Martin Pailthorpe
Editing/Edit Producing.
As a producer/director, going back some 30 years, I am always closely involved in the edit of every programme I make, but I also have experience as an editor, and as an edit producer. I have my own Avid MC7.
Editing : When working as PD on Monty Halls' Great Escape Series 2 and 3 (Tigress for BBC2), I offlined 2 episodes in each six part series.
Prior to that, I shot and edited the promo that got the first series comissioned, and in S1 I made early assembles of the programmes before they were finalised.
When working as a PD on Hungry Sailors (Denhams for ITV), I offlined the 6 episodes I directed before they went through a final scripting and formatting process as the series reached completion.
Edit Producing : I have also worked on a number of series and programmes as an Edit Producer. As well as all the usual editorial requirements, scripting, comissioning graphics, pickups, archive, music and working within budget constraints etc, this has frequently involved juggling multiple simultaneous edits in numerous edit suites, and so far (as far as I know!) I have remained on good terms with all the editors I have worked with! When you read what some editors say in `Edit Suite Stories', that's no idle boast!!
I also have my own laptop running Avid Media Composer 7, which I can use to work alongside the main editor doing sync pulls, early assemblies and scripting, which really helps to maximise the main editor's time.
As a little sideline, I also enjoy using Photoshop to run up place-holder graphics which (a) helps execs to visualise key parts of the narrative and (b) gives the graphics designers some visual steers when it comes to composing the actual images.
Bear Grylls - Man vs Wild (Diverse/Discovery Channel).
After producing the promo that kickstarted the whole Bear Grylls phenomenon (see here!) I returned to the fold to Edit Produce an episode of Man vs Wild filmed in Iceland. One of the biggest challenges was working with sets of lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic (often with competing agendas!) to make sure all issues of compliance were completely watertight. Check out the clip on the right for a little testimonial from Bear himself.
Body Invaders (TwoFour/Discovery) - Edit Produced numerous inserts for this series about people who have had miraculous escapes/recoveries after getting impaled or swallowing foreign bodies. This often involved identifying items that needed pickup interviews or sequences, and self-shooting these on minimal or no budget - the clip on the right stars my daughter Katie and a friend in a reconstruction of a German woman falling onto a lead pencil, which got embedded in her brain!!!
What Happened Next - (TwoFour/Discovery) - multi-part archive/clip based series, freezing action and using science to explain how events then unfolded. Included devising and comissioning graphics to simplify complex scientific concepts such as accoustic levitation and reverse steering! The job involved working over two suites, with as many as six episodes going through different stages of post production at any one time. A highly complicated game of juggling, prioritising, delegation, and negotiation, with copyright clearance and compliance to the fore!
Impossible Engineering - (TwoFour/Yesterday) - 6 part series looking at the historical antecedents behind today's engineering marvels. Besides edit producing two programmes (on Kansai Airport, in Japan, and the new Shanghai Tower), I also helped to set up and produce the Kansai Airport programme, and self-shot sequences for Shanghai Tower, Kansai Airport and the Shanghai Maglev train episodes. As the series was self-funded by TwoFour, the brief often changed owing to requirements of potential broadcasters, so the edits needed to take account of that.