MICHAEL'S
CUTTING ROOM
Michael
Chaskes in cutting room of Crisis in the Kremlin
Concorde Studios, Venice, Calif. (1991)
My name is Michael Chaskes, and I'm a film
and television editor in Los Angeles, California.
I’m currently on the editing team of the CMT (Country Music TV) reality show World's Strictest Parents. I've also recently edited for ABC’s
reality show Supernanny and will be returning to it later this year.
Other recent TV credits include: Renovation
Nation (season 1) on Planet Green
(solo editor and co-writer on 2 episodes; co-editor on several more episodes); three
episodes of Chefography on
Food Network (solo editor on “Food Network” episode, co-editor on “Wolfgang
Puck” and “Julia Child” episodes); the Hollywood Habitat for Humanity special on DIY (solo editor, co-writer); and Making
of Rose Parade 2008 on HGTV (solo
editor and writer).
Effin Sports Camp, a comedy feature that I cut for my talented friend
Joe Reilly (writer/director/star), screened in the 2007 Moondance Film
Festival. Learn more about the
film at effinsportscamp.com.
Brigham City
and God's Army, two features I
edited for director Richard Dutcher, are currently available on DVD and
VHS. God’s Army is also
available as a Special Edition DVD, which includes an audio commentary with me,
Ken Glassing (DP), and Richard.
At this point, the Film
Editing Home Page has become more of an artifact than an actual useful
source of information, but check it out if you’d like to see an interesting
snapshot of the state of non-linear digital film editing circa 1996.
INDEX
Here's a complete listing of all my web pages at this site:
The Film Editing Home
Page - everything you ever wanted to know about the art and craft of film
editing, with lots of links
The Even Cupid Pays
Cash Page - the complete
shooting script, cast, credits, and a production still from my first film
My resume
Michael's Adventures In
Hollywood - autobiographical notes on my career as a film editor
Jill's Adventures In
Nepal - a record of my sister's exploits abroad as a Peace Corps volunteer,
complete with photos
The Photo Album -
some pix of family and friends
More of my short screenplays - Life in the Seismic Zone and Today I Am...
My Movie Review
Archives - reviews I wrote of each film I saw in 1996
A
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY/PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
I was born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in Southern New Jersey (which isn't nearly
as bad as it's made out to be... although I'm not moving back anytime soon). I
left in 1987 to go to college at Wesleyan
University (Middletown, Conn.), where I majored in film and wrote,
produced, directed, and edited an 11-minute 16mm film called Even Cupid Pays Cash. I also became a member of the Middletown Chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi Society, a co-ed literary
fraternity. After graduating in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies, I
moved to Los Angeles with my
then-girlfriend Sarah Lewis, whom I married in January 1994.
Sarah
and Michael Chaskes, July 1997
Apart from my credits discussed at the top if
this page, I’ve also cut:
· season 2 of Food
Network’s Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels
· three Matt and Shari seasonal
specials for HGTV
· Food Network’s special All Stars Live: South Beach featuring Rachael Ray, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay,
Alton Brown, and more
· HGTV’s long-running series That’s Clever (co-editor)
· season 3 of Food
Network’s BBQ With Bobby Flay
(co-editor)
· CNN’s business-themed reality show The
Turnaround (co-editor)
·
three episodes of Your Reality Checked for Fine Living (one of which I also wrote)
· two episodes of Faking It for TLC
· an episode of Junkyard Mega-Wars (part 1 of the special miniseries The Great Race), also for TLC
In 2002, I spent several months cutting about two dozen short "music video
documentaries" for Hen House Studios, a recording studio in Venice,
California. These pieces can be viewed at the the studio's website. The site includes
many more videos cut by other editors, and doesn't identify who did which.
Among mine are Adaawe, Ampersand, Andy Tubman, Badfish, Capital Pusher, Raices, the
Skeletones, Shotgun No Challenge, and Upstream.
I spent 2001 as one of the editors on the PBS
series Senior Year. As well as
cutting for the series, I also cut about 90 minutes of streaming video for the
website, which includes a music video for the show's theme song (by the band
Ozomatli), the stories of three additional students who did not appear on the
show, and behind-the-scenes segments.
In 2000, I edited Richard Dutcher's 35mm
dramatic feature Brigham
City, which played in several film festivals, and was an additional editor
on the feature film Manic.
In 1999, I edited Richard Dutcher's previous
feature God's Army
and the documentary All American Cowgirl
for director Mark Haffenreffer.
My other feature film credits include the
video release Double Down,
a 35mm feature starring Jason Priestley and directed by Mars (Poolhall
Junkies) Callahan; Traces of Us,
a 16mm feature written and directed by Christopher Chen; What's in a
Cookie?, a Super-16mm romantic
comedy written and directed by Michael R. Watson; The Garbage Man, a 35mm comedy feature starring Frank Stallone and
Joe Estevez and directed by Giorgio Serafini; Lethargy, a 16mm feature written and directed by David
Goldstone; and Share
the Moon, a 16mm feature written and directed by Gregory Haynes.
I've also cut a number of short films,
including Todd Hochstadt's The Agent Who Stole Christmas!, Andrew Wood's The Dinner Guest (which has played in film festivals worldwide), and
David Measer's Brina's
Problem, starring Tracy Griffith and Michael Fairman.
Additional credits include Backstory:
Bonnie and Clyde for American
Movie Classics; the theatrical trailer for Bobby Houston's documentary Rock
The Boat(the trailer has also
played on HBO and appeared on rental videocassettes); and the award-winning
syndicated special A Story of Hope,
featuring Marlo Thomas and John Goodman.
Michael
cutting The Garbage Man on
an Avid Film Composer
at the home of director Giorgio Serafini
Hollywood, California (1996)
...and
editing Lethargy on a 16mm
Moviola flatbed,
with director David Goldstone (foreground) in the Chaskes apartment
West Los Angeles, California (1996)
I have also worked as an apprentice or
assistant film editor on a number of movies--good, bad, and ugly (you make the
call):
· Crisis in the Kremlin (1992)
·
Prague
Duet (1997) - uncredited
I was also an assistant editor on Steven
Spielberg's millenial short documentary The
Unfinished Journey, which was projected at the Lincoln Memorial on New
Year's Eve and broadcast worldwide by CBS. John Williams, who composed the
score, also shows the film at some musical performances and conducts the score
live.
Please feel free to check out my complete resume.
CONTACT
THE CUTTING ROOM
Got feedback about my website? Like to offer me an editing job?
Please e-mail me at chaskes@ earthlink.net.
Last updated: October 26, 2009.
Special thanks to:
Joon
Kim, computer maven and great friend
Drew of Drew's Script-O-Rama for use of his
filmstrip wallpaper
Thanks for dropping by!