Episode 15: Editing Documentaries and Commercials in Hollywood with Nina Thomas (Copy)

On this episode of The Hollywood Dream, I sit down with special guest Nina Thomas, a documentary and commercial editor, and director currently working on a documentary feature in Barcelona. Nina shares her experiences editing documentaries and commercials in Hollywood, shedding light on the challenges and rewards of the editing process.

As one of the few women in her field, Nina discusses the importance of representation and the unique creative decisions made during post-production. She also delves into her current documentary project, discussing the evolution from a series to a feature film and the artistic choices to capture the subject's essence.

In addition, Nina reflects on her own Hollywood journey, highlighting the significance of networking, gratitude, and the pursuit of directing. Throughout the episode, the energy and passion for filmmaking shine through as Nina and our host explore the industry's intricacies.

Here are three key takeaways from our insightful conversation:

1️⃣ The Art of Editing: Nina shared her journey as an editor, highlighting the importance of making stylistic decisions during post-production. We discussed the challenges and creative process of editing a documentary film with political elements and corruption. The film's stylistic choices were inspired by photography, resulting in a visually stunning portrayal of its subjects.

2️⃣ Finding the Vision: We delved into the process of creating a documentary project, from finding compelling characters and gaining access to them to maintaining coherence with the project's subject. Nina emphasized the importance of creativity and agreed on vision within the team, ensuring a captivating and impactful final product.

3️⃣ A Career in Film: Nina's career journey shed light on the demanding nature of the film industry and the significance of a supportive network. We discussed the regret of not making more connections during film school and the importance of early relationships in building a successful career. Nina also shared her experience directing her first feature documentary, "Tiny Apple," which is set to be completed in 2023.

These takeaways highlight the passion, vision, and dedication required to succeed in the world of documentary and commercial editing. Tune in to this episode of "The Hollywood Dream" to gain valuable insights from Nina Thomas and be inspired to pursue your own Hollywood dreams. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform!

Transcript

Please note: This transcript is auto-generated, so there may be spelling and grammar mistakes.

Hello, and welcome to the Hollywood Dream podcast. The podcast where we talk to film and TV professionals about their journey in the industry and their own Hollywood dreams, whatever that dream might be. My name is Johanny, and I am a writer and filmmaker living in New York City. Just FYI, I filmed this podcast in my studio apartment in the city, and I try my best to block out all the outside noise, but somehow, some way, an ambulance, a siren, finds their way into an episode or two. So I apologize in advance if you hear a siren while listening to this episode. In today's episode, I'm talking to Nina Thomas. Nina is a documentary and commercial editor and director. She's currently in Barcelona, and she is working on a documentary feature which we got to talk about during the episode. Her documentary work ranges from environmental to social justice films, and she is part of the small 18% of women who are editors in the industry. So please enjoy today's episode with Nina Thomas. How are you?

Nina [00:01:25]:

I'm good. It's the spring. Allergy season is not being very kind.

Johanny [00:01:31]:

Yeah, it's so hot in here. You're in Barcelona, right?

Nina [00:01:36]:

Yeah.

Johanny [00:01:38]:

What made you decide to move to Barcelona? Was it for work or you just needed a change?

Nina [00:01:46]:

I grew up here, French, but grew up in Spain. My mom is from here, so I moved to New York, like, 910 years ago, almost. And then with the pandemic, I came back to Europe. It'd be closer to family opening a small business here now.

Johanny [00:02:11]:

Yeah. You're a documentary filmmaker, right? And you're also an.

Nina [00:02:18]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Johanny [00:02:19]:

How do you get started and what inspired you to pursue a career in documentary filmmaking?

Nina [00:02:28]:

I'm not sure about documentary, how it came to be, but it's always something that I've loved. I think there's a lot of very important subjects that need to be talked about, told, and documentary gives you this opportunity to actually talk to people and be out there and speak about very important issues. And film has always been, like, a passion of mine. I love that.

