Born from Ozploitation royalty Bryan McQueen-Mason is a talented and successful editor is his own right. Add to that the gift of writing, music and singing - and you have an entertainment allrounder. Bryan resides in Perth, Western Australia and I had the honour of asking him a few questions about his life, inspirations and career.
Welcome to The Australian Short Film Network
Bryan - Thanks… good to be here.
When did you realise that you wanted to be an Editor?
Bryan – Never.
Becoming an editor wasn’t really a decision. For me it was more my legacy.
My mother Kathi’s psychic great aunt in Germany even wrote in one of her letters “You will have two sons. One of which will follow in his father’s footsteps.”
My dad, Ted - Edward McQueen-Mason - has been one of Australia’s leading editors since the 70s New Wave boom. He won the AFI for film editing in 1976 for “End Play” and is without doubt one of Australia’s – and the world’s - greatest editors.
(Ted McQueen-Mason)
Growing up I always wanted to be in the film industry and was always creative, but I never thought about being an editor.
As a kid I wanted to be an actor. My first acting gig was at four years old in “Water Under the Bridge” being carried around by Peta Toppano and Robin Nevin as the young male lead in Episode 1. From there I went to acting schools on the weekend, I had an agent, I did some commercials, a bit of tv and a lot of theatre - especially at high school.
(Bryan and Robyn Nevin)
I went to Wesley College, Prahran Campus, in Melbourne - our uniform blazers were purple with yellow trim. We were sometimes known as ‘Violet Crumbles’, other times ‘Wesbians’. We did a lot of great shows, particularly the musicals directed and staged by the legendary Dawson Hann and Tony Scanlon. English teachers and theatre producers for Adamson Theatre Company. Yep, my school had it’s own theatre company – but it was awesome. The theatre, Adamson Hall, was great to perform in. Dawson and Tony were friends as well as authority figures and the cast were my friends at the time. It was well worth my ongoing intolerance for that particular shade of purple in my current wardrobe given that shows were actually pretty good - and I still have my blazer.
I knew I loved writing short stories in grade 5. I changed schools twice that year but I still have the blue ring-binder with my loose-leaf papers split by an orange partition covered with my scrawled stories from that year. The first one I wrote was after reading a story my brother Adrian wrote about a shark attack. I did my own version of it and it went on from there.
Singing/songwriting is deeply important to me too. My first single hit me in year 7, I sang it to a few kids at school camp. They liked the song but one of the girls criticized the context being love since I’d never even had a girlfriend. I told her to get fucked and she made out with my best mate Tom.
Growing up I shot, starred in and edited in camera a bunch of home videos. Music clips of me singing in an afro wig, comic news segments, sketches with my sister Karyn and a couple of Mexican marionette puppets, a fully setup Domino Express toy kit I got for my birthday and our Siamese cat Felix. We did two episodes of ‘Vicki and Nicki’ starring Karyn and my cousin Alex and my other cousins when they came over.
I made “The Ghost of Manor Grove” with dad as a school project in Year 7 which involved the whole family, our house in North Caulfied, Melbourne, and some practical VFX. We edited it together
In year 8 I started carrying a pocket-sized black and red notebook - it fit perfectly in the inner pocket of my blazer at school. I took it with me to horse camp to contain my frantic prose and poetry. I wrote about stars and thoughts and feelings – but not about horses strangely. I still have a collection of them from year 8 up until 1st year uni. At that stage I drew diagrams unlocking the equations to determine the absolute nothingness of it all, I wrote songs and ideas for projects. From that point I started using notebooks and uni-ball eye pens – black, blue and red.
I wrote my first tv pilot at 16. “My Generation” is a “Young Ones” inspired sitcom which I made with the help of dad and some mates from school. Again, Ted and I sat in the cutting room for a day and night while he had actual work to do. It’s actually pretty funny – still got it somewhere…
My first screenplay is ‘The Writer’. A black comedy about the man wrote the entire universe and what happens when time comes to write the last page. Stan Harrington, an ex-car salesman associated with my uncle Jack Ross, took it with him to LA when he made the career change and physical move from Melbourne to acting and directing. I submitted it as one of my creative writing examples for my Year 12 VCE English requirement – I wonder if they read it or just weighed the 100 pages and went “Yep.”
