucky' and this coupled with her editing credit on 'Dead Man's Shoes' meant she only ever got sent horror scripts for a good few years."I could not get out of horror and most of it was super low budget. I felt like I was stuck in this horror thing for years and I couldn't make money. I was only working six months in a year and completely skint. It didn't really start to change until 2009."There was a period of about seven years where she was making less money than she was as an Assistant. Forced to take in a lodger to help pay the rent and sometimes working in a Wine Bar, finally she felt that something had to be done. And what she explains is actually really good advice for all of us."My agent and I got together we figured out what the bottom line is, what's the amount of money I need to earn. And, and if clients can't come up with that we just say no because in the end, the things I was offered were taking the piss. And I was like...CELIA I’m not independently wealthy. I can’t fund your lm and I’m not doing this anymore.The weird thing is until that point I thought it was better to be working, even on very low paid jobs than not working. But I'd got a name for myself as the low budget features person. And I think people went...Producer One Oh, you haven’t got much money? Well I know just the person.I became that person. So things needed to change, 8ASSEMBLED

I needed to change the narrative. It took me a really long time to work that out. And it's at this point I started doing these TV Docu-Dramas which were made up of two day shoots of re-enactments and interviews with the victims of the disaster of the week. It was completely bizarre but also good fun."And once again things changed for Celia when in 2013 after a short stint on 'Seconds from Disaster' and 'I Shouldn't be Alive' an opportunity arose at Channel 4 on 'Misfits'."I was very lucky to get in the door on 'Misfits'. And again, I couldn't have done it normally, but a friend of mine was the Editor of the first three episodes and one and two were really running over. So he needed someone to do episode three. I got that job because he recommended me. That was just such a great credit to have. And I loved doing it. It was brilliant. Great show, I was so excited by it."This short run on 'Misfits' is what ultimately paved the way to editing episodes on some very high profile shows. From 'Peaky Blinders' to 'The End of the F***ing World', 'Brittania', 'The Crown' and 'Hanna', all falling very comfortably into her wheelhouse. "I'm in a very fortunate position at the moment of being able to choose what happens next. And it's always to do with the quality of the writing and who the people are that I might be working with. Particularly the Director but also the Producer. And then whether the writing is inspirational. Can I hold my head up high and go 'this is what I'm doing'? I guess I'm trying to look for messages that will somehow help the world. I just worry about the world. But honestly I'm so lucky the Directors I've been working with in the last decade have been absolutely brilliant. Honestly, every single person I've worked with I've found genuinely fascinating. And I just feel really lucky to have been able to work with them."To my mind Celia's is a typical career path that encompasses all aspects of life as a Freelance Editor. From being skint and worrying about if there's going to be another job so we are forced to give up on our dreams, to being able to cherry pick the work that comes with an innordinate amount of experience.And not to mention a certain amount of luck along the way. Reading back over this article I'm struck by the fact that the word lucky as spoken by Celia, comes up on the pages no less than seven times. And while Celia may place a lot of faith in luck it really is down to talent and hard work.Okay maybe a little luck.9ASSEMBLED

RECOMMENDEDREADINGIt is a question I often hear; can you recommend any good books about editing? The response is invariably the same; “well there’s In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch, and then…”…and then! The silence, the pause that more often than not fails to yield a second option. Editing has not been written about so extensively that book titles trip off the tongue, but there are lots out there if you know where to look. When the Shooting Stops… by Ralph Rosenblum and Robert Karen is an excellent place to start. The book is part biography, part history of editing, and part craft manual. Ralph Rosenblum started his career as a teenager in the Office of War Information (OWI) in New York. He was hired as a messenger, had no particular aspirations beyond that, and recalls that on his first or second day he caught his first glimpse of the cutting rooms:“Row after row of dim cubicles in which film… was being assembled into propaganda documentaries. In solitude and concentration, each Editor worked his creation unencumbered by human relation, audience reactions, or even, for that matter, the judgement of the world. For who knew what an editor did?”Over the course of a very successful career Ralph Rosenblum worked with Sidney Lumet, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen to name but a few. This book gives a fascinating insight into how he worked his way through the ranks. Along the way he talks at length about the people he worked with and the lessons he learned from them. The chapter on his time as an Assistant Editor for Helen van Dongen on Robert Flaherty’s 'Louisiana Story' is a wonderful blend of memoir and film history. He recalls the difficulties Helen had had on Flaherty’s 'The Land'. After weeks and weeks of viewing rushes with Flaherty she still had no clue as to what he wanted and was growing increasingly desperate: “She began to listen to him very carefully no matter how often he appeared to repeat himself, and soon she found she was beginning to see the film through “Every film presents different and unexpected challenges. You never know what problems you’re going to face or what skills you’ll need to summon”10ASSEMBLED

his eyes. Slowly she discovered the signs that gave her the direction she needed for editing, and to the end she depended on these signs, for Flaherty disliked direct questions about film theories and could become almost inarticulate in response”Rosenblum indulges our desire for detail at every turn. The book opens with the tale of William Friedkin’s feature 'The Night They Raided Minsky’s'. The ups and downs of an Editor’s job are all laid bare here: the excitement, the desperation, the Director’s indifference, the Producer’s insistence. He talks in great detail about Sidney Lumet’s 'The Pawnbroker'. In need of a new flashback device they experimented with flash cuts, a technique that was pioneering then and remains in use to day (See the recent 'Winning Time: the rise of the Lakers dynasty'). I particularly enjoyed his chapters on Mel Brooks’ 'The Producers'. For a film so iconic to have such a fractious and disagreeable backstory was to me surprising, and the peek behind the curtains here would serve as a cautionary tale to anyone entering the industry.At all points Rosenblum is focused on the craft of editing and the role of the Editor. The Editor’s relationship with the Director comes in for a lot of scrutiny: like all of us Rosenblum had good experiences and bad experiences, as evidenced by the chapter entitled 'My Problem with Directors'. The stresses of 'The Producers' or 'The Night They Raided Minsky’s' would probably be enough to make anyone question their vocation, but it is in the chapters on 'Annie Hall' that the Editor really comes to the fore and the Director redeemed. If anyone had predicted in autumn 1976 that this film would go on to win multiple awards…“…I would have dismissed the idea as uneducated speculation. 'Annie Hall' at the time was an untitled chaotic collection of bits & pieces that seemed to defy continuity, bewilder its creators, and of all Allen’s films, hold the least promise for popular success”Rosenblum cut six films for Woody Allen, and it was for 'Annie Hall' that he won his sole editing award; the Best Editing BAFTA in 1978. Undoubtedly it was in the edit that the chaos was calmed and transformed into the multi-Oscar winning piece we all now know. Who can say if Woody Allen would have had the same success if a different Editor had been at the helm. There is no doubt that you will recognise many of the challenges and difficulties Rosenblum faced, albeit on a different scale. Take solace from knowing that someone else has been through the process and emerged successful on the other side.When the Shooting Stops… by Ralph Rosenblum and Robert Karen is available to buy in paperback from many online retailers, and is also available for Kindle. Or you can borrow my copy if you ask nicely…11ASSEMBLED

