In my professional life, I have been working full-time as a Colourist/Online Editor at Paperny Films (no time to hyperlink, so just google it, ok? thanks). Have been working really hard on a tv series there, and learning lots. Great people, so much to be said (and I will when I have more time).

Main thing I want to mention is the fact that I am struggling to get my latest photography up on this site. For some reason no plugins are working to embed my albums from facebook, where I've been uploading lately, so I think it's about time to abandon this boring template and make a much more creative, slicker, sicker, effective website. In the meantime, I invite you to check out some of my stuff on the book, and feel free to add me. I may even accept. ♡
View Eliot Zee's Photos

Note: I have found that most/all of my photos (although set to "public") are not publically viewable, so you may have to friend me to see them. I'm workin on it.

Journey of a Dream (Trailer) from Eliot Piltz on Vimeo.

JEAN (Natalie Skye) and GEOFF (Zak Santiago)

With a long history in television, news and short films, and as a cinephile herself, Desiree brings a unique dimension to her feature debut. It is imaginative in both style and story; complex and dark, but at the same time whimsical and hopeful. Working with her was great first and foremost because she was very decisive in the cutting room. We would review all the takes together and choose the best performances, then find creative ways to "make it play" as they say. This lent to a very efficient process, and after only 5 weeks we had a pretty solid 2-hour rough cut.

The cast of The House is a diverse mix of some of Vancouver's top actors, and each role was very well executed; they gave us a lot of character depth and variation to play with in the cutting room. I could see the mark of a great director in the footage, as Ms. Lim always knows what she wants and is skilled at getting the right performances from her actors. Something editor Michel Arcand told me long ago was that the most important thing for a director is to know what film he or she wants to make. And he is absolutely correct. Without clear direction from the very beginning, you end up 'fixing it in post' a little too often and the whole project suffers. Instead, we were able to focus our energy on making the intended story the best it could be.

As an editor, you never know how you will work with a director for the first time. There's always the worry you'll be treated as a button-pusher. And I've heard horror stories. But I have always been treated with total respect and appreciation, and Desiree was no exception. I would go as far to say that we gelled. I think once an editor shows that he is capable of giving the director what she wants, or better, and eventually mind-reading, then the director can relax a bit, knowing they can trust your work and give you the freedom needed to do your job.

But of course "writing the final script," as Stanley Kubrick famously referred to film editing, is a challenging, collaborative process, and one that requires all parties be patient, understanding, able to compromise, and open to new ideas; a marriage of sorts. As with any marriage, there will be disagreements, but when there are, I feel that you are fighting more with the material than with each other. In fact, since the goal is to find the best solution, not to be right, you actually need to challenge one another and at the same time not hold on to your own opinion unnecessarily. If you can keep that in mind, you will get through the editing process more steadily and with better results. To that end, Desiree and I are both very happy with what we created, and we have had lots of very positive response so far. I don't get to say this about every project I work on, but with this film we made art.

Here is the Trailer. Here is the facebook page. 'Like' us, let us know what you think, and please spread the word.

THE HOUSE - a feature film - trailer from The House on Vimeo.

I'm planning to attend NXNE, so if you want to meet up, send me a message on the Contact page.

Update from the Director: Mark your calendar Torontonians, JOURNEY OF A DREAM will be at the NXNE Music and Film Festival 2011. Screening date Friday June the 17th @ The Underground Cinema, 186 Spadina ave in Toronto. Time : 4pm

It was a very fun project to work on; I did the editing, visual effects, titles and color grading. Accomplished director/producer Jason James (IMDb) was/is amazing to work with: excited, driven, fun, positive. Who could ask for anything more? Well, how about a good cast? Yep, we got that too. John Stewart plays a lovable man-child, and Ali Liebert (IMDb) plays his cute and snarky girlfriend. Both are great comedic actors, and on-screen their chemistry was... well their chemistry wasn't the point (in the romantic sense).