Johanny [00:03:01]:

And when you moved to New York, you moved to pursue the career, like a career in film, right? Or was it something no, I actually.

Nina [00:03:10]:

Before I was in New York, I was a singer in Spain, and I decided that I wanted to go to film school. I went to film school here in Barcelona, and a couple of years after I graduated, I studied editing and post production. And yeah, a couple years after I graduated, I found the documentary program in New York at New York Film Academy and ended up doing the one year program. And then I found a job in post and stayed there for almost seven years.

Johanny [00:03:51]:

How is the film scene in Barcelona?

Nina [00:03:55]:

To be honest, I'm still discovering because I moved back, like, two months ago, so still a little new, and I didn't have a lot of opportunity or time to discover when I graduated back in 2012. It is I don't know. I'll let you know in some time.

Johanny [00:04:24]:

Yeah, I mean, I feel like everything's virtual now. So are you keeping busy? What are you working on?

Nina [00:04:32]:

So I do have clients in New York, so I edit for different post production houses and production companies in New York. The virtual thing works really great, and even the time difference is very advantageous for editing jobs because essentially I work while my clients sleep and so they wake up in the morning and they have, like, a new yeah. And then on the documentary side, I've been directing my first feature for the past five years. I'm co directing a feature documentary called Tiny Apple. And we're in post. We've been editing for a while now, and yeah, we're planning on having it done in 2023.

Johanny [00:05:33]:

Is that the one you posted about on the panel network?

Nina [00:05:38]:

Yeah, exactly. It's a documentary about small businesses in New York and the way that they've had to survive for years. It's a portrait of six different small businesses in Mexico, and they're businesses that have been in the city for decades. The oldest one is from 1972, and they stay alive. And we wanted to also see a little bit of what was going on with them with the Pandemic and Post Pandemic.

Johanny [00:06:18]:

What inspired you to tell that story? Because you've been working on it for five years now. You said. What drew you to them?

Nina [00:06:29]:

I think so. My co director, Joanna Aliano and Mean, we've been friends for a while. We met in New York, and at that time, she was a bartender in the East Village. And so we would hang out after her shift and we would talk about the neighborhood and seeing you kind of see what's going on around you. Right. Like, you're in New York, you can see the businesses have been here for a while, the businesses that close. And for us, I don't know, we just thought that it was a very important thing to relate to and try to make everybody also interested in the issue, because I think that small businesses are kind of what make your neighborhood what it is interesting. And they give you light. I don't know.

Johanny [00:07:24]:

It's very I've read there's an article this happened, I think, after the Pandemic in Washington Heights. There's this Main Street as all these really small businesses that been there for a while, but they were forced to close because the rent skyrocketed and closed, like, five, six businesses. And people were so upset because that's part of the culture, that's part of what makes the neighborhood so unique, are the small mom and pop shops.

Nina [00:08:01]:

Exactly. And it's funny because this week I rewatched the film You've Got Mail, I don't know if you remember. And it's a film that I used to love when I was a kid, I watched it in late ninety s for the first time, and I thought there was something so compelling about this woman who wants to keep her tiny bookstore in the Upper West Side. And I didn't even know what the Upper West Side was, but I thought that I don't know, it felt so urgent and so important. Yeah. So I rewatched it and I had.

Johanny [00:08:42]:

Like this moment of I know the cafe that they film. There's a scene on that movie. The cafe is on the Upper West Side on 87th street. I think it was there like ten years ago. I remember that my friend took me there, but I don't know if it's still there now. After the pandemic.

Nina [00:09:05]:

Yeah, it's been devastating. Truly. Yeah. We really wanted to go back after the pandemic and see how they were doing and everything. So there's a part of the film that deals with post pandemic.

Johanny [00:09:23]:

As a filmmaker and a creative person, how do you approach the creative process when you're working with a client for a commercial or whatever you're editing, as opposed to when you're working on your own projects and working on your own films?

