As the head of post production at Anthem Films, editor Chris Rodriguez might be doing anything from making sure clips are transcoded properly, to not sleeping for several days as he edits and delivers an entire music video over the course of a weekend.  We talked to Chris about his role at Anthem, being a fan of the music he’s working with, and how editing reality TV compares to music videos.

Doug: You bio on the Anthem Films website mentions that you got into post-production at an early age. How did that happened and how early of an age was it?

Chris: I was about 10 years old, my brother and I would take our father’s old Hi8 Camcorder and film the groovy patterns on Windows Media Player while playing back audio. We would shoot in 10 second intervals much like stop motion. It was absolutely ridiculous looking back at it now - silly. We would play the first 10 seconds of a Deftones track, then pause it, rewind to that 10 second mark hit play then record again. Little did we know once being introduced to Adobe Premiere that the entire editing process would be much more easier. But I guess that’s the same for all things. In film school, everybody wanted to direct, produce, and write. I really just wanted to edit. I was the go-to person on a ton of student films I cut around 14-16 short films in college. To this day, I’m over short films. Can’t do it. I think it’s because of my short attention span that I may never edit another short film again. Nor will I ever cut a feature film in my life aside from documentaries; it’s just not my thing.

Doug: Do you feel like you’ve found something that is made for you in the commercial and music video field?

Chris: I believe I have. I love cutting to music whether it be short promos for Go Pro or any musical act. You have to be clever about how you arrange clips because often times you only have 15 to 30 seconds to sell a product. So it’s my job to quickly garner the viewers attention and those edits, to me, really make it worth your while. Eventually, I’ll start cutting bumpers and promos for award shows and TV specials.

Doug: As the head of post-production at Anthem, what are your specific responsibilities?

Chris: Really what it boils down to is troubleshooting. Making sure clips are properly transcoded, conformed, getting the correct specs over to VFX, things of that nature. Really behind-the-scenes type stuff. As an editor, I strongly believe that it’s important to hone your troubleshooting skills and to really know your program inside and out. Once you get the technical out of the way, you can really start to concentrate and focus on creative while everything else becomes second nature. Anthem is a great environment to do this in. Our facility has a great vibe to it we have fully functional Avid and Final Cut Pro edit bays with a full DaVinci set-up. We do everything primarily in-house.

Doug: Is there personally one editing program that you tend to stick with, or do you find yourself using them all?

Chris: I prefer to work in Avid. Final Cut is fine, don’t get me wrong. I just feel more comfortable in Avid. For me the trim tools are better, the media management is far better, but it’s all just personal preference. I know a lot of music video editors cut on Final Cut, but at the end of the day I just prefer to work in Avid.

Doug: Does most of the stuff you work on come through Anthem?

Chris: I’d say it’s 50/50. I do a lot of freelance editing as well for a number of different clients. I tend to be the go-to person for anything pertaining to The Beach Boys and a lot of other artists. So it really depends some months more than others. But every week there tends to be 3-4 different jobs occurring. It’ll be nice to boil it down to one. [laughs]

Doug: When it comes to the reality-based stuff, It seems like the editor’s job is pretty significant in a lot of those shows. Is there much crossover between cutting a reality based show versus cutting a music video?

Chris: There is to some extent, it just really depends on the reality show itself and how that specific show is structured. Personally, if you can cut reality really well, you could cut practically anything. If you’re lucky there are some reality shows that have producers on them that create string-outs for each scene and all you really do is make them tighter and bring them to life with b-roll, music, graphics, etc. However, on some shows you don’t have that luxury, so you’re constantly looking through footage trying to make some sense of it all. It’s like putting puzzle pieces together and combining scenes that are so far removed in terms of date and time feel as one. It’s an art and if you can do it well, you’re heading in the right direction. Music videos are often outlined for you via a treatment so it’s just a matter of finding great clips and timing it all out and of course bringing your own style to the table.

Doug: When it comes to creative freedom, how do music videos compare to the rest of the spectrum: reality, documentary, live performance stuff? When it comes to being able to do what you want with the footage, where do music videos lie in that hierarchy?

Chris: Music videos tend to be much more lenient, at least that’s the case for me. Either way everything you edit needs go through an approval process much more so with reality and documentary where you’re constantly dealing with not only executive producers, but network execs who are often people you’ll never meet or see in an edit. With reality, at any given time producers can go back out to the field and shoot additional footage if a scene just isn’t working. Whereas with music videos with tighter budgets producers don’t have the capability so they tend to be a little less outspoken about certain things, so usually it’s just a matter of switching out shots for close-ups, things of that nature. Overall, you have a great deal of creative freedom with both at the beginning, but during the approval process it can slowly get chipped away.