John Cutler is an Editor who edited his first feature film, 'You Are Not My Mother' (written and directed by Kate Dolan) in late 2020 and early 2021. He talks to Assembled about his career path leading to this project and of how he was able to benefit from having a mentor help him while working on the film.John grew up in rural Carlow and got into making films with his brothers when he was about 10 years old. Later in secondary school, as he was considering career options, he was excited to discover that he could pursue one in film making. "It just dawned on me, I can make film a career, because that's something I loved doing anyway. So I decided to go to film college. I only applied for one course on my college applications form, the film course at IADT Dún Laoghaire.My attitude was; 'this is it, I've got to do this'. Putting together my portfolio was so much fun and I was delighted that I got full marks for that. And then I was like 'right, okay, I actually really need to study for my Leaving Cert to actually be able to get into this course'. So that was a great motivation, because I just about scraped by and got into the course and I absolutely loved it.And this will sound very familiar to everybody, I'm sure, the people I met in college were the best part of the experience, like-minded people who are interested in film. That's where I first met Kate Dolan who was doing the same course."After John finished college he joined a small production company called Event Junkies, initially on an internship basis, as a Shooter and Editor."The practice was that you shoot an event in a day then head back to the office, edit it and have it ready for the next day or maybe the day after that. And that was what we did; it was great fun and a really good learning experience."JOHN CUTLERISEFILM EDITORJohn has just nished editing his rst lm and he talks to us about his journey.12ASSEMBLED

Event Junkies evolved into a bigger production company called Motherland."I think I got very lucky. Working at Event Junkies/Motherland in was a great education in all things film, with a real focus on editing. Ross Killeen, the founder, was an Editor himself. There was always a real emphasis on things needing to be right and things didn't go out if they weren't, I'm going to say, perfect.Over time I found that the editing part of the job was where I was having the most fun. And when I was shooting an event I'd be shooting to edit, I'd have an idea for what I wanted to do in the edit and what I needed for it.And what happened very gradually over the years was I became an Editor full time and I didn't go out and shoot anymore (I was there for almost 10 years). It just happened organically that when there were things to edit, I became the go to person. And eventually the edits outweighed the shoots.I don't think this was a conscious choice I made, but I put a lot of time and effort into everything that I did.I found editing fascinating and exhilarating so I spent a lot of my time doing it. And in that way, I think I showed commitment and enthusiasm. Also, I think the work I was doing was good. People liked it and that also made people want to work with me. So it was a combination of putting in the time and effort to hone my skills, I suppose. That led to doing TV ads and music videos and short films as well."John and Kate Dolan remained close friends after leaving IADT. They shared a love of horror films which they would watch together frequently. Every October they would watch thirty horror films, calling the month Thirty Days of Horror. "So while this was going on I was making my way up in the editing scene and I was making a bit of a name for myself, I was doing bigger music videos and commercials. I guess I had shown Kate that I was a capable Editor and had good instincts. So when she got the opportunity to make the short film 'Catcalls' I was like, I really want to edit this film for you, I think it's going to be perfect. I love the script and I'd love to get into short films and it just sounds like so much fun to be able to make a horror film together. So, it was a case of convincing Screen Ireland I could do it because I didn't have any short film or drama editing experience." John approached Editor Tony Kearns (BlackMirror, Ridley Road, The Outlaws) to help secure the 'Catcalls' Editor position. Tony did so by agreeing to participate in a supervisory role which helped allay any concerns about John's lack of experience."Catcalls' did incredibly well for Kate and everyone involved with the making of the film. It went round the horror film festivals for quite a number of years I think. When I heard that Kate was developing a feature, of course I wanted to work on that project."The Director’s eye view of Johnworking on You Are Not My Mother13ASSEMBLED

Kate's debut feature 'You Are Not My Mother ' was also scripted by Kate. So when it was becoming apparent John might be in a position to edit the film he felt that he was going to need some help as he didn't have any feature film editing experience. So his first thought was to call Tony again and see if he could possibly guide him through the process. "Tony agreed to help and that was brilliant, because it was still unclear whether I was going to be able to edit the film or not. I guess it was being considered and the idea was brought forward as best we could. The film was being funded through the Screen Ireland POV scheme which gives people their first opportunity to work on a feature length project. Once I had got the job as Editor we were able to make the mentorship arrangement official through Screen Ireland as part of the POV structure. We came up with a more structured approach for how the mentorship would work. I remember we did a couple of calls before I even started on the film when we went through some of the technical things that would come up, such as project management, scene organisation, use of music and sound design etc. It was really nice to have the mentoring, it gave me a bit of confidence before starting as I was quite nervous, I wanted to do a good job.So once they had started shooting, and I had some footage to start putting together, that was where I feel the mentorship really became the most beneficial for me; when I was putting together scenes myself and then sending them to Tony for his feedback. We would go on a call and discuss Tony's notes on the scenes. That was the best part of the mentorship for me because it really helped to break the film down. Each film is made up of lots of little scenes; if you get the scenes right early in the edit then you're quite a bit of the way there and it takes a lot less time to fix pacing issues to do with the overall piece. You can then watch the film as a whole and you're like, oh, right, okay, the middle feels sooo long we need to cut something from that. If someone were to ask me if there's a relationship between editing for music videos and drama, I would say that I don't think so. You're doing two different things in a music video; you're creating a tone and it's editing that helps to create that tone. It's a different language basically, it's a music video language and then you need to learn this other language, that of drama editing. So you've got to know the language to be able to convey your story. With this in mind, Tony was able to explain to me why he would do certain things and what each shot and each scene is saying to the audience, and that was hugely beneficial for me; I learned so much from that part of the experience.Another thing about the difference between music videos and drama is that in music videos, it's a given that time is relative and you can change time; that's because you can break the rules as you need to get through a long story quicker in a music video. In drama, you can also break the rules, but you need to John and Kate celebrating picture lock on You Are Not My Mother’John and Kate celebrating picture lock on You Are Not My Mother’14ASSEMBLED