Nina [00:09:44]:

That's a very good question. I think it really depends on the clients. Like, when I work with other people, essentially editing, it really depends on the clients. It really depends on the director, on the producers. I feel like big agency stuff because there's like a ton of people with a specific direction, but also a lot of opinions. It's very important to kind of keep your cool and sort of try. You have to somehow interpret a lot of different voices. I don't know. I usually kind of focus on one person. Maybe that aligned a little bit more with my creative vision. You kind of have to please a lot of other people, but you have to narrow down a little bit on the concept of too many cooks in the kitchen. When I'm editing or directing for my own stuff. Editing is hard, actually, because I think I'm hypercritical with myself. But yeah, I need to just leave the room for a little bit and come back and kind of feel like if I'm not getting too, I don't know, lust in the woods with my own ideas, those two are very different things. Situation. And for documentary, when you're working with other people, it's also like a very different scenario because when you're working just with a director that has a very clear vision of their film but are open to listening to your ideas and that trust you with your own vision and your own capability of Jushing up the footage, I don't know, it's very rewarding. I really like that.

Johanny [00:12:07]:

What is your process of developing a story or an idea, for example, your documentary? What was the process, your creative process, from getting the idea to just starting a production?

Nina [00:12:26]:

To be honest, it's been so long I kind of have a hard time remembering the beginning, actually. This film in particular, it has morphed a lot throughout the years. It was supposed to be a documentary series. We were only going to do three episodes. Then it went to like, we're going to do six episodes, and then we turned it into a feature film. I feel like a lot of times when you have a concept or an idea, first of all, you need to find your characters and get access to them. So that's already huge. That takes time and energy. And then I feel like sometimes you can have a very clear idea of what you want the project to look like. Format, I don't know the look, stylistically exactly what you want. I feel like it's very important for the style and the format to be coherent with the subject. And then, for instance, for this project we're looking for, because the concept is portraits, we were looking a lot at photography, like, actual photographs, photographers that are very well known and seeing what kind of look we wanted for the film. And so we came up with a concept of this very wide shot for the interviews, where the character is very centered. So they're in the center of their tiny spaces surrounded by all the stuff that they sell. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like you have to get a little creative in finding what way you want your project to look to ensure what you want to tell they're in agreement. The two are in agreement.

Johanny [00:14:37]:

Okay. And what has been the most challenging? Or if there has been a project that you worked on that has been really challenging and how did you overcome those challenges?

Nina [00:14:52]:

I mean, Tiny Apple has been a challenge because try and make a feature film with very limited funds and a tiny crew. But I feel like I edited my first feature. My second feature as an editor was a film about the water crisis in Bolivia called Uma, which came out in 2020.

Johanny [00:15:27]:

Is that film available online or for rent somewhere?

Nina [00:15:33]:

I actually don't know because it was in festivals for a very long time. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, the director is actually dealing with distribution now. Hopefully soon, if it ever comes up, I will let it know. Yeah, let everybody know. It's an environmental film with a touch of political stealth, corruption. It's a lot it's a lot of layers. So it took us about, like, two years to edit it, which is a lot, doing it on the side. The director and I both had main jobs. We had to do it on the evenings and weekends on vacation. And it was arduous. It was her first feature as a director as well. So kind of like trying to figure out stylistic ways of telling the story that weren't quite clear at the beginning of production. And so in post production, we had to make a lot of decisions together. So I think it was very challenging, but at the same time very interesting. And I think we both learned a lot during the process.

Johanny [00:17:08]:

Okay, I know editing, that's your career, so it's probably easy for you, but for me, it takes me a while to edit and I use Premiere and it just takes me forever. It's so hard.

Nina [00:17:22]:

Mind you, this is something that I haven't really admitted in my life because I studied with Final cat Seven.

Johanny [00:17:32]:

Yeah.

Nina [00:17:38]:

And then I studied with avid. And when I was at my interview for my job post in New York and they told me that they edited with Premiere, I was just like, oh yeah, totally. And then it took me like two weeks. I was just looking through all the tutorials.

