How did you get started in video editing? My path into editing has been largely self-directed. I first started experimenting with filmmaking and editing when I was in my teens: I had a DVD box set with the music videos and commercials of Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. I was fascinated by the films; they all felt so inventive, so twisted, but with such simple and unique ideas behind them. I started capturing my own material out in the streets and made my own DIY music videos, cutting the footage together with the music that I loved from electronic artists like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. I was instantly hooked.

What led you to establish Modern Post, your New York–based post-production studio? I had been working for about six years at Baron & Baron, the fashion and luxury ad agency based in New York. While there, I received some very foundational mentorship from Fabien Baron, the esteemed creative director and owner of the agency. During that time I learned so much about his approach to creativity and the vigor, tenacity and artistic excellence he applies to each and every project. I did eventually feel an eagerness to explore a wider breadth of relationships and projects.

Sometimes I feel that, as an editor, you are a ghost writer: inhabiting the person of the director and seeing through their eyes. I reached a moment where I wanted to see through others’ eyes. It was my personal creative curiosity that led me to establish Modern Post. To this day, Fabien is one of my closest collaborators, and I am very proud of the work we continue to do together.

The style of your work is very rhythmic, with special consideration paid to weaving visuals and sound together. How did you develop your style? Throughout school, I had a bus ride of about an hour in each direction. I would plug in my iPod as I endlessly stared out the window. In my head, I would sync the patterns of what I saw out the window to what I heard in the music. My two senses resonated in some indescribably satisfying way. Then, one day on MTV2, I saw the music video for the song “Star Guitar” by electronic music duo The Chemical Brothers. The video takes the form of a “single shot” out the window of a train, where every intricate detail of the music plays out visually before your eyes. I was blown away when I saw that: something clicked i me that made me realize there were others out there that saw the world in a similar way. Now, in editing, when I watch down the footage for the first time, I try to listen for the heartbeat of the images: they will often tell you the tempo within which they want to be interpreted. I often joke that I spend more time looking for music than I do editing, but there may actually be some truth in that. I continue to be amazed at the difference music and sound can make to the viewer’s perception of an image. To me, it gets even more exciting when you have the opportunity to work with a really recognizable track, and when you can add that layer of cultural weight, it can change the whole language of the creative.

You have strong connections to high-profile clients like Dior, Hugo Boss and Vogue. What interests you about the worlds of fashion and luxury goods, and are there any specific challenges you find when working with clients in these arenas? I’d say the biggest challenge is that you are often working more with a feeling than you are a script or storyboard. There can sometimes be very little formal structure around what you are creating, which offers a tremendous opportunity for you to shape the creative vision, but you have to be skilled in understanding and translating the brief. I do feel that I have developed a shorthand with my collaborators whereby I can quickly interpret their references and get to the crux of how they see a project coming together. I feel that the most exciting aspect of working in the fashion and luxury space is that the clients are always incredibly invested in the visual style and are comfortable to push the limits of that expression.

What have been some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on at Modern Post? One was “I Love New York,” a film for Vogue that I edited at the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020 with director Bardia Zeinali, a very close collaborator. It was a unique opportunity to create a piece of work with an emotional heart that resonated because of its cultural time and place. I also really enjoy when we work on the larger scale campaigns, and I can work collaboratively with the larger team of talented editors, colorists and visual effects artists that we have at Modern Post.

One thing you’re especially passionate about at Modern Post is developing creative talent. How has taking on mentorship roles with other editors been conducive to your creative output? Mentorship means a lot of different things to me: it can be working through some specific challenges on a project with a producer or artist, helping to curate a portfolio, or working to identify goals and aspirations in others. Sometimes it means sharing a similar experience from a past project to help reassure that person and help them regain confidence in the process. I often find that in developing creative talent, you hold a mirror to your own work and process. Honestly, I am very inspired by the work of my team; I am consistently humbled by the ideas that I see and the excitement around the work. Talking about the work with others also helps you identify the reflexes that seem instinctual to you as an artist.

What resources do you turn to for inspiration? Besides the obvious, I find endless inspiration in my family and kids.

What skills do young creatives need to succeed in the industry today? The skill I have found to be the most successful is having a point of view that you can eloquently articulate. I do believe there are no bad ideas—you have to be willing to quickly work through different thoughts between creatives and stay open to the possibilities within the material. I feel that my strength lies in being a partner and a problem solver: my ability to listen, understand and communicate in a creative space.

Do you have any advice for people just entering the profession? To work as a commercial artist requires you to balance a lot of different forces. There can be differences of opinions in the room. There can be changes in creative direction on a project. There can be budget constraints, time crunches and mismatched expectations. I firmly believe that you need to bring a piece of yourself to each and every project. You need to draw from your well of references, personal instincts and unique breed of creativity. That requires strength of character and some hard-earned endurance skills. I think that it helps hugely to understand what your personal markers of success or accomplishment are. On social media, you can see so many truly accomplished works of art in their final and finished state. What you do not see is the often meandering and sometimes messy path that leads to a great piece of work. ca