tell people what you're going to do. In a film we're going through somebody's experiences in real time and in order to change that, you need to set that up. Something we did quite a few times with 'You Are Not My Mother' was to screen it in a small screening room, which was kind of tricky at that time because we were in full COVID lockdown. I found it really beneficial to be able to leave my editing space and watch it as an audience member - it's hard to do that when you watch it so much in the cutting room. But that's where the structural elements became clearer and where any pacing issues were to be found."Tony took more of a back seat as the film moved into the fine cut stage as John was working side by side with Kate on the edit. However, John was happy to have Tony there to discuss things whenever he needed feedback on a tricky scene or sequence."It was nice to have another voice at that stage. Because by then, the Director is in there and their opinion is what matters most and we want to tell their story. But when you're working on the cut so closely, it was great to have the chance to get another opinion - to hear something like, guys, this actually might be a little bit better done this way or the other."John considers his career path to be summarised as getting his foot in the door and making the most of all opportunities he encounters."I think getting my foot in the door really sums up my entire career. Because at the early stage, I was an Event Editor, and then I pushed my foot in the door to edit commercials. Then I gained that experience. Once you have the experience, you can get to do another one. Providing you do a good job, of course! So, having done the work and got my foot in the door of doing my first feature, I've gone on to cut my second feature film called 'The Gates' with Director Steven Hall, another horror film, which I'm delighted about because I love horror films. The post production of that film is being finished at the moment. So coming out of Y'ou Are Not My Mother', I now felt confident in the technical aspects of editing a feature which was always the most daunting aspect to me, not having come through the ranks as an Assistant Editor. I didn't have all the drama lingo I suppose so that was always a little daunting for me. But, having had the experience of doing 'You Are Not My Mother', now I know a good bit of that stuff, and I didn't have to worry so much about that part of it. So it was more thinking about the actual editing and also improving on what I have done before. 'The Gates' is a fun film. How can I describe it? There's more gore and it's going to be a lot of fun. So I really enjoyed doing that film. And beyond that, I'm just looking for projects that are going to engage me and projects that I'll be interested in. What I look for in a project is something that means the hours will just slip away as I work on it and then I'll be happy."John and Kate celebrating picture lock on You Are Not My Mother’John and Kate celebrating picture lock on You Are Not My Mother’15ASSEMBLED

RAY HARMANCOMPOSERThe Lead Guitarist of Something Happens is also a very accomplished Film and TV ComposerIt was serendipity that we asked musician Ray to appear in this issue of Assembled. Why so? Well it turns out that Ray and Emer Reynolds, (featured later) are long time collaborators having worked together on the documentary 'Here Was Cuba', directed by Emer with score composed by Ray. However it goes back even further than that but I'll let Ray explain it. After a bit of waffling.Normally for these articles we will spend about an hour or so on a zoom call. Typically it's a few minutes of pleasantries and getting to know yous and a minute or so of bye bye bye byes at the end with a wealth of information in between. So when Ray and I got an hour and 15 minutes into the call and we hadn't started recording yet I knew we were on a winner, this could take all day. But eventually I forced us into starting proceedings and we officially kicked off.A good many people know Ray as Guitarist and Songwriter of Dublin band Something Happens who burned bright in the late 1980's and 90's. Although still performing at Whelans biannually and the occasional festival, Ray has moved his musical focus into composing for Film and Television. “The first thing I tried to do was to get into advertising because I knew of some people who were writing music for advertising at the time and I knew they were having decent careers but I literally couldn't get any work in advertising. I loved watching films and thought that might be another option. So what I started doing was going around to the colleges and put notices up on walls. If you're doing a short film I'd like to try scores. I hassled a lot of Producers on the phone: are you making something? Do you need music? I hustled. A lot. I didn't have any other skills so it was something I really wanted to make a go of.What happened then was, people I knew from the music industry who had started to cross over into Film & Television gave me a little break.”Ray got the gig writing new music for 'The Late Late Show' when Pat Kenny took over in 1999 which led to a couple of short low budget films. Eventually he got a break composing for the feature film 'H3' directed by Les Blair in 2001. "I remember at the time I found it very stressful. It was the first one I'd done and I literally had to learn how to do it as it was going along. The eventual knock on from that was I started working with Emer Reynolds."'Timbuktu' was a film Emer was editing and Ray was brought on to compose the score. This was, as they say in the classics, the start of a beautiful friendship. Ray has scored a lot of projects with Emer in her capacity as both Editor and Director. Work that includes 'The Big Wow Wow', 'The Asylum', 'Three Men Go to War', 'We Went to War', the aforementioned 'Here Was Cuba', 'One Million Dubliners', 'Keeping Time', 'The Farthest', 'Songs for While I'm Away' and the recent well received 'Joyride' starring Olivia Colman. That's a pretty impressive list in itself. Some other impressive credits include 'Love/Hate', 'Damo and Ivor', 'Deadly Cut's and current TV screener, 'Harry Wild' with Jane Seymour.'The Young Offenders' Film and TV series is where I was first introduced to Ray's work. As a newly arrived Cork blow-in the film dropped onto my Netflix recommended list and it did not disappoint. It remains one of my all time favourite films."I got involved with it quite late. They had almost 16ASSEMBLED

locked. I had no idea about the film prior to this, but I distinctly remember I was about to run out the door and bring my daughter to the dentist. I got a phone call from Peter [Foott, the Director] and he says...PETER We’re looking for a composer for this lm, would you have a look at it?RAYYeah, can you send me an e-mail?So I ran out the door, dropped Sophie to the dentist and I came back and I checked my email. At that stage they just had a three minute promo and I watched this promo, and I'll never forget it. I just laughed from the start of the three minutes. There were more jokes in that three minutes than most comedy films. I actually wrote Peter an email saying... RAY If you ask anyone else to score this lm I will hunt you down!I was really(!) determined to score this film.Then there was a process of trying to come up with the themes and the type of music that Peter wanted. He was very specific about what the tone of the film was to be. It always had a sort of heightened uplifting feel to it, even though there was mad dark stuff going on. The other really interesting thing that he wanted was the theme tune had to be a particular type of short thematic material. The two lead lads' favourite type of music is a sort of hardcore German 140 beats per minute Jump Style. That's what they're dancing to in the film. And he wanted a piece of music, a riff, a theme that's really catchy that can be done on those synths and drum machines, but can also be done with a string quartet or a chamber orchestra. I spent a long time trying to nail that down cause that's a tricky thing to do. So we were down to the wire with that and I do remember Peter and I would have regular FaceTime calls and I'd have to play him my latest offering for the theme tune. And it would be... 'No. Next day, not quite right. No, a couple of days later'. And so on. I remember I was pulling my hair up, trying to come up with something and it was only like a half hour, 15 minutes before the next call was due and I just started bashing around 17ASSEMBLED

