Back in March I came across a highly impressive montage of the films of Paul Thomas Anderson on YouTube.
The user-name of the video was barringer82 and a couple of days ago whilst listening to the FilmCouch podcast (which you can subscribe to here), I found out more about the creator of this video and other montages of great directors.
His name is Paul Proulx, he is an editor and back in April he did an interview with Always Watching.
He discusses his background:
By the time I reached my senior year in college, I was the go-to guy when someone needed an editor. It’s weird how, in film school, everybody branches off into their own specialty areas – and it’s usually not by choice. It’s not like it’s always been my dream to be an editor.
After I graduated, I spent a year shooting and cutting my own stuff; doing all the stuff I couldn’t do before because school got in the way.
Once I got a decent demo together, I began looking for a job. Thing is, people don’t put out ads for writer/directors – the best someone in my position can do is finding editing jobs – and there are quite a few (though many of them are for porn sites).
I’ve been getting by as a freelance editor for the past year – doing most of my work for a pop culture website called sly-fi.com.
And how he got in to doing montages:
As I’m thinking of it, I started doing this when I was 12 – I used to cut Queen songs together using audio cassettes. I was always fascinated by the quick little music montages radio stations play to give a sense of their genre. But I guess more than that, it was the Oscar montages.
People complain there are too many of them during any given telecast – I wish the whole ceremony were those. (Anyone who loves them as much as I, I suggest you seek out the 69th Oscar opener).
But the first video I did was a Scorsese tribute. Apart from being one of my favorites, he shoots his movies in a way that is both specific and open to edits – they simply gel together in way no one else’s pictures do. But
I think the real reason I actually sat down and DID IT was because, plainly I had nothing else I could do. Unfortunately, I don’t have actors, money, or locations. I do have editing software and DVDs. Lots of DVDs. So, if I had nothing to shoot, why not cut some of the best existing footage.
Read the full interview here.
Check out his montages of Martin Scorcese, Michael Mann and Stanley Kubrick – if you aren’t familiar with their work, they are fine introductions.
He has also recently done a clever compilation of clips from his 100 favourite films:
See how many of the films you can name.
> More Paul Proulx videos at YouTube
> Paul Proulx interviewed at Always Watching
> Find out more about Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorcese, Stanley Kubrick and Michael Mann at Wikipedia