(Bryan and Ted McQueen-Mason)
I went to Monash University in Melbourne to start an incomplete and unbothered Bachelor of Arts Degree and met Nadav Rayman - a talented pianist, musophile and, sometimes deeply silent, artistic genius. Together we wrote ‘Expressions – The Bluesical’ a contemporary and darker interpretation of a Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin musical.
It took us a year and a bit to get it out of our heads and onto the stage. We auditioned cast, hired a band and staged the show in the recently built drama theatre. It was the first, and probably only, co-production between all four of the theatre groups on campus. Nadav and I wrote a lot of music together including roughs of tracks for our next but unfinished project “Suck This – The Popsical”. A dark ride into the mind of Adam as he succumbs to his Satan-complex living in the basement of an underground rave club. ‘Expressions – The Bluesical’, however, remains as one of my best achievements to date and the years working with Nadav was an incredibly rewarding time of collaboration and friendship. It led me to moving from my hometown of Melbourne to Adelaide where Ted was working at the time on the live action animal feature ‘Napoleon’ with producer/director Mario Andreacchio. Mario was interested in helping me develop “The Bluesical” as a feature and Ted gave me some post-production work starting as 2nd Assistant Editing and Sound Assistant, sometimes working nightshifts to suit the schedule of sound editors and productions. My brother Adrian had been working as his assistant for a few years.
Adrian cut a few features on his own before eventually turning to a career in science work – he actually bothered at uni - as a lab technician. Even my cousin Alex worked with Ted for a while in Adelaide.
(Mario Andreacchio)
Ted had edit suites and offices at the SAFC - as did Mario, writer/director/producer Rolf DeHeer and producers David Lightfoot and Jane Ballantyne, amongst others. I used to smoke outside with Rolf, his nickname for me was scumbag. Development of ‘The Bluesical’ with Mario which, along with a few other projects, never developed very far and never to any financial benefit.
In Adelaide I also got involved in local theatre productions. Ted and I acted together on stage for the second time in “Entertaining Mr Sloane” for the Burnside Players. in which I, as Mr Sloane, got to kick him to death on stage at the end of the second act in his role as Pop – years of therapy averted.
It was in a production of ‘Return of The Forbidden Planet’ for Matt Byrne Media that I got to know Allison Scarlett, my now wife, and her one year old daughter Chloe and we started our family. We’re still together after 20 plus years, including 8 married ones, and have three kids; Chloe, Jarvys and Scarlett.
I worked with Ted on features including “Spank”, “Young Blades” and “Selkie” as his assistant editor and learnt a lot. In that time I watched him edit, slept on the couch in his suite, and would sometimes find myself predicting his edits the three or four cuts ahead.
My luck in Adelaide was not always favorable, work wasn’t always consistent, and I had some downright bad luck with my personal projects.
In 2001 Adrian and I produced the short film ‘Hyding’ with funding from the South Australian Film Corporation. I starred in it along with Ted and Allison and we shot it in Adrian’s house. It’s the story of Jacob who is hyding in his multiple personalities after being accused of an assault. Nadav and I wrote the music together including the end title track. Unfortunately it just looks like shit. The whole thing is overexposed and there was nothing we could do to fix it. We did our best but except for a few shots it was more or less ruined by the settings on the camera and over-lighting.
I received a grant from the SAFC to development an original feature film script ‘Video Diary of a Stalker’ in 2002. The film is a darkly comic story following a documentary crew shooting the story of Craig who likes to watch a variety of characters to substitute those lacking in his real relationships. Local producer David Rowe had just become interested and involved before he died suddenly.
A kids fantasy adventure movie called ‘Two Young Witches’ which I wrote on spec along with other projects for producer Terry Charatsis, never went further after his wife sadly got incredibly sick.
The biggest blow was in 2000 when the second season of the kid’s television show “Chuck Finn” – and my dual roles as assistant editor and post-production supervisor – came to an abrupt end. It was a tough time for Ted and I – the first time I have had apply for Centrelink support – and a crushing financial and emotional blow for everyone involved in the production.
There was a lull but things picked up a bit and I assisted Ted on the feature “Paradise Found” as well as editing my first short film “Turbulence.” I enjoyed the experience but I still didn’t want editing to be my main focus.
In 2004 Ted and I got on the train from Adelaide to Perth with his ‘Lightworks’ editing systems packed in crates in a trailer attached to his Mazda MX6 and our suitcases to work for Paul Barron at Great Western Entertainment on his new kids show “Parallax.” Although I had worked for Paul before in Adelaide on Chuck Finn, and was even a guest actor in Episode 24, we had only met once in person as he was mostly based in Perth.