and came up with the one. It was total luck. But that was the toe in the door for the rest of the score."The TV show for 'Young Offenders' Ray says was very much based on the themes from the film and so were more technical in nature. But, generally speaking at what point does Ray like to get involved with a show and how does he feel about the dreaded Temp-Track-Trap?"I know temp tracks always come up as a bit of a bogeyman but actually I think it's a really useful tool for getting everybody in the same territory. Particularly with Television because it's such a fast turnaround. With Film where there’s usually more time and money it can be a bit of a handicap. People can really attach to something and they just can't let it go. It’s an extra layer that you just can’t replace because of an emotional attachment. It's not just the effect the music is having with the pictures, it’s the emotional baggage it has for the audience. I actually really enjoy hearing what Editors and Directors put into the temp because oftentimes it’s completely unexpected and it challenges you to do something different and to push yourself in a direction you wouldn’t normally go. For me the earlier you start having that conversation with the Director and the Editor the less stressful it is later on. And temp tracks go a long way in defining that path."One of the challenges of writing music in the early stages of the production process is the high likelihood a scene will dramatically change, length, start, end, tone or a turn might come later/earlier than originally planned."That's more of a technical problem. If it's not too drastic it's solvable in sneaky ways which is something I really enjoy. You can do it with very gradual tempo changes if something is in four, four you can change to a three, four. You get away with it as long as the energy or the emotional impact is maintained. Nobody notices there's a beat dropped. It's rare enough that you come across something that can't be fixed. There's a lot of back and forth with Editors and they tend to be sort of quicker exchanges, often technical stuff. For example the Editor will come back because they had to shorten a scene or they've got notes from the executives. Editors are also great at giving you indications of how the feel of the show should be, I might have a broad direction from the Director about the music in a particular scene but I call the Editor and they are able to immediately give me the insight I need to write the scene’s music. Overdoing it, which is the natural inclination of a musician, is the completely wrong thing to do. Oftentimes it's just a little thing right? At the moment the character turns their head or something like that, just punctuate the moment is the most important thing you could do. That's when you learn as a composer, when the Editor sends something back and it's done like that and you think, 'oh wow! I wasted three days building this really(!) massive thing and all you needed was a pad and three notes'. I expected as part of the job that there will be a lot of back and forward with the Editor, to be chopping and changing a lot because it's not necessarily the Editor's fault that you had to put it back to four minutes today from yesterday's three minutes. Sometimes it's probably an executive sitting by a pool in Cannes making those notes. But I fully expect back and forward and the slight messiness and so on, I actually enjoy it, makes me feel like the music is evolving alongside with the show."It's now three hours into our zoom call and I'm gettting worried I've overstayed my welcome, however it's still another half hour of nattering on about our mutual love for all things music before we finally wrap up our marathon yappity yap session, with one last piece of sage advice from Composer to Editor... RAY Always give the Composer a Composer Split Track .mov/.mp4. By that I mean, dialogue on the left and temp music on the right. Oh and time code too please.Three and a half hours flew by. Ray is a full member of IMRO and is available for any work inbetween interviews with Assembled that is.18ASSEMBLED

EMER REYNOLDSFILM DIRECTOREmer is a multi award winning Editor turned DirectorFor many years Emer Reynolds has been one of the best known Irish editors working in film and television. Her credit list reads like a guide to Irish film; she has cut award-winning tv drama, feature films, feature documentaries and won five IFTAs for her work. For many Editors the idea of leaving the work of editing after such a successful career would be unthinkable, but in 2014 she did just that, and co-directed her first feature documentary 'Here Was Cuba'. She followed this with 'The Farthest', about the Voyager spacecraft. The success of this firmly set her on the directorial path, and her feature drama debut 'Joyride', starring Olivia Colman, was released earlier this year. She spoke to us about her journey from the edit suite to the Director’s chair, and how her career as an Editor has informed her work as a Director.ISE: What first drew you to editing?Emer Reynolds: I came at it kind of obliquely. I was studying physics at Trinity and I joined the Film Society with a desire to get into film, but no clue about how anybody would do that or what jobs were involved or who did what. They were making a short film written by Anne Enright, and directed by Alan Gilsenan, who's still a friend of mine to this day. It was being cut by Martin Duffy, former RTÉ Editor at that time, subsequently Freelance Editor and Director and I got the opportunity to be in the edit suite and to watch what was happening, you know, to be educated, inspired, and to observe. I was knocked out by it. I thought it was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen; the alchemy, the creativity. His assistant Mark showed me some really rudimentary editing. I remember him showing me a shot of an aeroplane taking off and saying, “where do I put this in the sequence and where do I start it and where do I end it?” and my mind was just blown. It seemed to be the most creative and exciting and fresh way to look at film. So I fell in love with editing there and then, and was very fortunate that when I left Trinity Martin Duffy took me on as an assistant. And then I trained under him and then under Sé Merry Doyle, who I consider really my mentor, for many years and then became an Editor and the die was cast.ISE: And then you worked for a long time as an Editor. Did you have any particular genre that you liked to cut or did you cut whatever came along?ER: I really liked mixing it up. I'd worked in London for a number of years and it was more rigid; once you were in TV you were in TV, or once you were in documentaries you were in documentaries. Back in Ireland I was able to do feature drama one minute and a TV documentary the next and everything in 19ASSEMBLED

between and rotate the codes, and I really liked that. I really liked what that did for my editing muscles. I really liked what it did for my way of looking at projects. And I could see benefits in them all, you know, particularly when you're doing documentary you’ve a lot more freedom perhaps than you do in feature dramas. But then there's other challenges and other sides to feature dramas that compensate.ISE: So over the course of these years, you were working with a lot of different Directors. When did the desire or the idea to direct come along? Is that something you've always thought about?ER: I always had thought about it. I had directed a few shorts quite some time ago and really enjoyed making them, but actually found I wasn't quite ready to throw off my editing cloak; I really didn't have the courage to put my head up over the parapet. I was happy making them and enjoyed the process with them, but then went back to editing for many years. My opportunity to direct again came kind of randomly. I was editing with John Murray [Crossing the Line Films], and he asked me to co-direct a film with him called 'Here Was Cuba' about the Cuban Missile Crisis. It came out of the blue, it certainly wasn't in my thinking, but from the day and hour I started that project I fell in love with it all over again and thought actually now is the moment where maybe I'm able to broaden it out and pursue this.ISE: You co-directed 'Here Was Cuba', but you were also the Editor. How did that work? Was your role different to that on previous projects where you might have been a very strong influence in the edit suite but still the Editor.ER: Yeah, I was very keen that there would be a very specific difference. John Murray is an incredible Director, incredible Producer and a great friend and he'd been an incredible collaborator with me. He's wonderfully generous with his Editors and with his co creators. On a previous film we had done where he was Director and I was Editor, a film called 'Broken Tail', he had wanted to give me a co-directing credit in recognition of the contribution he felt that I had made to the film in the edit. I felt though, and still feel to this day, that while my voice was very strong in the edit and I really feel I had a very clear mandate and I was very passionate about the way it was going, my work on it was what the Editor would bring. So when he asked me to co-direct 'Here Was Cuba' it was on the understanding that it would be a different type of relationship. From my point of view, I wanted to make sure that I contributed outside of what I would contribute in the edit so even though I did edit the piece, and in fact when I think about it subsequently I'm not sure if I ever considered not editing it, I really was very careful that I wouldn't just see it as a piece to be edited or that that was where I was going to contribute. I was very, very keen on and very deeply involved in all of the directing portion of the job; finding the researchers, finding the contributors, finding the archive, plotting the shoot, planning the style of the film, and approach 20ASSEMBLED

