#410 - Cut/daily Meets... Editor Melissa Kent

Great editors shape their creativity to the project at hand.

Editor Melissa Kent's eclectic range of credits demonstrates this ability by the metric ton.

She has cut everything from the R-rated Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt to the diametrically opposed teen-friendly sequel, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2.

Over the past three decades of her career, Melissa has collaborated on both features and TV with an interesting mix of directors, including:

• The Rainmaker (Francis Ford Coppola, co-editor, 1997)
• The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999)
• American Pastoral (Ewan McGreggor, 2016)
• The Intruder (Deon Taylor, 2019)
• Música (Rudy Mancuso, 2024)

She shares vital career-sustaining wisdom from those experiences in her answers below. Yet my favourite takeaway from everything Melissa had to share?

Making two key-stroke shortcuts into single button presses.
Half the work, double the speed!

(I don't know why I haven't thought to do this yet.)

You can follow Melissa on Instagram at @melissa.kent.1 and check out her portfolio site at melissakent.com.