Aside from Ted, I owe the start of my editing career, and my few writing credits, to Paul – to which he might say something like “Don’t blame me for your mistakes” or something else that’s actually funny.
(Kiefer Sutherland, Bryan McQueen-Mason and Nicholas Hope)
Initially, on ‘Parallax’, I was employed as the Assistant Editor - ingesting, logging and syncing rushes from the master digi-beta tapes. We hired a rushes assistant when I became more involved in post-supervision, directing actors in ADR sessions and assembly editing. I wrote and directed the behind the scenes extra content as well.
I remember very specifically the first scene Ted asked me to cut. He was heading to a music session with Paul and told me to give it a go. It was a five-hander dialogue scene with some non-standard coverage and a bit of action. It had a few challenges but I got it done well before he got back. I’m sure he thought it would be a passable attempt but watching him as the scene played was perhaps one of the greatest unspoken compliments of my career. The scene worked aside from one messy edit fixed by a few frames. My editing ability was noticed by both Paul and series director Mark DeFriest and I was offered the role of 2nd Editor on GWE’s next production ‘Streetsmartz’. Ted was the 1st Editor and also directed the first episode which we cut in collaboration with Paul to set-up the style.
The production ran for three seasons and 39 episodes on which I post-supervised, was the musical supervisor from season 2 onward, I edited just over half and wrote three. I continued to work at GWE with Paul, Ted and Mark and other notable crew on “Wormwood” and “Stormworld.” I also wrote four episodes of “Stormworld” – two of which Ted directed which was really cool. I was also cast as the offscreen voice of Ogee. Unfortunately, I was replaced in the final post due to contractual ‘points’ required by Canada in the Australian/Canadian co-production agreement. That was my last real acting gig and disappointing as I was much better at the part than the actor they replaced me with – I mean, I wrote some of the dialogue. I read those lines up to my balls in water at 6am in Broome and only flinched at the occasional freezing wave of seawater flicking at my nuts. I developed a character in him, an internal conflict. He was a genius, physically constrained – Stephen Hawking with a posh English voice, a bit C3PO but different and unique too. I was the only person who could actually pronounce his full name: Omnicomgnostimagus Grandipensomirabiluk Elevocalculissime Epothiosium.
Anyway, it was a bummer.
Those years working at GWE with Ted – my best friend and dad - and the opportunities Paul was providing were the most consistent – he says with a grin – and rewarding in my creative career to date.
I spent a lot of time in the edit suite with Mark DeFriest at GWE, as Ted mostly cut the episodes he directed himself. Mark and I learned a lot from and about each other in the edit and I really liked working with him at the time. Paul put together great Perth crews on his shows and some of them continue to be friends to this day.
I loved working with Paul. His laugh used to fill that massive rat-infested building we were ‘camped out’ in for all those years on the Stirling Highway in North Fremantle. On more stressful days I wanted to scream out “What’s so fucking funny?” but when I thought about for a minute I realized it actually probably was. I remember him drenched in water holding his fountain pen in his hand when the rain ran like a waterfall through the massive leaking windowpanes in his office overlooking the Indian Ocean. As we all scrambled to gather the computer and contracts and scripts on his desk.
We made some great kids tv shows in that huge, shitty office together.
Disappointingly, cutbacks in quotas for children’s content and the networks having already filled their requirements sealed the fate of “Stormworld” season two and it never happened. I think Great Western Entertainment and my own career would be in a very different place if the second season had been commissioned. It’s a great show. My proudest series television work in post-production, and more specifically, as an editor and a writer.
(Bryan's home office)
Back to the main question - I guess I realized I wanted to be an editor when I started cutting. I mean, I love it.
Editing is a complex blend of all the things I love. It’s writing with pictures. Singing with scoring and track lays. It’s rhythm and performance. Technical and visual challenges with a creative outcome and weight to every frame. Experimentation, compromise and change.
But I’m not just an editor, although it has been my main career for the past 16 or so years.
I write, sing, perform and someday, I hope, will truly inspire.
I mean, I always want to write more but I’ve been blocked from the physical time and prolific need I had for it for about 9 years. I’ve got a couple of awesome projects which I can’t do on my own but I just can’t seem to get it together with them at the moment.
