Not many people can say they went from being a post production assistant to editing a film that went to Sundance in one year. Conor O'Neill can. His repertoire includes Word Wars, Murderball, Air Guitar Nation and Capitalism: A Love Story. He is currently editing Love Don't Let Me Down, which stars Gwyneth Paltrow and is due for release in 2010.Conor and I sat down for lunch the other day, and between bites he told me his story.
CRC: How long have you known you wanted to be in the film industry?
CO'N: I've always loved movies, but I didn't really grow up thinking I was going work in the movie business. Even though I grew up in LA and this is the "movie town," my parents didn't work in the industry or anything and I didn't have a lot of friends who were in it. It wasn't until after college and I was playing music which didn't really work out, I had to figure out something else to do.
CRC: What was the very first step you took, after you made the decision that you wanted to be involved in film?
CO'N: It wasn't so much film or movies, it was editing. About 10 years ago it was my dad's 60th birthday and I made a video with my step mom for his party. I interviewed a bunch of his friends and got a bunch of old footage and made this video for him. While I was editing it, (just on my Macintosh computer back then, or what ever it was... iMovie I guess,) I realized that it was a very creative thing, and time would fly by and I'd be sort of in this creative zone where I wouldn't notice time going by. I sort of had a "eureka" moment where I was like, "oh, this is a cool thing and people actually get paid to do this." And that was the thing that got me into editing.
CRC: It sounds like you were out of college by the time this all happened.
CO'N: Yeah, I was 30.
CRC: So it's not like you needed your parents' support or anything to make a lifestyle change, you just went for it. What next?
CO'N: Then what I did was I went to LA Film School, where they offer a 3 day Avid class. You just basically learn how to use the Avid. I was an Art major in school, painting, etc.. The things I was interested in were all things you need another job in order to do. Like artsy shit, you know, where very few people earn a living painting or writing songs. I realized that maybe editing was something a little more creative you can actually do and it's not unrealistic to think you can earn a living doing it. So I was at a crossroads: Do I want to go to school and pay a ton of money to learn how to do this? Or would I rather try to use some connections that I had living in Los Angeles to get a job somewhere; an entry level job, where I could get paid to learn how to do it. To me the math was pretty simple. Rather than going to AFI or one of these places, I took a 3 day Avid class, it cost $2,000, and I put it on a credit card. We learned the basics of Avid, and it was very concentrated on learning the assisting elements of being on the Avid, which I knew was going to be the sort of job I was looking for. I did that, and then I got a job as an editorial PA on a film, an MGM comedy called "A Guy Thing."
CRC: Have you ever had any second thoughts about not going to film school? Would you recommend your decision to others?
CO'N: I would recommend my decision to other people; it's just economics. For me, I was 30 years old, I was already in some debt, I didn't see the wisdom in spending another 80 grand or what ever it costs to go to film school to learn something when I could learn it and earn a living at it. I knew a guy who was an editor who just started out of college in a vault at a commercial place, and now he had his own company editing commercials and making a really good living.
When I was working on that job at MGM as a PA, I met a guy who had a trailer for a documentary he was making about Scrabble players and competitive Scrabble. I knew I wanted to be an editor and I needed stuff to cut so I told him, "hey, if you ever need someone to cut some stuff together for you I'd love to do it for free, just to be practicing." So he gave me a drive of some stuff and I cut some sequences together and he liked them. One thing led to another and I ended up editing the film, and it was a documentary called "Word Wars." It went to Sundance, came out in theaters, and all of a sudden I was a documentary editor. So it didn't take that long, the key was being willing to do stuff for free and put yourself out there.
CRC: Another blog entry I have is on how to pick the projects you work on for free, because I think that's very important.
CO'N: Very important.
CRC: Yes, you don't just want to work on "Joe Schmoe's Waste Of Time" for free, but yet I had a 2nd full time job that I worked for free for two months because of what the project was and who it was for.
CO'N: I'd just say go with what interests you. I was lucky a guy came to me with something that I thought it was interesting, where someone else might not have.
CRC: Is there any advice that you would give people who are just coming to Hollywood for the first time, with no contacts, no job lined up or anything? Maybe someone just says one day, "I want to be a famous director and I'm leaving for Hollywood today! Now what?"
CO'N: Well they should have a camera in their car as they're driving across the country, and just start filming stuff. Hopefully they will be fortunate enough to run across something interesting and then edit it together.
CRC: So what you're saying is just do your craft.
CO'N: Yes, definitely. Just start doing it. It seems as though most of the directors that I like, that's what they say. It's like what they say with actors: If anyone says they want to be an actor, I say the only reason to be an actor is if you absolutely, positively, no way in hell could ever see yourself doing anything other than act.
CRC: Is there any advice anyone has ever given that has seemed to help you?
CO'N: The best advice is the Bette Davis advice. You know that story?
CRC: No, I don't.
CO'N: Bette Davis was at some cocktail party when she was a big star and some young actress came up to her who had just moved to town. She went up to her and said, "Oh, Ms. Davis, I'm such a huge fan of yours, I'm just wondering if there's anything, any advice you can give me, anything at all you could tell me that could help me as I start off my career here in Hollywood." And Bette Davis looked at her, took a big drag on her cigarette and said, "Yes dear..... take Fountain."
CRC: Ha! So... is there any street that you prefer over the others? Olympic? Venice perhaps?
CO'N: Gotta take the freeway.
Conor O'Neill lives in Malibu with his dog Chopper, and for all of you newcomers to Hollywood-- he takes the PCH to work.
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