Fresh Cut: Matthew Hilber

Meet Matthew Hilber, the newest editor to join the Lucky Day roster — though “newest” doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Matthew has been collaborating with the Lucky Day team as a freelancer for years, and now he’s officially making himself at home.

A Portland native, lifelong musician, former furniture maker, and newly minted youth lacrosse enthusiast, Matthew has collected plenty of interests along the way. But editing has been the throughline since the day he discovered iMovie and decided, almost by accident, that he was hooked.

In this Fresh Cut, we talk about finding your creative voice, why editors sometimes need to be therapists, the importance of taking initiative, learning from your mistakes (including the occasional catastrophic project crash), and why a good edit sometimes comes from knowing when to let someone else lead.

Get to know Matthew below.

What's something that you're always hoping people bring up in conversation?
Matthew: Well, I'm excited to bore the pants off anybody who wants to talk about youth lacrosse. And more specifically women's lacrosse. My daughter plays, I started to get into coaching a little bit this year, just as a way to be more involved. I spend a significant portion of my idle time thinking about lacrosse now.
Kyle: How old is your daughter?
Matthew: I have two daughters. I've got a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old.
Dasha: Two teens in the house. What's that like?
Matthew: So far, it's been great.
Dasha Snow: That's good. I'll ask you again in a couple years.
Matthew: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. Calm before the storm. But, who knows?
Dasha: No, it's going to be great.
Kyle: What’s something you’ve learned from them that blew your mind?
Matthew: Teens certainly keep you up to speed on the latest music and trends, both good and bad. Plus the stuff NOT to do as an adult, too. There's a lot of “Don't do that, Dad...” So, in the Olympics campaign I was working on a few years ago, my daughter, Scarlett, told me about a band she was really into called AJR. I didn't know who they were – they were still on the ascent of getting more popular. And so it was one of those situations where I was like, "Well, let me go listen to some of their stuff." And I ended up finding a track by them that I used in the spot that made it to air. That was a very real world through-line from my 13-year-old who alerted me to something that was happening culturally in the present moment that applied directly to something I was working on at the time. So much of what we do involves current trends and just being up to speed on what people are interested in. And you don't always have all that time to do the research as an adult because you're busy cooking dinner and driving people to practice, you know, plus you have 30 or 40 years of built-in cultural things that you like, too. I still listen to the music that I was listening to when I was their age! So, just to have that little window into what’s current… That's probably one of the best parts about it, and it keeps you young. Funny how that helps with our industry, too.

What was the first fandom that you lost yourself in when you were younger?
Matthew: Well, as a Portland native and child of the 80s, you immediately get inducted into Trailblazers fandom just by virtue of being born within any timeframe nearly related to the championship season (I was born the year after). I had all the posters. So, my whole life growing up was like Blazers, Blazers, Blazers in all of my various households. I took it pretty hard when they lost to the Lakers and then the Bulls in the early 90s.

What is something that you're looking forward to in your personal life?
Matthew: I’m looking forward to spending more quality time with my family these next few years, before the kids go off to college. I'm also looking forward to skiing in Europe with some old college friends this winter!

What is one creative hobby that you have outside of editing?
Matthew: I've been playing music since I was six years old. I can still play the guitar and piano, but I used to play clarinet and saxophone at one point in my life, too.

On Editing

For those who might not know, what does an editor do?
Matthew: In order to edit, I think you need to have a point of view of your own to bring into it. Sometimes you’re working on something that has a script, sometimes there’s no script at all. Sometimes what was shot just is not working. So, as the editor, you need reimagine what it could be. Different projects require different skills, and you need to be able to rely on your instincts. At a surface level, editing distills and condenses the story or narrative that you're trying to tell. Ultimately, it's a collaborative effort. You want to make sure that everybody is seeing what they want at the end of the day – both you and the client. It’s good to feel a bit of personal investment in it, I think that just makes the work better overall.

What is the first thing that you look for when you're starting a new project?
Matthew: Right. Uh the first step for me is just to simply organize everything as much as I can. It helps me absorb everything and become familiar with the footage. It’s like loading my own mental RAM before I get too focused on any one thing in particular (you never solve anything the first day). Through organizing footage with markers and keywords, I can create pathways for myself to efficiently find things later on when I need to work quickly through ideas. You can sometimes lose the creative thread when you’re stuck searching around for something for too long.
Kyle: It's like capturing the spark, right?
Matthew: Yes, totally. I use markers, keywords, etc, so that it's very easy to find it quickly. So I don't lose the thread of or the spark of whatever I'm thinking about by trying to find it. So that first those first few days of organization are probably the most labor intensive, but the most the best use of time later on for how much it saves it saves time later on when you're trying to work quickly through ideas.

