ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Jay Cassidy Selected Editor of the Year by Behind the Camera Awards
By Michael Kunkes
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On Sunday night, November 11, editor Jay Cassidy, ACE, was honored as Editor of the Year by the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards, presented by Hamilton Watches and Hollywood Life magazine, at the Highlands Nightclub above the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Sean Penn presented the award to Cassidy, in recognition of his work on the critically acclaimed Into the Wild, written and directed by Penn and recently released by Paramount Vantage.
Into the Wild is Cassidy’s fourth film for Penn, a body of work that also includes The Pledge, The Crossing Guard and The Indian Runner. Adapted from the book by Jon Krakauer, it tells the visually stunning and ultimately tragic true story of Christopher McCandless, who at 22 left a life of privilege and hitchhiked off into the Alaskan wilderness.
In presenting the award, Penn acknowledged Cassidy’s contributions to the film. “Working with Jay Cassidy is very much like having a writing partner; we talk about the movie from the very beginning and right on through,” he said. “We would cut while were shooting and scrap together a little editing room somewhere on the set or in a trailer and then we spent many tireless months working the way that we work.
“Jay is not an editor who takes his work home––because I don’t let him go home,” continued Penn jokingly. “Working with him is something I’ve been blessed by. No one is more in sync with the material, more at the service of telling the story or better at knowing where the heart of the story is. He also has the sensitivity to support the actors and never leave them high and dry. I can walk away for hours to refresh my eyes and come back to some magic he’s created if I’ve blanked on ideas.” The only downside, according to Penn, is when Cassidy “starts explaining to me why an idea of mine or his will work and he starts getting into frame rates and DI and it becomes like a Star Trek convention down the hall! Then it’s ‘Can we just get on with the cutting?’ He so deserves this award.”
Cassidy, who last year shared the ACE Eddie award for Best Edited Documentary Film with Dan Swietlik for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, gave a modest acceptance speech and acknowledged Penn’s attempt at humor. “There’s a comedy that he’s going to make someday; I know he has it in him, and I just hope I can be there when he does.”
The Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards were started in 2003 as an honor for costume designers only. Besides Cassidy, eight other awards were given out this year, including director Jason Reitman for Juno; screenwriter Judd Apatow for Knocked Up; costume designer Colleen Atwood for Sweeney Todd; production designer Mark Friedberg for Across the Universe; cinematographer Philippe Rousellot for The Brave One; property master Doug Harlocker for Spider-Man 3; stunt choreographer Dan Bradley for The Bourne Ultimatum; and producer Jon Kilik for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The celebrity presenters also included Jodie Foster, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, James Woods, director Julian Schnabel and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.
Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.