By David Timoner
I wasn’t born with Hollywood dreams in my head. I grew up in Miami, Fla., and while I liked movies and was the editor of my school newspaper, upon graduation I was considering a career in journalism or law.
That all changed in college. I went to Yale where my sister Ondi was already a junior. My first semester I took Introduction to Film Studies. I enjoyed it, but it frustrated me that it was all analysis and no “hands-on” creation. Halfway through that year, my sister received a camcorder for her birthday just as a public access television station opened in town. The station allowed anyone to edit as long as the finished products were available for air. We took an intro class on linear tape to tape editing and started thinking about what we’d make.
We gathered weekly with friends in Ondi’s apartment to watch “Beverly Hills 90210.” One night we hatched a plan to make our own show. We all played different characters, including the camera who roved around like Richard Linklater’s camera in “Slacker.” We brainstormed and shot each episode after our weekly viewings. The result was “High Street 06511.” There was not much of a plot, the sound was terrible, the acting worse, but we cranked out six episodes and learned by doing. Ondi started making more student films and asked me to edit them.
After college, I moved to Los Angeles where Ondi was already working as an assistant by day and documenting rock bands by night. We decided to start a rock documentary that we called “The Cut,” but no one was interested in a film about unknown bands, so we did it on our own, part-time. I worked day jobs as a PA and later as an assistant. The hours were convenient to our nightly schedule of shooting in rock clubs.
We decided to make a sizzle reel, but neither of us knew non-linear editing, so we hired a music video editor friend and got a special night rate at a post house.
I was amazed by the Avid and watched our editor closely to pick up whatever I could. He knew I was eager to learn and graciously explained his process. Towards the end of our fifth all-nighter in a row, our exhausted editor threw in the towel just short of the finish line. With the sun rising and the day crew on their way in, I climbed into the chair and stumbled my way through the last few notes, trying to avoid throwing the whole thing out of sync.
That successful trial by fire was enough to convince my sister that we no longer needed to hire an editor. What’s more, the record company of one of the bands we were documenting offered us $10,000 for a music video using documentary footage we’d already shot. We felt like we’d hit the jackpot!
On the heels of this success, I gave notice at my office day job and committed myself full-time to the company we’d started. After a couple of years of intense filming, we had over 1,000 hours in the can for our mostly unfinished documentary, now called “DIG!”.
It was around this time that I fell in love, got married and had a baby. Suddenly I had the responsibility of providing for a family, and the paltry income of a documentary filmmaker wasn’t going to cut it.
I pitched myself as an editor and cut everything I was offered — corporate videos, demo reels, even powerboat racing! Of course, I wanted to work in TV, which paid better and offered the chance of union work, but my unorthodox path — never having been an assistant editor — left post-supervisors dubious.
My first big break came in 2003 when I was offered a night editor position on the reality series “Switched!” Luckily, I did well and more TV opportunities unfolded. Around this time, Ondi finally finished “DIG!” I came onboard to polish it and, miraculously, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Shortly thereafter, I heard about a celebrity ballroom dancing competition show. It sounded far-fetched, but I wasn’t going to miss a shot at a major network show. At the interview, the producers and I instantly clicked. The show was “Dancing With the Stars,” and I went on to cut 25 seasons. In the second season, the post went union and I was able to get into the Editors Guild. The producers who hired me became my good friends with whom I still work to this day. In fact, 13 years later, three of us collaborated again on another imported format turned hit, “The Masked Singer.”
Every day, I’m grateful that I get to make creative fun with friends for a living. And it all started at a public access station in New Haven, Connecticut.
David Timoner is a Grammy, ACE and 3x Emmy nominated editor. He still works in unscripted television and recently edited “DIG! XX,” a 20th Anniversary reimagined version of the original documentary. He can be reached at timonerdavid@gmail.com.