Doug: Do you approach cutting performance-based footage and narrative-based stuff within a music video in the same way? Are the goals the same? Is the pacing the same?

Chris: I approach them a bit different structurally, whether it’s performance-based or conceptual narrative I always tackle the performance first. By doing so, it allows me to easily see where narrative should be placed in the sequence. After my performance pass I’ll have a sequence with 10-20 gaps in it, which means that I didn’t like any of the performance material during those parts, then I fill those gaps with narrative. Once that’s completed I’ll go back through for pacing and really just polish it up. I am always referencing the video's treatment so I can be sure that I am telling the story envisioned by the director.

Doug: What’s been your craziest edit thus far?

Chris: It was a music video that I directed as well. It was for a band called I The Breather on Sumerian Records. We shot the video on Friday night and the music video needed to be delivered first thing Monday morning so it could premiere along with the albums release. Friday night came and the band was two hours late, so I was already in panic mode. We wrapped around 3am on Saturday. We quickly packed up, transcoded all of the footage and by noon on Saturday I was in full edit mode. The band ended up crashing at my apartment, which was convenient, as I would wake them up every couple of hours to check out cuts. I posted the rough cut for the label at 9pm. I got notes back 2 hours later, at this point the band was gone and they loved what I did so they were in a good spot. I hammered out the notes and by 2am on Sunday the video was picture locked. I conformed the video and it was off to color around 6am on Sunday. Our color session was booked for 7am, so I was able to get in an hour of sleep, which hadn’t been done since Thursday. The video was colored and completed by 6pm. We laid off the final sequence to tape and sent the label the final QT around 8pm. So we actually had quite a bit of breathing room. It was nuts but the video launched first thing Monday morning along with the album release and it did well overall.

Doug: Is it literally no sleep, or do you sleep while you’re waiting on notes?

Chris: You try to sleep while waiting on notes but you’re always on edge listening out for emails or phone calls. Especially with tight deadlines, you’re always eager to keep going and personally I hate stopping especially when you’re in a groove.

Doug: That’s intense. Do you then sleep for the next 11 days? You say you get a call every two days to cut something though. You don’t have much turnaround time to recharge. You’re pretty much right back at it again pretty quickly?

Chris: I’m one of those people who could literally sleep 3-4 hours a night and be completely recharged. Sometimes, after editing for 10 hours a day I’ll hit the gym for a couple of hours, then the sauna. That’s just my way of relaxing after a stressful day.

Doug: When cutting a music video, does being a fan of the music comes into play? Is it better to enjoy a song when you’re spending 36 hours straight with it?

Chris: Being a fan helps significantly. I tend to procrastinate a lot if I don’t like the track or footage. Especially if it’s shot prematurely, that ruins it for me. But, somehow I always manage to get it done on time.

Doug: Do you think the videos for the songs that you enjoy turn out better? Or do you think you’re still putting your full self into the video once you finally get the motivation to get started?

Chris: I may get some videos done faster than others, but every video I get I do what I can with what I have. Whether that’s bringing in my own stock footage to make it look grander or suggesting we change the overall structure of a video so it’s a little less spoon feed to viewers. I put my full self into every edit and utilize every tool I have to make it work because clients are paying for your creativity and it’s important to always bring that to the table, it helps build trust and that’s what keeps them coming back.

Doug: Do you put your own stock footage into videos often?

Chris: No, not really. If the client says we’re going to buy some aerial footage, I usually have them look through my stock footage for any they may like it saves me download time and them money. It’s all about keeping clients happy.

Doug: Do you have anything you're currently working on?

Chris: As of right now, I am finishing up DJ Muggs’s (Cypress Hill) new video. I’m also cutting some mini documentaries for Sevyn featuring Chris Brown on Atlantic. There’s also The Used full-length documentary I have going on. Some new Go Pro commercials nearly complete, and I start a video trilogy for Zoo Brazil this week. The footage looks absolutely stunning, and I seriously can’t wait. So, a lot going on, but it’s just another week. If anyone wants to reach out for booking you can email Heather Baker over at Anthem Films at Heather@anthemfilms.com.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder/content director of IMVDb and watches more music videos than anyone on earth. You can find him on twitter at @doug_klinger.