Eve Ashwell - Editor
Job title - Editor
Experience - 10+ years
“Every time a woman has pushed through to make a career for themselves in editing, it helps and inspires more to do so, and that’s vital.”
Tell us about your job role and the kinds of projects you work on;
I edit commercials, content and short films through Assembly Rooms in London and Nomad in the US. My clients are directors, creatives and agency folk.
What does an average day look like in your post-production working world?
An average day depends slightly on where I’m located and whereabouts I am in the timeline of the project I’m working on.
If I’m at the beginning of a project and just received the rushes, I tend to loosely select them before jumping straight into trying things out on the timeline. This way I can get a rough feel for how things are going to look really early on. Once I’ve done that, I go back through my initial selects again and make another round of more finessed ones, but this time with a better idea of what I’m looking for, with regards to performance, shot size, camera movement, and emotion because I’ve got that rough assemble to go from. I often repeat this process a few times, so I end up with both really tight selects and also a longer roll which I can dive back into if needed.
It’s not the right way to approach every project, but on the one’s that it is, it really helps me find the best moments and start to get a feel for how things might take shape quickly. That’s helpful as firstly, it flags any issues that may be lurking, which I can run by production if the shoot’s still happening and therefore it's helpful to do so. Secondly, it helps remove the anxiety as to whether something's going to work and/or be good. And lastly, it gets the cogs going in my brain as to how things are going to take shape in the edit, meaning I’m thinking about how to put it together whilst I’m making a cup of tea, or on my way home that evening. And I find a lot of ideas often come through that subconscious level of thinking.
Once I’ve finished that and tried different ways of putting things together, I go further into the route that's feeling right. I then tend to re-look through all the material one more time, to make sure a golden moment hasn’t passed me by. One of the really important things for me is to have an almost photocopied version of the material in my brain, so I know exactly what exists and where to find it, and this process of selecting enables that to happen.
I usually listen to playlists that I’ve put together over the years whilst I’m looking through everything. It helps with finding the mood for the edit and often those tracks end up as the song we ultimately use or at least would like to use. I also listen to podcasts that require a certain level of brain attention, there’s something about having a part of my brain engaged in something unrelated to what I’m looking at that I find helpful. Again, that’s not right for every project (it doesn’t really work for dialogue pieces for example) but it helps to keep me focused.
If it’s a day when I’m on set, it’s a slightly different process. Often I’m there to receive each take as it’s being shot, to check that it’s going to work in the edit immediately. For instance on a heavy VFX job, or one that has a famous and therefore short on-time person in. That’s quite high pressure, but very fun and I really enjoy the process of being involved at that stage. I can also be on set doing the same thing I would be in the suite, but with easier access to the director, if we’re short on time in the schedule say. Then the process is similar to if I’m in Soho, where I receive batches of material each time the camera card becomes full.
Lastly, If it’s a day where the director is coming in, we talk through everything and look at edits together. We'll revisit selects and try different things out. If it’s a day with the agency in, we present the edits we’re happy with, talk through the choices we’ve made and the things we’ve tried, and then work out anything that they’re not feeling good about.
Of course, this doesn’t all happen in one day… I’m truncating a week’s work to answer this question!
How did your career in post-production begin?
I started as a runner at a tiny editing company in Soho at the age of 18, where I’d previously been for work experience a couple of years before. I wasn’t hooked straight away by editing specifically, but I really enjoyed being in that environment. There was a constant stream of interesting and fun people coming in and out and although it was intense and there was always a lot going on, it didn’t feel like work at all, or at least what I'd imagined work to be. The more I watched and started to learn about editing, the more I realised I’d accidentally stumbled into something that was a perfect fit. The mixture of piecing a puzzle together, problem-solving, collaboration, focus, music, sound, people reading, all to tell the best story - it was exactly right, and after I realised that, I was hooked.
I stayed at that company for 6 years where I was a runner before becoming an assistant, then just as I was beginning to edit, a few things happened that made me realise I needed to have a change of scene. I made the decision to move to a larger company, Cut+Run, where I took a slight diagonal back step to assist for 2 more years before becoming a fully-fledged editor.
