Something I learned in documentary, well, it's like I'm gonna take what I learned there and I'm gonna put it in a reality. And like you know, everyone's ultimate goal is always, "Oh, I wanna do scripted." Don't get me wrong, I wanna work on a scripted show, that would be awesome. What's the story you're telling? What's the point you're trying to make? And so it's like I can't pick a favorite 'cause if I pick, if I did any one thing all the time, I would go crazy. What's great about the multi-cam studio shows, it's working different muscles but it always comes back to the same thing as like, keep your audience engaged. And so that's where that love comes from. I was hugely influenced, I love like Cirque Du Soleil and those visuals, I have like a dancing background, used to choreograph so it's like all about creating those visual structures. And I love that, it's just a cool creative outlet. 'Cause I've been lead editor on those shows for a long time and so they let me kinda go crazy. To me, it's just like I'm a kid with like a really expensive crayon box (laughter) and I just get to play. I can't pick a favorite, honestly, because when I work on the red carpet shows which is you know, it's just a lot of fun pop culture stuff. So, it's really hard to cross genres and for me, I feel I've been fortunate. So, when editors, like go for something, like scripted, for example, they want to see a scripted editor 'cause they don't think that editor, like a reality editor, can cut scripted unless they, you know, they have the resume to prove it. You know, producers want people with experience in like a certain type of thing, very specific. But it's definitely they pigeon hole you into a certain genre and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that how much time you have to dedicate to it. and I don't think that's how the rest of the world works. And so things are done a specific way in L.A.
And so my question is with all of that what's your favorite? - Well, it's funny 'cause a lot of times, I don't know if it's different elsewhere, L.A. So, I mean, a lot of editors sort of arrive at a particular genre and work mostly in that but you are all over the place. I've worked on a lot of different things. I've worked on some scripted stuff, not stuff I can really talk about. I've worked on independent documentaries. I've worked on the red carpet shows for E! I do all the pre-produced packages and like the show opens for the Ryan Seacrest coverage.
I go to Comic Con every year so I was like yay! (laughter) I've worked on TV documentaries like some really gritty things. and I've worked on all types of shows, I've worked on game shows, multi-cam studio shows, one of those is working on the Nerdist, 'cause I'm just like a huge dork, just a geek.
Monica, thank you so much for talking to me today, would start off by just introducing yourself and you are and what you edit and get us oriented with your world. Alright, let's get on with the interview. She also treats us to an in depth analysis of two of her most recent projects. Monica has spent the last decade embracing every type of project she can, from documentary to narrative to promo to episodic to music video. And here I talk with freelance editor Monica Daniel about her hectic schedule of editing a totally new project every few weeks, as well as her down to earth philosophy of caring and collaboration in the editing room.
Hi, I'm Ashley Kennedy, welcome to our third installment of our series Conversations in Video Editing.