all of that the way I want Directors to approach films, which is really to kind of throw the doors open and just go 'I don't know what this is, I'm going to find it or at least I'm going to keep looking and I’m going to trust that we will find it when we're editing'. So I tried to bring all of that energy to the shoot and then tried to wear both hats when I was in the cut.ISE: In an edit where you're the Editor and the Director, is it difficult for you to wear those two hats?ER: I didn't find it difficult. I think when the Director is a trained Editor it's easier for them to turn on that muscle, that way of looking you know. I found on 'Here Was Cuba' I was capable of switching over into being harder nosed; what is this, is it working? I found because I'm a trained Editor I was able to do that. I’ve seen other friends of mine who aren't trained Editors, who then try to edit their material, find it difficult to bring that clarity or, I keep saying coldness, but it doesn't it doesn't feel like coldness when you're doing it. You're tougher on the materialISE: Well it's a cold eye really…ER: There’s no point in persuading yourself that something is fine: it has to go through the jungle of the edit and be fine and prove itself.ISE: Your next documentary as Director was 'The Farthest'. You directed that but didn’t edit it; was that a very different process for you? Was it difficult?ER: I was so happy that I wasn't going to be cutting it because I really wanted the film and me as Director of that film, to be to get the full range of experience that a Director ought to get from an accomplished Editor in in the chair. It was cut by Tony Cranstoun who has cut all my films to date apart from 'Here Was Cuba', and is also my husband. So we had a very, very interesting and entertaining and you know, sometimes combative journey into finding out how that relationship would work when I had never directed anything that was cut by another person.ISE: Because he's your husband and you both leave work and go to the same place you don't have that separation at the end of the day. Is that any easier on you in your first experience of being a Director with an Editor or is it more difficult because you don't get to leave work behind?ER: We didn't have the correct boundaries when we were cutting 'The Farthest'. We hadn't established that rhythm by then and I found it particularly tough. Tony, like all great Editors, is constantly throwing ideas around. He's ruminating on things he wants to do. He's watching material that's connected to the films he's cutting, and on 'The Farthest' I found it hard because I needed a little fresh air. I needed a little bit of fresh air coming into my space. I wanted to put more boundaries in place to deal with work life balance, and we succeeded in doing that on the next two films. So that was good.ISE: The next documentary you directed was 'Songs for While I'm Away'. Was there anything that you 21ASSEMBLED

had to kind of unlearn from coming from a career as an Editor? Is it difficult knowing what you want but having to get a second person to do it for you?ER: It's a very good question because, you know, for a former Editor turned Director you do have a feeling of 'move out of the way and let me at the machine' because it'd be easier to just press the buttons rather than express it, but I was very careful and tried very hard. I hope Tony would corroborate that. I was very desirous of doing it properly, you know, that I wouldn't get in there and say “Oh, look, let me just show you”. I was trying to loop Tony into my vision for it in language and then showing him other work and references. And then, responding to his way of doing things and trying to be very clear, trying to be very responsive, trying to be very articulate. I really wanted that to be the way it would work because when I had been an Editor many moons ago, I'd had a Director push me out of the way and start showing me what they wanted and I really didn't like it. I feel it's disrespectful and I feel it's an important set of boundaries to establish: this is my role, this is yours, we’re going figure this out, and if I'm limited from having been an Editor, we'll figure that out too. Tony is an incredibly generous Editor. He’s very willing, much more so than I was as an Editor in truth, to endlessly return to the well; Is it this? Not quite. Now is it this? Am I getting closer, or farther away? He’s very open to that journey of transformation.ISE: Your latest film 'Joyride' is a drama, your first feature film as a Director, and Tony cut that as well. Was that a different experience again, or was that just really just building on the experience that you'd had working on these previous two films?ER: It was different again. When we were shooting, it was a very short shoot and very intense, and I really benefited from the backup of Tony watching the rushes and ringing me every lunchtime and the full and frank deconstruction of what he'd seen and what he responded to. He was always respectful and collaborative, but prepared to say that I might need to look at something again, or I’m missing something. He was sending me scenes every two or three days, and I was really benefiting from his experience and his eye on it, and his approach to it and even if scenes changed ultimately, I was gaining in confidence every day or week that went past knowing that he could see whether it had landed or not. So it was incredible.ISE: Do you think that your experience as an Editor makes you a better Director? Or did it allow you to become a Director faster than maybe someone who hadn't got that experience?ER: I think it's made me a better Director. It's given me a set of tools that I used every day on set. On set I had a shorthand with the material that I wouldn't have had if I had not been an Editor. I seemed to be able to assess very quickly whether I had something or not. I had confidence from all my life as an Editor to say 'It's enough!'. In terms of being able to think fast and be resourceful about what you can and can't achieve and the time you've got and with all the pieces of the puzzle that are live I think my Editor brain allowed me to cut through and get to the solutions faster. And I'm not saying I was the only one coming up with the solutions; that might have been James [Mather, cinematographer on Joyride] or it might have been, Jonathan [Quinlan, 1st AD on Joyride] or it might have been other people coming up 22ASSEMBLED

with solutions. But my editor brain was giving me the ability to properly and swiftly assess those solutions.ISE: Now that you've done three projects very successfully with Tony he is clearly your preferred Editor, but would you find it easy at this point to work with a different Editor?ER: I don't know, but I'm open to it. Making 'Joyride' was a very interesting journey for me because Kate McCullough, my previous Cinematographer, was not available. So I had to go out and interview multiple Cinematographers, and I really, really enjoyed the process of working with somebody new albeit before it started I was terrified. I had become pretty reliant on Kate and her approach and the shorthand we had developed and then not being able to use Kate and go through the whole process with James was very empowering. And it gave me a huge amount of clarity about it. So that has helped me feel were I to do another film and Tony wasn't available to edit it that actually I'm capable of pivoting. I hope Tony can do all my stuff, but were he not be able to I think I would also look forward to brand new dynamics, brand new relationships, brand new approaches.ISE: Would you ever consider going back to editing?ER: I loved it and I love it now. And sometimes I'm jealous watching Tony. Directing is pretty stressful, you know, and there's an awful lot of plates spinning in the air all the time, and then I watch Tony being totally in the zone with discrete parameters as to his purview and his sphere of influence and I sit there dreaming about being that again and having all the joy and the fun of it while not being responsible for everything else.You know, you never lose the grá for it, you never lose the instinct for it; it's still to me alchemy and magic. It's magic what a good edit can do to a performance, a moment, how it can transform possibly, ordinary rushes into gold. I would like to think I'll do it again. So, yeah, I definitely dream a little. I wouldn't rule it out; I love it so much.23ASSEMBLED