I decided that would be a good idea as it was such a different environment to where I had been - about 10 times the size, working on 10 times the amount of projects, of a much greater variety. Between the 25 or so editors that were there when I joined, the company was editing the lion’s share of the most interesting and creative work that was being made (this was back in 2004) and I knew I wanted to learn as much as I could from all of them. I realised the best way to do that would be to assist them, rather than go straight into editing alongside them. It was when assistants still only worked with one or maybe two editors at any given time, on one or two projects. So you really had the chance to sit in the room and watch everything they did. See all the decisions they made and why and watch their interaction with the directors. I was able to absorb all the unspoken rules of editing that are hard to learn alone. It was an amazing learning curve and incredibly exciting, even though the hours were brutal and at times it had a very toxic atmosphere.
After 2 years of assisting, I became an editor there and after a further 4 years, a partner. I left after a total of 12 years when I again felt the need for a change of scene and joined The Assembly Rooms in 2015.
Tell us about a career highlight;
I’ve recently finished working on something with Darius Marder, which was a wonderful experience. He was so generous with his time and knowledge and as he has a background in editing, he completely understands the process. He gives you space to explore when you need it and is there when you want him to be to talk things through. He’s very inspiring to spend time with.
Joining Assembly Rooms in 2015 as a partner was a big highlight too. I had been watching their work for a few years beforehand and had got to know them slightly during that time too. The approach my (now) partners had taken to both their careers and the company they were building, was something I really admired and realised I wanted to be a part of, so I was very happy to know that feeling was mutual. Growing and developing a company filled with creative and fun people has been incredibly rewarding, it’s a different hat to wear than the editing one, but I really enjoy the balance between the two.
What do you love most about the editing process?
I love the total immersion you can have into a project, the feeling of forgetting everything else that exists apart from what’s in front of you. I love taking a collection of shots and putting them together so that you understand and feel something when you watch them. And I love working with nice people who are inspiring and teach me something.
Which women in post do you admire?
All of them. It’s a tough gig for so many reasons, so I feel a very strong kinship with any woman that has persevered with it, even the ones I haven’t met yet and only know by name. Every time a woman has pushed through to make a career for themselves in editing, it helps and inspires more to do so, and that’s vital. It’s still such a gender-unbalanced part of the industry, so the more we encourage support and promote women who are already in it and also those who want to be in it, the better.
What advice do you have for other women wanting to start a career in post?
I came very close to stopping quite a few times when I first became an editor.
There's a lack of arrogance that's integral to being a good editor. You have to be open to suggestions, open to making connections with directors or creatives which can leave you feeling vulnerable. But that has to be combined with confidence in yourself that means people will trust you with their film, and that was a hard balance for me to find at first. It improved with the experience that I gained over time, but I was quite insecure when I started. I didn’t know why my voice was important to be heard in the room or quite what my voice was, to start off with. I was surrounded by very successful editors, but all of them were men and for the most part, had egos that seemed unimaginable for me to emulate. I really longed for female support and advice about how to navigate it all and to know that it was even possible to do so, but this was around 2005/2006 and it was thin on the ground at that time.
So, I think my advice would be to find the people who will support you and give you their time. To be open-minded to what you can learn from everyone you work alongside because even the people you think aren't doing things the way you would, are teaching you something.
Try to make sure you have strong role models around you who are comfortable being honest with you and also want to teach you and not just talk at you. And then work really really hard and don’t be afraid to make changes to the direction you’re going in when you feel things aren’t right for you.
Favourite piece of your work;
Wrigley’s Sarah and Juan. It’s just such a lovely story. And Pete Riski shot it so beautifully. It came together easily in the edit because Pete is a genius and thinks of everything - you’re never ever sitting there wishing you had something in the footage because it’s in there, he captures everything you need both shot-wise and emotionally. Every moment of editing that was a joy. I presented it to the agency in Chicago and they were wonderful too, they didn’t have very many changes at all and I don’t think the client did either. It was just a truly enjoyable and rewarding experience and I still get goosebumps when I watch it now.
I also really love the Sainsbury’s Christmas campaign I worked on with thirtytwo in 2020. We were in the middle of the very scary (pre-vaccine) part of the pandemic and bringing those stories to life together was a bright light during that. They had shot wonderful, evocative footage that looked like old home movies and so it really felt like we were recreating these lovely family histories.