Johanny [00:17:58]:

YouTube University I had touched it a.

Nina [00:18:02]:

Few times, but I was not as comfortable as I was with Avid at the time or with primary talent. But if you put enough time and energy into it, you get it.

Johanny [00:18:16]:

I know I almost bought a laptop that had Final Cut, but I was like, I'm not trying to learn this all over again because I already learned Premiere. I know the basics, I know how to put an episode together and do manual things. But I'm like, I am not trying to spend a whole week again trying to learn Final Cut. So I just bought a different model that didn't have an editing software.

Nina [00:18:53]:

Obviously, it's very interesting to learn about stuff like that, but it is a lot of energy. If you don't really need to, it's fine. I've been thinking of how many characters have I had to reinvent myself in that way? Just learning new stuff. Post production is a lot about always staying updated in order to stay relevant so you can be functional in your job. And it's very interesting to learn new stuff, but it's also quite exhausting. Yeah, unconsuming, whatever.

Johanny [00:19:38]:

What is your ultimate goal in that industry? What is the one thing that you would like to do more than anything.

Nina [00:19:50]:

I feel like I want to do.

Johanny [00:19:53]:

Still?

Nina [00:19:56]:

I directed my first music video in 2019 and loved the experience. I used to be a musician. I did that professionally. I have a very strong connection to music and I've always loved music videos. I grew up with MTV and that was all that I watched for the entirety of my teenage years. Then that was it. So I don't know, I feel like I definitely want to do more of that. I have also been trying to get more into writing, but that takes a lot of time and you have to really be dedicated to it. Yeah, I think that that's going to be more like a thing that I will do whenever I have a moment. And I would love to direct more, essentially. But I think that ultimately I decided to be an editor so I could be a director at some point. Although I love editing and I don't think that I will ever stop doing that. But I think that directing is really good. I've always loved the energy on set in documentaries. I love that. But I do love fiction. The energy that you have on set with the crews when doing fiction, I think there's something magical that happens and you can end up finding family.

Johanny [00:21:43]:

It's true.

Nina [00:21:44]:

In those situations. Yeah.

Johanny [00:21:46]:

Anyway, you mentioned you were a singer. What type of singer were you?

Nina [00:21:53]:

I had a band that did folk Americano kind of vibe. And then we got a little bit more into rock and roll, just kind of classic rock and roll towards the end when we got like a bigger band. Okay.

Johanny [00:22:13]:

Is there any advice you would give someone that wants to pursue a career in film and either post production, getting into editing, or just in filmmaking in general? What advice will you give them?

Nina [00:22:30]:

Unfortunately, I think it's I mean, people need to be very aware that this is a super demanding career in general. I think it's very important to surround yourself with just good people because you're going to be working a ton. Yeah. So might as well be working with people that you actually like and that are supportive of your goals. I think it's very important. Make friends in film school. If you ever go to film school, make friends in film school. Super important. Super important. I didn't think that it was like that necessary at the beginning when I went to my first film school. And I regret that a little bit. I feel like most of the connections that you're going to make throughout your career are based in some way from the beginning of it, which is when you're studying or when you're PA or that's super important. Don't take people for granted. Also, be very thankful to others because you're going to see, like, you're going to be helping each other out throughout your careers. I agree. Yeah. I think that was a big one. And nobody told me.

Johanny [00:24:04]:

I should have paid more attention to.

Nina [00:24:06]:

Other people that were following me.

Johanny [00:24:08]:

I know. I guess when you're in school, you're just focused on what you want to do and what you're trying to accomplish because I was the same way, too. I was just so focused on what I was trying to do that I didn't really network as much. And I didn't do a lot of things like work on set because when I first moved here, I wanted to be an actor. So I was just trying to be like, in front of the camera. But now looking back, I was like, man, I wish I could have worked on set more, like as a PA. And just to.

