Authors In The Media With Lisa Cheek 

Recently I did a Q&A with Lisa Cheek discussing her memoirs which you can read here by clicking this link https://booknotions.com/qa-with-lisa-cheek/ . Lisa briefly spoke about her past career as a film and tv editor and now she has returned to go more in depth about it in this edition of Authors In The Media! 

Q: Welcome back to Book Notions Lisa! What initially drew you into being a film and tv editor? For those who don’t know what film and tv editing is, can you explain what it is that they do?

A: What I love most about editing is I’m given all the pieces that the director shot, and I need to tell a story with it. I’m the person who winds up with all the raw film that are shot on the set or location and in the end, I’m the one who must deliver a finished product. My days were spent in a dark room, organizing and sorting footage by scenes and takes, choosing the take I liked best. Working and reworking a scene. Cutting different versions of scenes to decide what is the best way to tell the story. Once I have put what I like on my own, the director comes in and I work on all the scenes with him and then the process starts all over again with the studio or the agency or client if it’s a commercial. 

Q: When you knew that film and tv editing was your calling, did you go to college after graduating high school? Or did you apply for a job right away? If you went to college how many years did you attend before applying for a job to be a film and tv editor? 

A: I spent four years in college graduating with a communications degree. I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment business but didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. 

My first job out of college was for a local ABC affiliate news cast in Charleston, South Carolina where I ran camera and teleprompter. I hated it. So much stress in live television, but there were two editors at the station at that time, and I loved watching them do their job – putting images together to make a commercial or tv promo. But both of those editors were not going anywhere so I applied for a job at another station across town where I spent my days watching at least three movies a day – taking out swear words and nudity and putting in commercial breaks. I wound up watching fifteen hundred films in eighteen months. That was my film school.

Q: What wisdom have you learned in your 25 years as a film and tv editor, do you hope anyone wanting to pursue a career in that film should know? 

A: You must really want the job and work hard. When an editor is on a project, they are on the project, meaning they are the last stop to make it the best it can be. It all rides on the editor to deliver the project. Now so many films and shows are not shot in Hollywood, so you don’t have to live here, which has opened the opportunity for so many other people. That and it’s much cheaper to make a film now than it was when I first started. 

Q: In our Q&A you wrote I loved being a film editor. Sit, Cinderella, Sit is all about the last job I cut along the Tibetan boarder in Yunnan, China. I traveled with the Chinese film crew while they shot in remote areas. Editing a film is a massive undertaking and when you’re on location it brings all sorts of logistical problems along. So, I’ve learned to be flexible and go with the flow. I also learned how long it takes to tell a story of that length. Which film project took you to China on the Tibetan border? What films, shows and commercials did you edit for? 

A: I was in China for “Sit, Cinderella, Sit” only. I spent six months editing the film. After it was shot on location in Yunnan, China we travelled to Hong Kong and cut the rest of the film there. I worked twelve to fifteen hours a day. It’s all I worked on. Usually, a feature will spend around four to six months editing.

Q: In the second part of that question I asked you after you wrote about being in China, you wrote, Having edited a ton of TV commercials, making the story tight without losing meaning was of upmost importance when you only thirty seconds to tell a story. TV commercials were fun, too, because it was a challenge to choose only that which makes the story better. I think that experience helps me edit my own material so by the time it goes to the edit, they don’t cut much. Since film and tv editing has helped with you editing your memoirs, do you find the editing process easier each time you write a memoir?

A: I do because I love the editing process. It’s the first draft I dread. Filling the page is challenging for me. I much prefer editing what I have written. I’ve heard it said that “writing is in the rewriting” and that’s where I love to be.

 Q: Since you’ve done film and tv editing, you must have met a lot of famous directors and actors and actresses! What were those experiences like and who did you meet?

A: My favorite job editing with a celebrity was a short film for Jaguar with Spike Lee. He and his wife starred in it as a couple driving a Jaguar from Brooklyn to their home in Martha’s Vineyard. Spike is a man who works hard. He must have had five projects going on at once. I met him one night at 11:00pm after he put his kids to bed, and another day at 6:30am after he’d flown in on the red eye from LA. It was an experience I cherish.

I also edited the ASC (American Society of Cinematography) award show one year. For a woman who liked looking at pretty images I spent weeks looking at the best films of the year for cinematography and then got to meet all these talented people at the show. They are names most people don’t know unless you are in the business, but there is nothing I’d rather look at than pretty film. So, for me, getting to meet all those talented cinematographers was one of the most magical evenings of my life.

And one of my all-time favorite celebrities I worked with was Sugar Ray Leonard. It was my first TV job in 1985, and Sugar Ray was ever so handsome. He was soft-spoken, knew his lines and was super kind to everyone on the set. He even kissed me on the cheek when he said goodbye. Sugar Ray set the tone for me at the start as I felt after working with him, he was a true role model

Q: I know you briefly spoke about your editing career in Sit Cinderella Sit. Would you write a memoir going more in depth about all the films, shows and commercials you’ve edited and what you learned from those experiences? I know I would read it! 

A: Thank you. I love hearing that. I had someone else ask me that. I might need to sit down and figure out what scenes I must tell a film editors story from the beginning and how to make it compelling enough for someone to want to turn the page. Or perhaps use it to write a novel. Stand by.