PIRANHA BARMARC LONGMarc is Head of Post in a very vibrant and successful Dublin based Production Studio.Marc is back in the office after being on his annual holidays when we get to chat. He is tanned, relaxed and as time goes on, increasingly worried I may never shut up in my rambling-tell-all-question-asking-style as he is possibly the busiest person I have ever spoken to. The phone is ringing, texting and warbling, the office door is jamming up with staff/clients all wanting a piece of him. Even my two year old grandson wanted in on the action for a brief second before his exasperated mother apologetically grabbed him and ushered him out the door. After a few mandatory getting-to-know-yous we get down to business. The schedule for this is an hour so no room for waffle. Yeah right!In 2000 John Cummins of Picture Company decided he wanted to sell off the business to start something new. Dave Burke (MD) who was working there as an Editor at the time got three of his ex-colleagues Gavin Kelly (Creative Director), Vernon Crowley (Financial Director), and Marc (Sound & Post Producer) together to talk about taking over. After a succesful buyout and continued growth, the company was rebranded as Piranha Bar in 2002. A rather unusual moniker as it says absolutely nothing about what the business does."If you take Screen Scene or Picture Company which would've been prior to us, they were names all to do with editing or filming and we just thought, no, let's go with a different name. We also wanted to brand ourselves internationally, the Irish market was small and work was tight. We'd heard about Post Houses in New York, like 'Nice Shoes' and that kind of thing so we thought we'd go with something that is not the norm. At the time coffee shops were expanding globally and were usually called coffee bars and I think it was Gavin who came up with the idea of Piranha Bar. Because we were small but deadly.People at first were like, what the heck (!)? But within about two or three months it was a brand. And we couldn't believe how quick it became a brand. So we were happy out and we're still happy with it."And so Piranha Bar took off just as the Irish Film and Television industry began to open up and become deregulated. More and more international work was being done in Ireland which helped to grow the industry and the business dramatically. Dividing most of their work between 24ASSEMBLED

RTÉ and Corporate Videos, with Gavin's expertise PB began doing high end graphical work for commercials."People were coming to us for specialist jobs that were graphical and we’d shoot them green screen. We always did that in the background. We never said we were a production company. We just said, because it's green screen for keying and graphics, we can do all that and so we were doing a lot of that. Then we started building up our editing department taking in different Editors using a lot of freelancers as well. The Editors in here had good reputations and we started getting better work.We moved ahead. Travelling alongside that we were getting a lot more demand to take on the whole of the production chain in commercials. So we set up a production company. The minute we set up our own production company, all the production companies that made ads and used us as a Post House stopped coming to us. Because we were now a competitor. But it worked out well for us, we were getting the whole budget, not just the last bit for post. We were able to control our lives a bit more and over the years it has grown from strength to strength. We still have a fairly good production company on the go. It also helps with training our young Editors." We make a rare diversion for a few minutes here as Marc laments the lack of respect Editors get in the world and how we should be more valued and that editing is not a job, it's a craft. It's art and should be rewarded as such. He's bothered by the constant pressure on Editors to work for cheaper and cheaper rates and feels we should be able to set rates based on experience. Or the fact that the industry is less open to hiring Assistant Editors, principally due to budget constraints, but which hampers growth at the entry level. Assistant Editing is a valued, tried and tested, trusted way of entering the world of editing, as many people can testify to. Real, genuine fighting talk. But I get the sense though that he is hopeful things are beginning to change on that front.“In the late ‘80s early ‘90s there would have been a big shortage of Editors. There certainly wouldn't have been the number that there are now. And they were respected. They were acknowledged for what they did, be it across film, commercials, broadcast or corporate. People didn't even question what their cost was because they did so much for the job and brought everything to it.And it's the first time now, since we've come out of COVID that I've seen it's actually happening again, a huge amount of respect for what Editors bring to the jobs right across the board which is great. It's great to see because there's a value put back on Editors. Funnily enough a lot more TV was made during COVID, because people were at home watching. So a lot of people got work and it has just kept growing and growing the last couple years, which I think is good. Even the level of people that are out there now, I’m meeting freelancers at the 25ASSEMBLED

moment that I have never even heard of and I look at their work, 'wow, they can cut'. I’m coming across Assists, where I'm going, 'they can cut good as well'."And that very neatly segues into our conversation on dealing with COVID lockdown as well as the ongoing dilemma of keeping up with technology. The only constant, they say, is change. Never more so than in the Film and Television world. Almost every day sees new improvements or even brand new tech coming into our world. Take for instance the tech available at Piranha Bar right now, from Nuke to Flame, to Avid and all its paraphernalia, DaVinci Panels, Motion Capture Equipment and all its goodies, VFX equipment and a plethora of software and hardware, all at some stage have to be upgraded or possibly even replaced. Production companies in post and production can become embroiled in an endless cycle of keeping up with the trends in a bid to not be left behind."In the '90s it used to be very much, buy the gear, have the best gear and they will come. But those days are long gone because people don't seem to care what you're operating now, once you can deliver whatever they want. We don't really like it if the staff start saying, we need new toys all the time. It’s not that we are greedy and taking from the company, we're investing back in as much as we can. It’s about sustainability. So we plan our investments. For instance, we’ve got Motion Capture Suites in here which when we bought it all four years ago was state of the art but now we need to upgrade. We use them regularly for our different jobs and fortunately we're looking at a potential job next January, February and we know we're going to have to invest for it, and it'll be worth it. But, we get the job, we buy the gear. Not the other way round."We must not forget how COVID placed an inordinate amount of pressure on us, both as individuals and as companies. We had to change our mindsets, our way of working. With no-one being able to work in the office how did Marc 26ASSEMBLED

and the lads at PB cope? And keep the lights on?“During the first lockdown the Editors all took systems home. Even though they were logging into our storage at Piranha Bar we still had to move drives around for some that were doing standalone gigs. But after two weeks we had so much work on that we still had to deliver, we told our lads, come on, this is stupid, let’s go back in. So all the Editors came back in probably within about six weeks of the first lockdown. Strictly following COVID Guidelines mind. And they’ve never gone home since. The offline and online Editors, the Assists, our machine room, our CAR ops and myself with them, we’ve all been in through the whole thing and loved it. They’re well able to do their jobs. Nothing stopped. Nothing fell down. It’s was the same. It was still very tough to get work, but we hustled, I probably hustled more than I ever did for getting jobs, but we got them and since then we’ve just kept going and it’s just growing all the time. I think we’re one of the few companies as well during the whole COVID who didn’t do any layoffs and we did no wage cuts. Once we were making a profit each month, we weren’t touching our staff. If the profit was small, great, but we were in profit, so keep going, why would you touch them? And now we’re back flying in."The more I chat with Marc, the more impressed I am by his attitude towards the industry, his staff, his peers and even now when he is thinking about retiring he is still looking to the future. And for him there is nothing more important than people."I think the timing is very good for anyone coming in and it is somewhere you can earn a living. The one most important thing everyone needs is talent but that in itself is not enough to make it in this business. So… there’s two types of people who come into the industry, one come in because they think it’s rock and roll and cool, but they’re not grafters. And the other type Is the grafter. You have to be a grafter. You don’t worry about being rock and roll and cool because that’ll come as you get the experience. If you’re not a grafter and you’re not prepared to do whatever it takes, it’s not the industry for you. It has to be in your blood, you have to want it. This is not a job. It’s a lifestyle."Piranha Bar has grown extensively over the years, they now have four permanent in-house Editors, three full time Assistant Editors and a full time Colourist. As well as several Online Editors, a full complement of Animators and VFX staff and currently hosting six freelance Editors in their suites. They may not be small anymore but they do seem still to be quite deadly.27ASSEMBLED

