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IFTN chat with renowned Irish Editor Tony Kearns on his Music Video beginnings and move to Feature Film
07 Mar 2017 : Katie McNeice
With credits ranging from videos for The Prodigy to Terry McMahon’s ‘Charlie Casanova’, Kearns is a wealth of knowledge for young editors across a range of genres and styles.

We catch up with him ahead of his editing masterclass with the Silk Road Film Festival next Thursday March 9th on his early career, film highlights and what to expect from him later in the week.  

Let’s start off with a look at your earlier work. You’ve got credits on music videos for artists like The Prodigy, Radiohead and Pulp, to name a few. Can you talk us through how you became involved in music video editing and what your most memorable experiences are?

After moving to London in 1984 I got a job as a runner in a post-production company where a lot of the big name music videos at that time were graded and edited. I became an assistant editor within a few months and worked on a multitude of music videos hereafter. My mentor, David Yardley, edited the A-Ha video for ‘Take On Me’ and worked a lot with director Steve Barron so I was able to learn a huge amount in the four years I was assisting. In 1989 I became a freelance editor and was able to call on the contacts I had made with record companies and music video production companies to get work. My first job was a Bananarama megamix video! I managed to kick on from there and in the following ten years I was pretty much cutting music videos exclusively. My most memorable experiences were cutting great videos such as Firestarter and Frontier Psychiatrists (The Avalanches) and meeting the artists who often came in to the cutting room to approve the edit. Particular high points were spending days working with Bryan Ferry, Chris Martin, PJ Harvey and Sir Paul McCartney (I’m a huge Beatles fan).

IFTN: What inspired the transition from here into commercials and eventually feature film editing?

I simply followed the directors with whom I had been working with on music videos when they started directing commercials. As time went on I was cutting more commercials than videos and when I moved back to Dublin full time, almost exclusively on commercials. The drastic fall in the size of music video budgets meant that they had ceased to be a viable option for me although I still keep my hand in now and then, editing videos for Kodaline, Antony & the Johnsons and Paddy Casey in recent years. I was always interested in cutting films so I had a few short films under my belt, such as Screwback and Crossing Salween both directed by Brian O’Malley, when I offered to edit Charlie Casanova for Terry McMahon in 2010. Terry had no money for an editor but it was a great investment as more longform drama work started coming in as a result, for which I am very grateful. The Lodgers will be the ninth feature film project for me since 2010.

IFTN: You have worked with some accomplished Irish talent in the past few years such as Terry McMahon, Mark O’Connor and Rob & Ronan Burke on various projects. What do you think of the editing suite as a vantage point to see the increase in Irish content in the past few years, and indeed how it continues to grow in vision and in reach?

Since I have been editing short and feature films in Ireland I have seen a tremendous growth in films being commissioned and funded. It has been a joy to see the range of films being made, the opportunities for talent to blossom and the openness with which projects are supported. It’s still a long and frustrating process to get a film from script to screen but it is much better than it was ten years ago. The recent success of Irish made films here and abroad has contributed to a vibrancy and confidence that never existed before in this country. It has been a great pleasure for me to get to know, and to work with, many super talented writers, directors, producers, production designers, sound designers, cinematographers, composers etc. I have been attached to a number of exciting projects in the pipeline which is a real buzz for me. I am very excited about the future of film making in Ireland, creatively and commercially.

IFTN: In the past few years alone, your credits show a mix of rom-com, horror, music videos and drama. Can you walk through what effect genre may have on your editing approach, and how our younger readers may use this to approach their own work?

Obviously, if you are working within a defined genre you have to respect the conventions of the genre. That doesn’t mean cutting by numbers or ticking boxes, you have to put your own stamp on the work and make it a stand out film in that genre. As an editor, it’s important to be versatile and to try to achieve the best in whatever you’re cutting and bring out the unique personality ofthe film. It’s also important to study great films in all classifications to see how the director and editor used the material they had to achieve their aims. Personally, I love moving between different types of films as it keeps things fresh for me and the projects I hope to be working on in the near future have all very different stories to tell. My advice for younger readers is not to copy genres slavishly but to study classic genre films to be able to put your own stamp on whatever type of film you want to make.

IFTN: How did you become involved in the Silk Road Film Festival and what can attendees to your masterclass expect?

I was invited to do the masterclass by Carla and Delwyne Mooney who head the team behind the festival. I will be talking about my early experiences as an assistant and fledgeling editor, about the process of editing, the role of the editor and the importance of performance, rhythm, sound and music in editing. I’ll be using quotes from well-known editors as well as showing clips to illustrate my points. There’ll be a bit of rambling on but I’ll try to keep an eye on that.

IFTN: In addition to Brian O’Malley’s ‘The Lodgers, what other projects should we keep an eye out for in 2017?

A lovely film called Moon Dogs which I hope will get released this year. It was directed by Philip John (Downton Abbey, Outlander). I am about to start on a feature documentary which will be released in 2018 and there are a number of feature projects that I hope to be working on later this year and into next year.

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