I might act again.
I still sing a lot and write songs. That’s probably what I would go back in time and try to focus more on if I could. The collaboration I had with Nadav – the feeling of it - is something that I really miss. We still communicate occasionally but the music naturally dissipated with distance after I moved first from Melbourne to Adelaide and eventually to Perth. I often wonder what would be different if I’d never left Melbourne. I do tinker on my piano – less now that it’s so out of tune after a lot of moving – and I have written a few songs on it but I don’t really have the chopsticks – sorry - for it.
I wrote a song for my kids a few years back with a friend Jamie Anderson who played guitar, bass and sequenced the drums, we were going to write more but our wives had a disagreement and it ended there.
So if anyone wants to jam, hit me up.
(Bluesical)
Who have been your biggest inspirations when it comes to film?
Bryan – Clearly, and above all, my dad, Ted.
His editing and acting experience and innate knowledge for film making have passed to me and I’ve grown from there. Working with my father, mentor and friend is an experience I feel extremely fortunate to have had at the start of my career.
On “Stormworld” Ted was directing and I was series editing. The difference in the rushes between the directors was marked – and that is a pun so figure it out. It was so clear how Ted was putting the footage together in his head as he directed - the editing equivalent of spreading butter. There was still room to play though and I surprised him – in a good way – with my edits at times.
In 2019 we worked together again briefly in Sydney on “Better Homes and Gardens” and were there together for most of the year as I worked on various reality shows.
It was a bit like old times - but it was it’s own unique experience too.
If you haven’t seen the editing work of Edward McQueen-Mason then you really should try to check out.
Stork
Patrick
Road Games
Alvin Purple & Alvin Rides Again
The Clinic
End Play
Georgia
Wills and Burke
Napoleon
Young Blades
… and the rest.
Outside of my family and filmmakers I don’t personally know there are a few influences in my work.
Some of them are: Hal Hartley, Woody Allen, Groucho Marx and his brothers, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Mel Brookes Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg – Indiana Jones particularly - Monty Python, Joss Whedon and Ben Elton.
What is your favourite Australian film?
Bryan -
Stork.
Adapted from the play by David Williamson and directed by Tim Burstall.
It’s a great film starring:
Bruce Spence
Jacquie Weaver
Graham Blundell
… and a special appearance by Ted in the opening credits.
It was the first feature Ted cut and, as much if not more than anyone, he made it funny.
Smoked Oysters.
Sock footy in the kitchen.
Mushrooms in the basement.
The funeral.
The artist and his guttural creations fantasy scene.
The rebellious and neurotic performance by Bruce Spence as Stork - just awesome.
Sexy Jacquie Weaver…
It’s the reason I chose to go to Monash University to start my unbothered and unfinished Bachelor of Arts.
It’s a fantastic and fun Australian 70s New Wave film.
Do you think that there is enough support for Australian film makers within Australia?
Bryan - No.
I saw a big change in the industry when the tax incentives to invest in film production which were in place in the 80s were revised – a lot less films got made and the industry suffered, Ted got less film gigs. Government policy since that time has generally depleted funds and investment in the arts sector. Despite profitability and cultural benefits. Despite the number of varied and talented people it employs and the art and joy our industry produces it always feels like a struggle to make more of it happen.
We make great film and television with our own unique voices in Australia but it’s hard for producers to get funding and it can be hard being a freelancer too.
The pandemic has been telling of Government interest (and knowledge) in the entertainment industry too by barely recognizing us - proving how little they understand about how freelancers actually survive in the industry. The gig economy is fucked without the gigs.
But there are greater concerns - like keeping people alive and safe.
Can you tell us about what you are currently working on?
Bryan – I’m working on an exciting new ob-doc series. “Dr James and His Bizarre Beasts” produced by Metamorflix (Executive Producer Renee Kennedy) for the Nine Network and STAN with funding from Screenwest, Screen Queensland and Screen Australia.
We’re still in the offline edit at the moment but I really believe it’s fantastic and you should all tune in when it airs.
I am also working on an eight part Noongar Content Series of short videos for the City of Perth as a part of their Visit Perth social media. The series is produced by Karla Hart who I have a lot of respect for and have worked with on a number of productions including “Family Rules” which she produces, shoots, sits for hours in an edit suite with me, and makes happen alongside Renee at Metamorflix.
