Making the cut with Jack Hutchings

Over the course of his career Jack Hutchings has won a stack of Cannes gold, silver, bronze and Titanium Lions, plus Clios and D&ADs, as well as a Palm D’Or for short film Cracker Bag in 2003, and work on feature films including 2021’s The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, and Selma Hayak. 

Hutchings, now in his later 40s, is a well-seasoned pro, whose first reel was on a VHS cassette, drawn from Super-8 shoots, and his first job was a music video for a band called Magic Dirt, directed by Glendyn Ivin at Exit Films, with Greig Fraser behind the camera – both of whom he would work with again. 

It’s about listening, being playful with material, trying to not let one’s ego get in the road.

He’d learnt to load cameras and cut film on linear editing suites while studying a one-year Technical and Further Education film course. With a skater friend, he bought an Avid editing suite and set up a tiny production company on the back of a loan. “We made anything and everything to try and pay it off, and learnt to use the edit suite while doing so” Hutchings says. 

His early steps as an editor saw him drawing on favourite films – the likes of Two Lane Blacktop, Lost Highway, Donnie Darko, Chopper, as well as skater shorts – and shadowing editor Martin Connor at Film Victoria while cutting a heist drama starring Guy Pearce. “The film wasn’t super-interesting,” he recalls, “but the process of making it was just so fascinating, and I got to be close to the creating of it, and it was a very generous experience for me.”  

Other mentors in the art of finessing the cut included ‘Australian editing royalty’ Alexandre De Franceschi. “He had edit suites in Sydney called Guillotine, and had cut films I’d really loved, and he would talk about his process and work,” recalls Hutchings, “and it was really lovely to connect and talk to someone experienced while working at their facility.”  

Take ideas from anywhere.

 In 2007, Hutchings set up The Butchery in a Victorian house in west Melbourne, and settled down in what he calls “a quirky knockabout home for almost 13 years”, defining it as a place that helped people to grow into their careers just as they helped The Butchery grow. There, he grabbed a good deal of the ropes you need to climb up in the industry, and by 2017, had joined forces with The Editors. 

These days, with campaigns for big brands like Carlton Draught, Honda, Ikea, and Virgin under his belt, and award-winning work such as World Wildlife Fund’s Space Monkey directed by Steve Rogers, Schweppes Burst by Garth Davis, Sky Murmuration by Steve Ayson, and Boots Summer Rush by Garth Davis (now part of the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York), he’s well placed to offer a few pointers on the attributes of a great editor. 

I haven’t had a bad experience with a director for decades.

“It’s about listening, being playful with material, trying to not let one’s ego get in the road,” explains Hutchings. “Being able to talk to anyone, patience, knowing how to tell a story, being quiet when appropriate, being loud when appropriate, timing, knowledge of screen and cinema conventions and when to use them, and equally when to break them.” 

These days he’s focused on commercials more than longer form work, but doesn’t see big differences in the ways he works on different editing jobs; whatever the length, it’s all about the quality and to get the quality, there are steps you must take. “Try to get people interested” Hutchings says. “Make it entertaining. Put the best stuff in. End it well. Go for laughs, or pathos, keep the tone right. Get the performances right. Fine tune each line. Try every note, however far fetched – it might unlock something. Take ideas from anywhere. Try to be a good person. Take breaks. Go for a walk, talk about it. Investigate every niggle, or fleeting half-thought you have… it’s often very helpful.”