Nina [00:24:44]:

I mean, it's important. I feel like no experience is too small. Right. Also, you're going to always learn something so that's also pretty good advice, I would say. And also don't wait for others to give you any opportunities. Make your own. Definitely write your own stuff. Just do it.

Johanny [00:25:17]:

Yeah, I agree.

Nina [00:25:20]:

There's always somebody that has a camera of some sort and that wants to get into stuff. It's me. Let's get stuff. It's what you have to do, essentially.

Johanny [00:25:33]:

And it's so easy now with phones. And these phones are like cameras. They shoot four k. Yes, exactly. To get good quality.

Nina [00:25:44]:

Definitely. Yeah. I think we're definitely closer to that now to at least equality in equity, in opportunities that we can create ourselves. Tons of people. I mean, hell, I know a guy here who made a film, a horror film with an iPhone years ago, and it was like a huge success. You don't need big, fancy stuff. Just do it.

Johanny [00:26:20]:

I know, I agree. Before we finish, I want to be respectful of your time. I usually do this rapid fire question round with everyone. It's two minutes and they're only questions about you so you can't get anything wrong. Will you be go ahead. Okay, I'm going to set the timer. You have two minutes, and the number to beat is 20. Best advice you've ever received?

Nina [00:26:56]:

Be honest. Oh, be honest.

Johanny [00:27:01]:

The model of your first phone?

Nina [00:27:05]:

Nokia. Yeah. The the original Nokia, though. The unbreakable nokia.

Johanny [00:27:12]:

Three words your friends will use to describe you.

Nina [00:27:18]:

Tough love. Generous. Probably. I don't know.

Johanny [00:27:30]:

What's your go to karaoke song?

Nina [00:27:34]:

Dreams.

Johanny [00:27:36]:

What's your favorite YouTube channel?

Nina [00:27:44]:

No, it's not embarrassing. It's EXO. McKenna, I mean, really into DIYs.

Johanny [00:27:51]:

Who is your current celebrity crush?

Nina [00:28:04]:

I don't know. Olivia Coleman. Olivia Coleman.

Johanny [00:28:11]:

Okay. What is your favorite emoji?

Nina [00:28:17]:

I would say that.

Johanny [00:28:20]:

Do you work with background noise or you work in silence?

Nina [00:28:26]:

I have to work with silence because I edit.

Johanny [00:28:31]:

If you could learn one skill today, what would it be?

Nina [00:28:37]:

Probably I don't know. These are incredible questions. Woodworking. Woodworking, for sure.

Johanny [00:28:50]:

Okay. You answer ten.

Nina [00:28:55]:

Okay.

Johanny [00:28:56]:

That was so good.

Nina [00:28:57]:

I'm terrible. I don't know myself. This is insane.

Johanny [00:29:02]:

It's hard when you have you're like fighting against time and you're being timed. Do you want to get as much as you can?

Nina [00:29:10]:

Yeah, there's a couple that I already know. I wish that I could change now. Yeah. Celebrity crush always. She's amazing. Yeah. I mean, Olivia Coleman is amazing as well, but bridge can write like it's nobody.

Johanny [00:29:32]:

Yeah. And then my final question. If you could go back in time and talk to young Nina before she moves to New York, before she decides to pursue a career in entertainment and film, what would be your advice for her?

Nina [00:29:50]:

Be patient and don't worry because it's going to be amazing.

Johanny [00:29:56]:

I like that.

Nina [00:29:59]:

I think I'm pretty happy with how things are know.

Johanny [00:30:05]:

Good.

Nina [00:30:06]:

Be grateful. That's good.

Johanny [00:30:08]:

Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Nina. I really appreciate that you sat down with me and chatted all the way from barcelona.

Nina [00:30:18]:

Thank you so much for having me was really fun. And it flew by.

Johanny [00:30:22]:

Oh my know. I know. Time flies when you're having fun.

Nina [00:30:28]:

Yeah. Exactly.