TRICIA PERROTTPOST SUPERVISORA herder of cats who abhors the phrase - We will x it in post.In the mid '90s Tricia Perrott moved back to Dublin from Spain where she was working in admin for theatre companies and decided she wanted to work in the film business. A business at the time that was small and notoriously difficult in which to get a foothold. Fortunately Tricia knew someone who knew someone and got her first gig as a Trainee Assistant Co-Ordinator on a Television show whose production team then went on to Neil Jordan's 'Michael Collins'.Tricia and I chat on a lovely sunny day while she is in the throes of finishing 'Marlowe' with Neil Jordan at the helm some 25 years after her first feature with him. She's come a long way from Trainee to a full fledged Post Production Supervisor. With a host of high profile credits to her name, which include films by Lenny Abrahamson (Frank, Room), Jim Sheridan (The Secret Scripture) as well as indie films like 'Calm with Horses' “When I started working in film there was no such thing as a Post Supervisor. Post was managed by the Producer. And so I ended up doing that job effectively as the Producer’s Assistant, seeing it through to delivering back to the Financier. And then it effectively became a job for me when somebody rang me up and said we need someone to manage our post.In early days of my career, post was not the huge behemoth that it is today. Over the years it’s just ballooned, mainly due to evolving technology. Post production has also now become a massive part of the whole film making process and the schedule is far longer than actual production." So this then begs the question, for those uninitiated among who may not have the luxury of working with a Post Super, what does a Post Supervisor do? (Brace yourselves!)“How I define my job very simply and quickly is as a Production Manager in post. My job is making sure one thing happens so the next stage of the process can happen and making sure the machine is well oiled.So I need to know how the machine works and what it needs to keep going. It's effectively pulling all the strands together, budgeting, scheduling, crewing the teams and then managing the teams, making sure you're hitting the deadlines, hitting the schedule points that you have to hit, 28ASSEMBLED

that you're liaising with all the Post Facilities and most importantly, you're coming within budget.And then you have to take into account things like Bond companies. If they have a lien over the production then you have to make sure you're hitting the right dates for delivery based on your Bond requirements. You have to keep all of that in the back of your mind as you're managing the day to day keeping the machine going.So it’s keeping an overall eye on everything that is Post. The most important part of my job is probably communication. Because teams and the people in them each have their own focus. They work in their own spaces to complete their part of the picture. What I have to do is make sure everybody's talking to each other, everybody knows what's going on with the overall picture. I need to know what happens and then what each person is doing. A large part of my job is seeing through all the technical elements and making sure we produce the project in the way the Director and the Producer want. It’s liaising between Director creatively and a Producer financially as well as other Heads of Departments. And then at the end of that process and a major part of the job is making sure that the final product is delivered to the Financiers properly and legally. I have to make sure that all of the correct elements are delivered in terms of the technical requirements. There’s usually a long list of elements that Financiers require, from marketing and publicity to the various broadcast requirements from Ireland or the U.S. or Outer Mongolia. An awful lot of paperwork needs doing. You definitely need good organisational and communication skills."29ASSEMBLED

We have come a long way since the early days of the Irish Film and Television business when all we had was 35mm etc and for Television, Betacam as options. Telecine was expensive and a colour grade meant getting the chemicals right. Now, almost every major film has a schedule that includes, editing, colouring and VFX. Even if the VFX budget is for removing wires, adding a castle, fixing a moustache (nudge nudge) or replacing an actor. Disciplines around the amount of footage one can shoot has changed too. Once we were limited to the amount of film or tape there was budgeted. Now we fill multiple cards on multiple cameras a day and you can easily receive David Fincher numbers of takes for each set up.While the job of a Post Supervisor is not technical in that you don't have to know how to switch on an Avid, you do have to know how it all works and you do have to understand it as you are often the conduit between Director and Financier/Producer who needs to be able to understand why it's taking so long and why it's costing so much money."I don't have any editorial experience, none whatever. So, yes, I wouldn't know how to 'switch on' an Avid or animate Groot, but over the years I've gained a knowledge and understanding of all these technical processes so I am comfortable with it and am able to simplify the processes for personnel not familiar with post production or who may not be up to speed with the technical aspects of post. I would never claim to know everything 30ASSEMBLED

there is to know technically, but I do understand it."Tricia has worked on on some major films and Television shows over the years. She not so long ago wrapped up 'Normal People' for Hulu as well as supported indie film 'Calm with Horses" and as we mentioned at the start is currently wrapping up on her fourth film with Neil Jordan so how does she approach each job?"They're all different. Every Director's different. Some Directors work with their Editor and their Sound Editor, Sound Designer and their creatives, and that's how they want to work and I am there to facilitate that for everybody. Other Directors want you involved in the creative side of it as well. It really depends on the Director. So you have to judge it case by case and you learn, how the Director works. Those Directors you mention, Lenny, Neil, Jim, they all work completely differently and I would have a different way of relating with each one of them.But my relationships have more to do with the Producer and the production company and in many cases I am part of the team that works on a Lenny Abrahamson or Neil Jordan film. Being part of the team means there’s a shorthand there. We know what to expect of one another.Another part of my job is predicting what will be likely to arise through the post process, for example: what bookings will potentially be required in three months time? what could potentially go over budget? or over schedule? etc. Knowing how a Director works is a huge part of being able to predict that.But ultimately it’s the Producer that hires me, a Post Supervisor's job is a production job. But generally they would be looking at me going, I've already got a track record with these Directors, so I know how they work and those Directors trust me, hopefully, and that makes the process easier."As we've mentioned before, COVID has had a huge impact on our industry but how has Tricia adapted to a remote working environment?"Well, ironically, it's not much different for me really because I'm used to having a Director in say L.A. where the Editor’s in Dublin and you've got VFX in Belgium with a sound team in Copenhagen. I've been doing that for years. The difference really is that with COVID we couldn’t get everyone in the same room and so had to rely on technology to make that happen. When COVID started I was on a job and the edit facility rang me up on the Friday night when we went into full lockdown and said, we’re taking all the machines out and putting them in Editors homes. We had to finish the project because it was due to TX a month later. On another project we ran edit sessions on Evercast. It was the first time I'd ever used Evercast and while it's a great facility I don’t think it’s ideal because it’s slower and you have to take that into account when scheduling and then of course budgeting. Everyone has to give their feedback so it's a longer process than having everybody being in the room. It's a lot slower. It's as simple as that.But I do think there'll be a backlash against it in a way because people miss the direct connection and the creative dynamic when you're in a room with a Director and an Editor. Where everybody works together in that creative bubble, which you don't have when you're working remote as much."A sentiment I have certainly come across in my travels lately. I did miss the room and couldn't wait for things get back to 'normal' so that Friday nights down the pub could be a thing again. But let's leave the last word to Tricia and her advice for anyone coming into the post production environment."For somebody just coming straight into it I would say, try to come in as an Assistant, come in as a Post Co-Ordinator. Big TV jobs have a couple of Post Co-Ordinators sometimes and a Supervisor that you can learn from. Learn the processes and the technology. Develop relationships with your post facilities, your VFX companies, your Producers, Directors, Editors. They're going to be your lifeline, they'll help you. Most importantly, do not be afraid to ask questions."31ASSEMBLED

TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE SHANNONSIMON MCGUIRE ISELecturer and Trainer on his way to a Doctorate in Education.Almost anyone can learn the software – but the process of becoming an editor requires far more than learning to use the software. That’s according to Limerick-based Simon McGuire, who lectures and trains would-be editors at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS).  Simon has been sharing his expertise with students for almost a decade and a half. He’s in no doubt that that those extra layers of skill – beyond merely mastering Avid or Premiere - are the hardest to teach. Once they’re familiar with some basic theory and know a few shortcuts, aspiring editors need to take responsibility for their own learning, he says. “As regards to learning the tool – anybody can learn that. The hardest thing is to be patient and open minded and to listen to what the director wants. Editing is all about finding multiple ways to put the jigsaw together. That’s the most difficult thing to get across – it’s more than looking at what’s been shot.”Simon started his career in Ballymount – working as a VT Editor for TV3 at its launch in 1998 and later freelanced around Dublin and closer to home in Limerick. By 2002, he was teaching on 10 week night courses with the Limerick College of Further Education. The PLC college asked him to help out in writing up a Level 6 day time course At the time he remembers feeling intimidated.“I was an Editor, I didn’t know how to write up academic documents. So they said I could leave that up to the two academics and I could be the industry expert. So I ended up teaching on the first year of that to get it up and running."He enjoyed the work, but offers of freelance work on the Pat Shortt comedy 'Kilinaskully' meant he had to leave the role and prioritise his editing work. Like many freelancers, Simon was directly impacted by the crash of 2008. He needed shelter and found it in LIT, working on their ‘Creative Broadcast and Film Production’ course.“They had an Avid system for four years and they didn’t have an editor to teach it. Because the crash was happening at the same time the freelance hours were starting to drop so I said, ‘well maybe this might make up the shortfall’.”Since then, the Limerick School of Art & Design in LIT has morphed into the Limerick School of Art & Design in the TUS (Technological University of the Shannon, Midlands and Midwest for short!) The course has been redesigned with an editing module in each year. Simon has started a Doctorate in Education, is launching a student-based Inhouse Production Unit for the college, continues to freelance and is setting up a post-production company in Limerick called ‘Craft’.The Creative Broadcast & Film Production course is run as either a 3-year Level 7 or a 4-year Level 8 degree, fluctuating at around 300 points in the Leaving Cert. Alongside editing it includes modules in camera work, graphics, producing, audio and photography. Students come out with a solid introduction to each area and focus on what interests them most with their final year project. 40 students are taken in each year 32ASSEMBLED

and get use of the college’s 20-machine PC lab as well as five additional stand-alone edit suites.Now for the age-old, somewhat contentious question – Avid vs Premiere? Most colleges choose one software – making their decisions based on support contracts, licensing agreements and finances. In Limerick however, the college offers students the choice. Rather than sticking with one NLE, the students jump between Premiere, Avid and Davinci Resolve – depending on the project. “If we’re doing broadcast editing in second year, we use Avid for that. That’s what the industry uses – but if they’re cutting for Instagram or YouTube, then we use Premiere. It’s about getting the students to recognise the appropriate tool for each individual task or project and not allowing the student to use one tool for everything. The end goal is that students have experience in all three of those NLE’s. And if they’re lucky enough to get a job straight after graduating, and that company uses Resolve, the student isn’t going to be shellshocked.“As part of the change from ‘Institute of Technology’ to ‘Technological University’, the course will include three months of work experience in third year. From January, Simon will also oversee the launch of an inhouse production unit called ‘FilmCEL’ (Craftmanship, Excellence & Learning).“It’s almost running a little micro-company within the college”. Being based in Limerick potentially brings the complication of finding accommodation in Dublin for the three months of work experience required by the college, and FilmCEL will offer an alternative.“Students could get work experience in Dublin but accommodation and travel is expensive, so now they get the experience within the college. We’re hoping it creates a new culture of practice within third level.”Simon mentions that the focus of the productions will be carefully set on community groups and internal content so as not to undercut or compete with local production companies. So heading into year 14 of lecturing, is Simon happy with the pivot toward teaching?“I’m still doing both – that’s the beauty of it.”Once 'Killinaskully' finished up, he continued to work with Pat Shortt on his Garda-based sitcom 'Mattie' and recently cut Pat’s directorial debut, 'Warts & All' that was screened at the Galway Fleadh in July.“It’s a great thing to keep the skills going as an academic. With lecturing, you have the time – When I know a break is coming up, once I finish lecturing, I’m editing for a project.”33ASSEMBLED

GEAR REVIEWOur featured article subjects favourite pieces of kitSitting for long periods of time tightens your muscles and can hurt your lower back, especially if you have bad posture. Standing desks seem to help ease back pain. One study showed that standing sheds 88 calories an hour. In a study of call center employees, those with standing desks were 45% more productive on a daily basis than employees who sat during their shift.The table pictured left is available from IKEA but there are loads of options available with a google search.CELIA HAINING: Sit/Stand DeskTRICIA PERROTT: Microsoft Excel"Sometimes my back will quit on me and then I have to stand. I don't stand much but I love having the option to stand because it's so bad for your health to just be sitting all day."I don't use a scheduling program. I use Excel for my scheduling. I create my own schedules and budgeting. I love Excel spreadsheets. Excel is my friend.Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Excel forms part of the Microsoft Office suite of software.34ASSEMBLED

RAY HARMAN: Logic Pro XI started using it when it was called Emagic and now logic is my main tool. It's an incredible piece of software. I still haven't got right into it and I know it backwards and I'm very fast on it.Logic Pro is a complete collection of sophisticated creative tools for professional songwriting, beat making, editing, and mixing, built around a modern interface that’s designed to get results quickly and also deliver more power whenever it’s needed. Logic Pro includes a massive collection of instruments, effects, loops and samples, providing a complete toolkit to create amazing-sounding music.35ASSEMBLED

THE BACK PAGEThe essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.Francis Ford CoppolaFilm editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does.Walter MurchTo receive footage that has been shot with editing in mind, it is a blessing.Thelma Schoonmaker