What is #Perfection?

I had been wanting to work with the very talented award-winning director Chelsea McMullan (My Prairie Home, Michael Shannon Michael Shannon John) for a long time, so I was very excited when she called me up to edit her latest project. This three-minute film features member of the junior US National Team, gymnast Jordan Chiles, as she performs the Amânar vault, which is considered one of the most difficult moves in gymnastics. Shot on the Phantom Flex4K at 1000fps, the film deconstructs the move by focusing on Jordan's individual gestures - the twist of her body as she performs a round-off, her legs as she prepares to jump, and her hands as they spring off the vault - and flashes back to similar moments from her childhood, illustrating the lifetime of muscle memory that is informing each move. 

The film was featured this week on Nowness and is part of a branded campaign by Audi. 

DIRECTOR: Chelsea McMullan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Catherine Lutes
EDITOR: Nadia Tan
SOUND DESIGN: Jane Tattersall
COMPOSER: Alex Unger
COLOURIST: Redlab

Raising the Words

I've been working with director/photographer Chloë Ellingson on a short documentary called Raising the Words. It is a lyrical piece about a group of people in the Iroquois community who are working to revitalize the Mohawk (or Kanien'keha) language, which is on the verge of becoming extinct. The documentary follows six characters who speak about their personal connection to the language, about what it means to have one's ancestral language taken away and how language influences our identity.

Throwing Cotton

I recently finished editing a short film called Throwing Cotton directed by Tori Larsen, based on a short story by Sarah Selecky. It is about a group of couples who spend a weekend at a friend's farmhouse and find themselves tempted by the comfort of each other's partners.

It is endlessly fascinating to me working with new directors and getting to know their cinematic style. The raw footage for this film has a certain slow, moody rhythm and I quickly learned to embrace the natural pacing of the footage, allowing the story to unfold unhurried.

Trois Nuits et Une Mort

I just finished editing a short film with Quebec-based director Stéphane Dirschauer. It's a moody film ominously titled Trois Nuits et une Mort. This is the third project we've worked on together since his first film in 2008, and it is mostly in French - which is an interesting exercise for me as I am not a French-speaker.