Oh, and still singing.
What is your favourite genre of film?
Bryan – Anything with humor. I like science-fiction, horror and fantasy too, exploration and wonder. But I prefer it if there’s comedy touches.
What films have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?
Bryan – Trust – a film by Hal Hartley.
Hal Hartley made ‘Trust’ in 1989, and in my opinion, it is the best of the 90s American Indie films. Martin Donovan’s performance against Adrienne Shelly combined with a dry minimal style and the sometimes matter of fact poetics in the dialogue still sounds silent quotes in my head. I’m not sure how many times I watched it in from 17 into my 20s – but it was a lot.
I haven’t seen it for years but without question this film is a classic. It’s hard to find now but there’s just so many great moments, such good arcs, retributions, failures and details in the directing that I never get bored watching it again.
I managed to get Hal Hartley’s autograph at the opening of “Simple Men” – another good movie - in the Kino Cinema in Melbourne where I would go to watch all of the independent films at the time.
I added an overcoat to my everyday wear for many years to replicate the one worn by Martin Donovan in the film. I wore it everywhere. I wore it in the Australian summer. I wore it to a Buffalo Tom – one of my favorite bands – performance and nearly passed out from the heat in the cramped 2nd floor of the Prince of Wales in St Kilda. I can’t remember exactly when I hung it up for good but it was a part of my identity for a long time.
Annie Hall – Woody Allen
Annie Hall is my favorite romantic comedy.
It’s hilarious. It’s silly and full of heart, wit and Woody Allen’s take on reality. I like a lot of his films and his humor. When Nadav and I first started hanging out we had entire conversations in dialogue from Woody Allen’s films; Annie Hall is his best.
The opening monologue - I still know it almost completely by heart.
The scene with the cartoon Disney Queen from Snow White.
The lobsters.
Diane Keaton’s costumes.
Diane Keaton as Annie Hall.
The ending that feels just real.
There is a reason it won an Academy Award.
Notable mentions would be: “Marnie” by Alfred Hitchcock, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”
(From Bluesical)
What is the last film that you watched?
Bryan - Over three nights as I fell asleep… Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell on Netflix.
I generally watch more tv series and play video games when I can.
What has been your favourite project to edit so far?
Bryan - Stormworld. A 26 x half hour science-fiction series co-produced by Great Western Entertainment and 2008 Brightlight Pictures in Canada. It aired on Channel 9 Australia and the Space Channel in Canada, with re-runs on ABC.
I wrote, edited, acted and saw it through to the actual final version (editor joke here) and delivery overseeing the post-production, with Ted and Paul, including VFX from Canada and Singapore and the final grade and mix at Oasis Post in Adelaide.
The show is great and it was the absolute peak of the GWE years.
During the writing I worked with series creators Paul and John Goldsmith - an awesome experience. Especially during the story session for Episode 14. Developing the character of Gundril – introduced in the episode – we were pacing around talking about stilted savage language and Fangeel leather dresses… you had to be there…
I read alongside the Australian auditionees and, as a consequence, was cast as the offscreen voice of Ogee – an intellectually advanced entity represented onscreen by a flashing orange orb.
The shoot started in Perth and we were editing at the office opposite the Indian Ocean on the Stirling Highway in North Fremantle. Our edit suites were right up the back next to the Art Department and furthest from the ocean view.
We packed our Avid systems up and travelled with the shoot to Broome for the six week shoot in the red dirt and rock formations against blue ocean – amazing place.
We then went on to Singapore for two weeks, where I was on set in the jungle keeping my own continuity notes, voicing Ogee and getting hammered by the rain and feasted on by mosquitoes – thankfully no odd fevers or infections to date.
I travelled to Vancouver for the four-week studio shoot. Flying alone from Perth to meet the rest of the crew with two laptops and four drives containing gigabytes of footage in their solid, and heavy, silver casing. On the two brief stops in the journey being forced to open and scan the whole kit to authorities in both Singapore and Seoul.
We were shooting at the Bridge Studios at the same time as “Stargate Atlantis” and the same lot as executive producer Brad Wright. I never had the guts to try to get in and talk to him but I thought about it. I did have a brief chat with David Hewlett, who plays Rodney Mackay on the show, and I watched Jason Mamoa on his skateboard hanging onto the back of the golf buggy with the rest of the main cast on their way to set. The show was officially cancelled while we were shooting – there were a few very sad Wraiths on the lot that day.
