Take 5 with Healing Neen Editor and Producer Thom Stromer

Healing Need premieres Thu Apr 29 at 7pm. Thom produced the film, with Laura Cain. We kick off the screening with a live set from Caleb Stine (who also scored the flim.)

1. What’s the last movie you loved and what was the last movie you hated?

Last movie Loved: “We Live in Public” directed by Ondi Timoner. Chaos, ego, drugs, sex, guns, voyeurism, technology…what’s not to love?

Last Movie Hated: “Seven Signs” directed by J.D. Wilkes. For the record: I LOVE J.D.WILKES as lead singer for Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers… However, I feel his skills as a Director are severely lacking particularly in terms of Directing in the edit room. He stated that “Seven Signs” would be a response to “Searching for the wrong eyed Jesus” which was a documentary that I truly loved so my expectations were really high.

“Seven Signs” was ok but it completely fell apart in the final 10 mins. He slapped together a hokey montage with Slim Cessna’s Auto Club in the background that tied nothing together and served as an amateur attempt at finishing a film. It felt like a dick tease.

2. What’s your guilty pleasure movie or TV show?
My wife Carolyn got me into “Project Runway”. I love our heated discussions about the designs and the personalities and also we discuss how the show is edited.
I enjoy watching the designers at crunch time. It reminds me of the rush of pulling things out of your ass in the last seconds of an edit session just before a crushing deadline.

3. How’d you get into filmmaking?
I wanted to be an audio engineer. I went to school for that and video. I found out I suck at audio engineering. I pivoted to video. End of story.

4. What’s your fave piece of gear?
It sounds lazy but if you are an editor you will understand - my chair.

Due to the fact of how many hours I am in a chair editing, I need a chair that comforts and cradles my buttocks but helps keep my posture straight.

I also need a chair in which I can thrash around, bounce up and down, and spin while screaming. I go into spastic fits and roll about the room throwing myself into walls muttering obscenities and trying to make myself dizzy. It helps break up the day and I find glimmers of insight in those fits.


5. What’s the one thing you’d warn a new filmmaker NOT to do on their first film?

Well, It is the MOST difficult thing to do as a new OR experienced filmmaker. That is - NOT DOING TOO MANY JOBS AT ONCE.

We all are control freaks, we all have vision, we all want perfection But you can’t do it all by yourself. You need to let go of your ego and find other people more qualified to handle the big jobs you aren’t good at. You need to focus on one or two of your strongest skills and hand off the rest.

www.healingneen.com

Edit Demo April 2010 from Thom Stromer on Vimeo.