The film was shot on the RED One at 4K by Steven Deneault. We offlined at 2k, then just for the experience of finishing at 4K, we finished it at 4K using the RED Raw files in Apple Color. Thanks to the handy ClipFinder application, the XML conforms were smooth sailing. Also note the wonderful 2.35 aspect ratio. I love you, 2.35:1.

As you'll see there are also some 'old movie' effects in the film, for which I used a vast combination of plugins and effects. The VHS effects in the end titles were actually taken from VHS tapes, not replicated in post, which gives it a more authentic look. Using a Blackmagic capture card, I digitized "the blacks" from some very worn out video tapes (Sister Act to be precise). Starting, stopping and pausing the deck during capture created some extra jitters and strobes, which I then edited together in a way that made them look seemless. Then I finally superimposed some fancy AC/DC-esque text graphics over top, and voila! Er, I mean rock on. And like Helix themselves, I'm sure our baby (short film) is destined for greatness.

The Rock Shirt, from Eliot Piltz on Vimeo.

A short film about a guy and a shirt.

The video itself, just released March 18, was a 3-camera 5D MkII shoot, utilizing the camera's shallow depth of field and brilliant colors. A quick tip for those experiencing 'green noise' problems with the 5D MkII, it only took a minor crushing of the blacks inside Apple Color to eliminate them. What you have left is the rich contrast and unique picture quality that we have come to appreciate from the new DSLR movement.

If you're in the Toronto area, you can catch a live show with all the 2011 Juno world music nominees– Pacifika, Jayme Stone, Roberto Lopez, and Mighty Popo– performing Friday, March 25 at 8pm, at Toronto's fabulous Lula Lounge.

Chocolate is Pacifika's third video from their Juno nominated album Supermagique; video directed by Samantha Jo Simmonds, edited & color graded by Eliot Piltz. Post-production services provided by the exquisite Hand Cut Films studios.

"Chocolate" by Pacifika - MUSIC VIDEO from Eliot Piltz on Vimeo.

Also on YouTube here.

Although most folks don't know good editing when they see it– because afterall that's the goal, for them not to see it– a film editor on the other hand has the ability to appreciate and deconstruct all the elements on screen. But at the same time, an editor has to be able to let go of the minutiae and experience the film from a viewer's perspective. So the trick to observing good editing falls somewhere between conscious and subconscious– like recalling a funny line or thinking after the fact about how great the acting was. Good editing should make an impact on your subconscious without being distracting.

Mirrione spoke at length and with great passion about his contributions to the films he has edited, including Swingers, Go, 13 Conversations About One Thing (one of my faves), Traffic, Ocean's 11/12/13, 21 Grams, Babel, and his latest Biutiful, by Inarritu. Stephen showed many specific scenes, even various versions of the same scene, as support for his statements, which were a real treat, because we really got to understand some of his thought process and to what degree he made his mark on the films he worked on.

I first became familiar with Mirrione's work when I saw Traffic, which I embarrassingly caught late on DVD. But this was actually a blessing because in one of the bonus features, Mirrione recounted his process of editing a particular scene, showing his Avid timeline and giving insight into the process of building that scene. At the time, I was cutting my first feature, and I was covering a lot of new theoretical territory; it's a lot different cutting a feature than shorts and event videography. So in the process, often I felt like I was making it up as I went along. So when I watched Mirrione's special feature, I was very encouraged to find out that his techniques and mine were very much alike, some of which is outlined in my "accidental editing" post.

If you are not familiar with Stephen's work, I encourage you to go out and watch/re-watch his films, and this time try to pay attention to the editing in a self-reflective sort of way to better understand how editing affects your experience. You might not enjoy the movie quite as much as a viewer, but it will likely give you an insight into what editors do: keep you from seeing our work, yet reaching you on a subconscious level. And if you are an editor and know exactly what I'm talking about, go rent his movies and enjoy the ride!

(from left) Eliot Piltz, Stephen Mirrione and Mary Frymire at VIFF 2010

Hey Stephen, perhaps we can co-edit Mary's next feature! A kid can dream. And good thing I do.