On the first day I was set up to edit with my laptop suite in a 2nd floor office overlooking the studio door but I ended up cutting in the studio, wearing headphones, so we could set-up the greenscreen shots to match the location shoots by having the footage handy on my screen as required. While I also continued my role as Ogee, at times performing dialogue in episodes I wrote, in particular my favorite scene, and line of dialogue, in my writing on “Stormworld” in Episode 15 ‘Deep Down.’
In final post my time was split between cutting, VFX approvals, and ADR sessions in Perth based at the GWE offices and finalizing episodes in Adelaide at Oasis Post.
I got to do all the things I loved on that show. It was my life for about two years. My hands are all over it and I’m very proud of it.
(Still from Stormworld Ep 15)
Has the Covid 19 pandemic affected or influenced your work?
Bryan - Yes.
Prior to Covid19 I was working on jobs both in Sydney and WA.
In Sydney I worked on “House Rules” and “Better Homes and Gardens” at Channel 7, and “Changing Rooms,” “MasterChef” and “Survivor” with Endemol Shine Australia.
In Perth I edited on two seasons of “Family Rules” for NITV, produced at Metamorflix by Renee Kennedy and Karla Hart.
And at the end of 2019 I edited two episodes of “Thalu” a kids drama produced by Tyson Mowrin and Robyn Marais at Weerianna Street Media. The shoot and offline edit was based in Roeburn, WA - somewhere I never expected to go and I am grateful that I have seen that part of Australia.
The pandemic meant my Sydney work source was effectively cut off and I lost my position on the recent series of MasterChef due to a scaling-down in the post-production team caused by it. Productions, in general, either slowed or stopped being made entirely.
I went on Centrelink payments for the 2nd time in my life, have drawn from my super and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do next. I watched a lot of YouTube - Covid news and gaming news mostly. I watched all the news. I follow John… a UK content creator and medical commentator and his informative Covid19 reporting. I see countries overwhelmed and Donald Trump destroying America in his latest 4 year reality show as POTUS. I did not see the finale coming at all by the way – just wow. I finally finished the main story of Fallout 4 and got back into a bit of other gaming - I just got an Xbox X with Game Pass and I’ve been playing Forza Horizon a bit. I tried to do a bit of writing. I taught myself how to use After FX and watched YouTube videos on grading and computer gear and assembly.
Overall though Covid 19 has made me feel non-essential in a way that I don’t think will ever leave me.
Finally, in September Karla called me about the Visit Perth project and I had something to work on. I felt alive again and I enjoy putting them together. They’re good. For the first time I’m doing the whole post-process on my own. From the ingest and syncing, edit and sound mix to graphics, grading, captions and final file-based deliverables.
I’ve upgraded my computer, computer screens and cleaned up my edit suite. Setting up my space to work from home. Dusting off the desk I’ve had since I was 11, when we lived in Manor Grove in Melbourne, to be used again.
I’m also working from home on the upcoming ob-doc series from executive producer Renee Kennedy at Metamorflix. The show was initially delayed as a result of Covid and part of the shoot being in Victoria but thankfully we are weeks into the editing now.
I much prefer being in my own space and I get a lot more editing done in an easier and more flexible way - I sometimes work longer hours than I should but it’s worth it.
Covid is screwing all of humanity right now but I’m glad to be where I am here in Perth, WA - and it’s awesome to have work again. I spent so much time prior to the pandemic away from my family that it’s a relief to be with them and not have the option to work away. Our State Government led by Premiere Mark McGowan has handled things well here but we’ve also been lucky. It’s not over yet and I have had to think differently about how and what I can and want to do. Serious thoughts of moving to Sydney permanently aren’t important anymore. I just want to be home here in Perth, Australia. We’re in a lucky position in this chaos. I hope it stays that way.
(Ted and Bryan McQueen-Mason)
Do you try to work to a daily schedule, or do you find you become obsessive and working all hours on projects?
Bryan – I’m definitely obsessive about my work. It’s what makes me.
Feast or famine contributes too.
I’ve never been in a position to turn work down. So I’m often working on several projects at once, dedicating time to them all as required. I work weekends but not public holidays – well the big ones anyway.
I worked 80 plus hours from Monday to Friday for most of the production of “Stormworld” to get it all done. Taking weekends off for sleep and family time.
