On My Radar: Matt Posey
PS260 editor Matt Posey takes a stroll though the internet K-hole and explains how tinkering with sound drove his passion for editing, as he reveals what's on his creative radar.
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What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?
Maybe I’m a sucker, but I really like the massive posters put up on some LA construction sites for the Apple TV show Silo. They resemble those banners on the wooden barriers around the construction site that advertise the eventual building that will occupy the space. For a split second, they made you think we might get an underground brutalist dystopia, like the Barbican flipped upside down into the earth. Stuff that throws you off balance is really fun for me.
What website(s) do you use most regularly?
After doomsurfing the NY Times, I usually like to cozy up to something nostalgic and familiar, so a stroll through the Internet K-Hole every few days is welcome. The 80s/90s midwest punk/rock/new wave scene is forever immortalised there in all its greasiness. Even though it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, there’s enough there to last a lifetime.
What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought?
Hardware-wise, it would be a new (to me) VCR to replace an older failing one. Software-wise, I was introduced to Miro on a recent music video project by Anthony Ciannamea at Effixx. I’ve had a lot of fun using it to organise some thoughts and edits in a visual, storyboard sort of way. It’s a virtual whiteboard that allows you to place images, text and probably tons of other things in a loose layout that you can move around freely and annotate.
What product could you not live without?
Right now, that would have to be the Logitech MX Vertical mouse. I’ve seen editors using wrist braces, little arm pillows, weird chair props and all kinds of contraptions to mitigate carpal tunnel syndrome. When I started feeling a little wrist pain years ago, I switched to the vertical mouse and have been feeling fine ever since. After you spend the day getting used to it, having your hand a bit more vertical feels natural and allows you to be more precise with your wrist movements than with the flatter mice.
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What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?
I got the chance to see Starring Jerry as Himself at Slamdance, and it was an amazing experience to view it with a gracious audience, and the filmmakers and stars present. The film is funny and heartbreaking and blends reality and fantasy in very unique ways. Above all, though, it’s an experimental film about an elderly immigrant’s experience in the USA, someone twice removed from the prevailing culture, and how he navigates that with and without the help of his family.
What film do you think everyone should have seen?
It’s a very art school answer, but La Jetée, by Chris Marker. The short film is told through a series of black and white still images, a single narration and a tonal kind of ambient music bed. It’s a great example of how to tell a compelling story with so little. And how, specifically, editing can be powerful in leading the viewers’ emotions.
What’s your preferred social media platform?
Instagram is great to see what all your friends and peers are doing, but Are.na has been a great place to get inspired by art and design. It’s a social media platform organised like Pinterest, without the consumerist focus, and it’s really easy to fall down the rabbit hole of cool images and interesting text that are all 'connected' and categorised through this intricate web. And no ads!
What’s your favourite TV show?
It’s gotta be Star Trek: TNG, no question. I like lots of cooler, more recent, or more socially impactful shows but TNG is like a warm blanket of hope and optimism, with aliens and stuff. A close second is the 1970 show U.F.O. The costume design, vehicle design, the 'fab' vibe, and fast cutting - it’s just a pleasure to watch
What’s your favourite podcast?
Lately, I’ve been listening to Here Be Monsters. It’s a highly-produced podcast about 'the unknown'. It usually takes a darker tone with subjects like ghosts, aliens and other spooky-ookies, but sometimes stuff like ancient Roman food recipes or tardigrades.
What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently?
MoMa has an exhibition on now of Ellsworth Kelly’s Sketchbooks. I was inspired by Kelly’s compositions, particularly the RGB series, when I was younger. I have a few printed collections of his work, including some sketches and process pieces, but this exhibition is the first time I’ve seen so many of these drawings together. It’s interesting to see the thought process behind his compositions and how that mirrors what we more quickly do now when we frame images with a computer.
If you could only listen to one music artist from now on, who would it be?
This answer would change every few days but, right now, it would be Pulp [below]. If this was a desert island thing, they have a pretty decent-sized discography and a range of slow/fast and happy/sad/uplifting tracks to keep me going.
If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?
I’m sure every editor would say this, but I think having a chat with the editorial team during pre-production has the potential to fix a lot of problems before they become problems. We all know sets are crazy, and there will always be unforeseen problems, but understanding how the post team will tackle certain aspects of the piece can help production focus their efforts away from areas that could be easy to solve. Similarly, it can help the post team understand the director’s vision so we can hit the ground running as soon as we get the footage.
Who or what has most influenced your career?
My first real attempt at editing anything when I was a kid was specifically sound editing. I would take books on cassette tape, particularly the sci-fi dramatic readings of books with multiple voice actors and sound effects and whatnot, and do tape-to-tape editing in my little boombox to create new stories out of a series of tiny snippets of dialogue and sound effects. I mean, I was a kid, so a lot of it was trying to get them to say the wackiest or most profane thing possible, but it taught me the value of audio in the editing process and how it motivates so much of the pace and tone of the picture. I think sound is just as important - if not more important - than the picture, and I can’t have a rough cut ready until it’s completely sound-designed.
Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know.
I used to make quilts for a living.
