SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2023
Ajit John
Evidence of Indian talent in cinema is present all around
for everyone to see. Satyajit Ray’s magical stark images caught the fancy of
the world and influenced filmmakers around the world. Bhanu Athaiya the
versatile costume designer showcased India’s amazing tapestry in Gandhi and was
awarded an Oscar. Years later Resul Pookutty and A. R. Rahman won the Academy Award
for Best Sound Mixing and Best Original Score, respectively, for the 2008
British film Slumdog Millionaire. And now, the editing skills of a young Indian
assistant editor Aashish D’Mello were rewarded with an Oscar for his work in
the best film of the year Everything Everywhere All At Once. It should be said
he was part of a team that worked on the film.
For Aashish, it has been quite a journey. Responding to
queries emailed to him he said, “Growing up in Mumbai, I loved music, movies
and computers. I wanted to do something that involved all three, but I wasn’t
sure how to pursue it as a career. I did my Bachelors in Mass Media at St
Xavier’s College and majored in Advertising. Although I was always interested
in creative media and arts in general, I never considered filmmaking as an
actual career option until right after I graduated in 2013, when I started
working at Apocalypso Filmworks under editor Anirban Dutta and director Pradeep
Sarkar. I worked as an assistant editor there for 2 years, on multiple ads each
month as well as on the 2014 Yash Raj movie Mardaani, under editor Sanjib
Datta. It was an intense work experience, but I was able to learn the basics of
the Avid editing software on the job as well as watch the editors craft
stories”.
His parents were supportive of him, even though they didn’t
know much about the film industry. Aashish started considering the possibility
of honing his skills at a post-graduate film program. The editing course at
American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles seemed like the best fit. He was
accepted into the course and moved to Los Angeles in 2015. It was an intense
experience. One of the short films he edited there was Sin Cielo, which was
accepted into various major festivals and ended up being distributed by HBO on
all platforms. He admitted that moving to Los Angeles was the dream he never
knew until it had already started to materialize. Since then, he has been based
in Los Angeles and working in the film and TV industry.
Editing a movie is a very specific skill set. A good editor
is patient, has an ability to work under pressure, excellent time management
and emotional depth. Aashish loved spending time with computers, and he got
fascinated with using Windows Movie Maker to use existing footage and being
able to create something new from it. As he puts it, “I loved fixing things,
and editing seemed like a great way of putting together footage to create a
story”.
When asked how he got the assignment on the film, he said,
“I got the job as an assistant editor on the movie Everything Everywhere All At
Once through the other assistant editor on the movie - Zekun Mao. We had both
done our post-graduate degree course from American Film Institute in Los
Angeles together and had worked on other projects together”.
When he is editing a shot, there are multiple factors he
considers. He said, “If the shot tells the story that needs to be told in that
moment, if the performance of the actors is good, if the direction has good
pacing, if the shot has visual continuity (or atleast isn’t jarring) with the
shots before and after”.
Born in Mumbai, the film industry is something that cannot
be ignored. He worked in the advertising industry as an assistant editor on
multiple commercials as well a feature film called Mardaani in 2014. He was
open to working on a film if the story was good. This, he said, applied to
every film industry. The script, he said, had to tell a good story. If a script
was not interesting, he argued, it would be extremely difficult to make a good
film out of it.
Asked what his plans were with regards to editing he said,
“I want to be much more creatively involved, as that is what my passion is. I
have edited smaller projects, but I want to do something bigger. To achieve
that goal, I have been working as an assistant editor so I can learn from great
editors and build my skills as well as my network. I plan to eventually become
an editor on studio feature films, instead of being an assistant editor
forever”.
With regards to visiting Mumbai and Goa specifically, he
said, “I intend to visit Mumbai sometime this year. Schedules in the film
industry are constantly changing, so it’s hard to predict exactly when, but I
will definitely make the time this year. My Mom’s family is originally from
Goa, so we occasionally go there for a holiday - if I visit Mumbai, I’ll be
visiting Goa as well”.
When he was asked to give advice to Goans who could be
interested in working in the film industry, Aashish was more than willing to do
so. He said, “If you’re living in Goa, Mumbai is not far away at all. Mumbai is
such a huge hub for Indian filmmaking. If you’re interested in post-production,
look for courses that teach the software first - that is the foundation for
your editing technical ability. There is so much information and videos
available online these days for Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro.
Watch a lot of movies and analyze the story - what makes it good or bad. Once
you’ve started learning these, look up various post-production studios in
Mumbai and apply for jobs there, even if it means an internship. That will
eventually help you know more people and build a network. It takes time and
isn’t cheap, but eventually things will work out if you work hard!”Amen to
that.