I generally try to keep to my contracted hours but always do more – sometimes a lot more – and occasionally you have to work through the night to hit a deadline.
I got in trouble working on “House Rules” when I did an all-nighter to try and meet a particularly tight deadline. They actually sent me home – well, back to my crappy rented room nearby - as soon as they heard but by then it was around 3pm anyway.
Whatever my schedule I’m still working in my head even after I turn off the system at the end of the day.
When I work from home I am obsessive. Working until I’ve completed a task, fixed something in the cut or simply until it’s done. My computer doesn’t get turned off very often unless Avid crashes…
Is it harder to get started or to keep going? What was the particular thing that you had to conquer to do either?
Bryan – I don’t have trouble getting started at work or keeping going. I just work. I do take a lot of breaks though. Smoke breaks, coffee breaks, toilet breaks because of the coffee breaks… I make phone calls sometimes. I have to walk away from the machine at regular intervals. You make a lot of decisions when you’re editing and you’re staring at multiple screens packed with lots of information and multiple images. You’re listening to and adjusting dialogue, music and sound effects across 12 or more tracks on a timeline. It’s a lot to manage and you need breaks to problem solve away from it and rest your eyes - but it’s all still ticking over in my head.
(2019 Sydney ASE Awards - Nicholas Dunlop and Bryan McQueen-Mason)
Is editing work a steady form of employment?
Bryan - Keeping going in this industry, particularly after the GWE years, has been a harder journey for me. It can be a real hustle to get jobs and maintain steady employment as a freelancer.
As a freelance television editor in Australia I have worked at Woolworths as a nighttime 2IC in online orders.
I worked as a Yard Hand at Greg’s Meat Transport for almost a year. It felt like longer. My main task was collecting, counting and cleaning the metal hooks used to hang the meat carcasses in the trucks. I had to fill and stack 170 or so eighty kilo tubs of hooks every day. I washed trucks. Hosing off the dust outside and the blood and fat inside the massive cargo trucks. I scrubbed the ceilings, walls, floors of those machines and sprayed down and the wash bay where it all collected afterwards.
The meat hooks were cleaned in large cylindrical metal machines filled with strips of leather which rotated around with the intense noise of grinding, crashing steel. There were some great and some interesting characters there but it was not a fun job. It was so hot in the hook room, and loud, that I feel like I’ve already done my time in hell so there’s no need to send me back there. The place smelled, I smelled. The creases in my hands were always traced with black from the grime which was also always under my nails. It was shit.
So I’ve had a couple of long breaks with little to no editing work but somehow, so far, I always get myself back into it – no Pacino quote.
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life creating film?
Bryan – Creating film has a lot of meanings and different opportunities now. More so than when I started in the industry. You can just make stuff and upload it easily if you want, so creating content that might actually be viewed is something anyone can do. I’ve thought about doing it and the sort of things I could do but haven’t started on anything yet. It’s an interesting area and a different time for film making too. The whole idea of content and streaming and gaming has changed a lot and I think we need to think differently about what creating film means too. Long form series, short run content, webisodes, content creation for the internet, game streaming and shared experiences are all part of the canon now.
Oh, and it’s not film anymore. It’s all mostly files… but calling it file making is dumb and just sucks.
You have to practice and study what you love. Learn from your favorite films and series. Do it all the time and develop with every experience. I learn something with every edit. I make sure to keep my singing voice at it’s best – for what it is - at all times and am continually trying to perfect my performance of favorite songs and compositions; if I let it slide it’ll fade away.
Tenacity is essential. Don’t give up on yourself or your ideas or your role in the process. People in the industry can be harsh - unintentionally or otherwise.
Get involved with people who want to create with you.
Outside of paid jobs editing and writing which are always in conjunction with producers and directors, my most complete creations have come from creative collaborations. From the music I wrote with Louis Richter in high school, the shows and tracks with Nadav and a single song written for my kids with Jamie here in WA.
On contractual series and gig work it’s the deadlines and air dates that demand the completion of an edit and a project. If you want to create film it helps to have someone to bounce ideas off, to share accountability for productivity as well as the actual journey itself. I was lucky because I had that with dad, Ted, in the old days getting started too.
It can be a hard, frustrating road but if it’s what you’re meant to do you’ll know. At some point you’ll just know and you’ll Nike – just do it.
Good luck and if you need an editor give me a call.
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