Supported by Genelec
with speakers Prince May, Alice Degrassi, Scott Clements and Helena Beeson
Tuesday 7 February 2023, 19:00-20:30 GMT (UK local time)

You can watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel or read the transcript.

From ingesting rushes to picture lock, what is the role of the assistant editor? Our speakers will discuss an assistant’s workflow and media management, and the relationship between the assistant editor and the editor. Can the role of the assistant can be valued in itself as a long term career? For which genres and projects do editors assist themselves? How can the role of assistant be conducted remotely as well as on site for both international and local projects?

Prince May, assistant editor, UK
Prince May is an assistant editor working in HETV and short films, with a focus on drama. Prince has participated in a range of schemes to gain knowledge of the film and TV industry such as the workshop with Signature Pictures and the BBC training scheme. Prince went to college to study animation but discovered film as he was studying and fell in love with editing, which he then pursued as his career. Later he attended and studied film practice at South Bank University in London, UK.  Growing up, he attended a youth centre where he could edit and create his own stories. In his free time, he mentored children in the same centre. During the Covid pandemic, he went online and taught himself some VFX. Prince May has recently worked as an assistant editor on TV shows such as The Watch, The Fear Index and Three Pines.

Alice Degrassi, industry newcomer, Italy and UK
Originally from Udine, Italy, and now living in London, Alice Degrassi is a junior production assistant at Trunkman Productions (The Cosmic Shambles Network) and a freelance picture editor. She recently graduated from a Film Production course at Brunel University, London, where she specialised in post-production practices and also focused on cinematography. Infatuated with the cinematic world from a young age, her interest in filmmaking grew when she shot her first film roll on her grandfather’s camera, a Praktica LLC, and deeply fell in love with the results, which led her to consider a career in one of her now preferred areas of work: cinematography. During her high school in Italy and university years, she also showed a deep interest and understanding of video editing practices and edited multiple projects. She later applied these skills while working as a freelance videographer on the TEDx Kings Cross event, on a promotional video for Heathrow Airports, and for OKRE (supported by Wellcome).

Scott Clements, film & TV first assistant editor, Canada, now UK
Originally from Canada, Scott is a graduate of Toronto’s York University, where he acquired his Bachelor of Fine Arts in film production. After graduating, he worked as a corporate video editor in his home country, primarily crafting documentaries for automotive companies, including BMW, Volvo and Mazda. His first job in scripted features was as a behind-the-scenes videographer on the set of Christophe Gans’ horror-adventure Silent Hill (2006). He then transitioned to work as a VFX pre-visualisation assistant on Doug Liman’s sci-fi picture, Jumper (2008), and eventually moved to the UK in 2009, where he studied digital compositing, online editing and colour grading, as part of his Master’s degree at the internationally-renowned National Film and Television School. After exploring a range of disciplines, Scott ultimately decided that editing was his favourite part of the moviemaking process, so began a career, from the ground up, as an assistant editor on projects such as Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018), BBC war drama Our Girl: Series 4 (2020) and the recently-released London-set adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru, retitled Living (2022). 

Helena Beeson, VFX editor and assistant editor, UK
Helena is a VFX editor and assistant editor with experience in HETV and feature film. She has several years’ experience in assisting and assembling on projects with a range of budgets and production sizes, including Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country (2017). She is currently working as a VFX editor on the Netflix show The Crown. She has embraced remote working for the last few years and is based in West Yorkshire. Helena completed a Master’s in Film and Media Production at Sheffield Hallam University (UK), and was recently a member of the Bafta Crew programme.