Sarah Iben - Editor
Editor
Experience 20+ years
“Be respectful to everyone’s opinions. Take it all in but then utilize your talent to create something that highlights the best of all it. Finally, find and respect your own individual process. For me, procrastination has led to great ideas and incredibly clean office spaces!”
Describe your job role and the kinds of projects/clients you work with.
I’ve been editing for 20 years and have worked on a wide range of projects including commercials, music videos, short form and social media. I also edited, co-wrote and co-produced a music documentary. I’ve worked with clients like Nike, Adidas, Google, Microsoft, Sci-Fi, AT&T, IKEA,Mercedes and Mastercard and artists like Billie Eilish, The National, FKA Twigs, Mark Ronson, Travis and Interpol.
What does an average day look like in your post-production working world?
For commercials, I usually like to have a quick discussion with the creatives and the director after they’ve shot it. Music and sound play a big role for me, so even before I get the footage, I start listening to music that would be applicable to the idea.
Once my assistant has loaded and organized the footage, I start to pull selects. I put them into a sequence and lay all the tracks of music I’ve pulled into the sequence. I watch the selects over and over again. It allows me to absorb the scenes, get ideas on how it might be cut and gives me an idea of what music feels right with the images. Then….I procrastinate.
I pretty much do anything other than try to put that first shot in the timeline. This used to really bother me, but after many years, I realize that this is part of my process. That while I’m doing all of these other things, thoughts of the edit and footage and random ideas are ruminating in my head. So when I finally sit down and put the first shot in, I have a mental roadmap of how the edit might look.
Once I sit down, that mystical space-time continuum happens where I am editing for 5 minutes and I look up and it’s actually 5 hours. I will always cut the boarded version first (if it exists) but I always push for more time up front so that I have time to try other versions as well. I try to finish one edit the first day of editing and then come back to it the second day to possibly revise it and then cut other options. It’s always the second or third day that I seem to create the more interesting edits.
How did your career in post-production begin?
I started at Cutters in Chicago syncing dailies from midnight to 8AM for a television pilot. Fortunately for me, the show was cancelled. I told Cutters I was interested in learning this new program at the time called Avid. From there, I started assisting and eventually moved to New York to run Chiat Day’s in house editorial company. That led me to being hired as an editor at FilmCore in Los Angeles, Lost Planet in New York and Final Cut when they first opened their doors in the U.S. After almost 20 years at Final Cut, I then joined Roam Editorial.
What has been your career highlight?
While there are many career highlights, editing and producing the documentary was hugely rewarding. Partially because I had never worked on long form before and it tapped into a different part of my brain. It was collaborative, challenging and creative. And when it was done, I had a huge appreciation for documentary editors and a renewed appreciation for the incredibly short format of commercials and short films.
Who are your role models in post?
When I first started, there were only a handful of female commercial editors in the country. As crazy as it sounds, I was the first female editor to be hired at all of the companies I worked at in the U.S. So at that time, my role models were mostly men. Hank Corwin in particular. I saw his work when I was an assistant in Chicago and was blown away. I never imagined that just a few years later, I would be editing at his company in New York.
Fortunately today, there are so many more female role models not only in the commercial industry but in TV and Film too. I love Thelma Schoonmaker and Sally Menke, but I’ve also been inspired by a lot of editors on this site!
What advice do you have for others wanting to start a career in post?
Edit anything you possibly can. Experiment and try new things. To this day, I learn something from everything I cut. Every project stretches your creative muscle and presents challenges that the prior project didn’t. Be respectful to everyone’s opinions. Take it all in but then utilize your talent to create something that highlights the best of all it. Finally, find and respect your own individual process. For me, procrastination has led to great ideas and incredibly clean office spaces!
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