What is an editing hill that you'd die on? Got a hot take?
Matthew: Man, every project is so different, you never know which hill you’re climbing when you start a project… I think there's more than one creative voice in this chorus, so sometimes others are going to lead. And as the editor, you don't always have to be the loudest in the room. I'm a very diplomatic person. Sometimes an editor is a therapist in the way that you’re helping make sure the energy is good in the room and maintaining a positive creative environment. That helps move the whole process forward day after day.

What do you think makes a good collaboration between producer and editor?
Matthew: I think it comes down to communication and forethought. Sometimes people tend to be reactive versus proactive, so it’s important to be able to think ahead just a little bit about how a decision that we're making right now might impact us a day from now or a week from now. As an editor, you're not always involved in every conversation and you don't always have the time to stop what you're doing to explain the ramifications or the implications of making certain decisions and choices. Nobody has a crystal ball, but it's nice when you're working with a producer who can anticipate those unique challenges.

How did you get into post and editing?
Matthew: I got into editing because my friend and I wanted to make a movie. We bought a camera with a FireWire out and I knew somebody who had one of the first iMacs that had a FireWire in. That's when I got introduced to iMovie and all it took was a weekend with iMovie to know that I was hooked and this is what I wanted to do. This is all pre-YouTube, pre-internet. It was just like a really organic, natural process of falling in love with it from the very beginning.
Dasha: Did you have any interest in being an editor before that?
Matthew: Not at all, I didn't even know that was a thing you could do. We were naive enough to think all we have to do is film it – and it was only after the very first time we turned on the camera and filmed something where I was like, "Oh, wait, no, we have to… edit this, too. How are we going to do that?"
Dasha: What was the movie you were making?
Matthew: My friend and I were just doing crazy stuff that we thought was funny, and we wanted to show our friends. Needless to say, it didn’t do well on the festival circuit [laughs]. And on top of it, we had, you know, like $10 million worth of music rights locked up in it, too. We did submit it to some festivals, and hopefully we at least amused some screeners.
Kyle: My guess is it’s going to come back and haunt you once you get that Emmy…
Matthew: Yeah, maybe when I run for Senate someone will pop it out, but even then it'll probably just help the campaign at this point.

Was there a project or mentor that shaped your approach early on in your career?
Matthew: I’ve had a few. I used to AE for Peter and Corky at Joint, and I learned a lot from them. But prior to that, editor Chris Jones was one of my first mentors. He would always take the time to explain things to me, but also very much gave me real world experience by encouraging me to just figure it out myself and learn from my mistakes. He’d often give me challenges – like a music edit for example, and say, “Hey, I’m leaving for the night. Make me three music edits with this song and I’ll take a look in the morning and let you know what I think.” That was really helpful in honing my skill. And, of course, sometimes it didn't work out – one time I crashed his whole project and they had to re-digitize everything (this was years ago, when media wasn’t nearly as stable as it is now. You could lose an entire entire project for no other reason than you just happened to be the one sitting there when it happened!).
Kyle: You brought your magnet collection to work that day.
Matthew: Oh my gosh! But seriously, when I was an assistant at Joint, one of my main responsibilities was to turn the computers on before editors Peter and Corky got there because it took like 15 minutes to boot everything up. It wasn't unusual to open it up and be like, “Uh oh, the whole thing's gone. What do we do now?”

If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting out as an editor or an assistant editor, what would it be?
Matthew: Don't wait for somebody to tell you what to do because there will be no shortage of tasks. If you want to become an editor, the only way you can do that is by showing people that you're capable of thinking for yourself. Show that you can take initiative and do it well. As we've moved on to this more remote style workflow, you don't have as much personal interaction with the editor, you don't really have that ability to just observe and learn, like when I was starting out. So you have to kind of take that initiative more on your own. Which is a tough balancing act for an assistant because you still have all the tasks that you're responsible for.

If you were not doing this, what weirdly specific job would you have instead?
Matthew: Well, before I got into editing, I was on a furniture making track. My dad is a woodworker and I was working in his shop making kitchen cabinets and furniture with him right after college, because I didn’t know yet what I wanted to do. I didn't know about editing, or anything in the film/post industry yet. But I learned about editing shortly after that, and I haven’t looked back. I’ve been very lucky in that sense. I certainly haven't wanted to do anything else.

Can you name a film or commercial that you really love and wish that you had been the one to edit it?
Matthew: There's a Miller Light spot from the late 90s called Evil Beaver. It was probably the first commercial that I ever noticed where I was like, "Whoa, that was really awesome." It aired during the 1998 Super Bowl. I remember where I was when I saw it and it's just really stayed with me. I like that spot a lot.

When you're not working, how do you like to recharge?
Matthew: I like to recharge by spending time with family, skiing, tennis, playing music. But the cool part about doing something you're very passionate about as your profession is that I still get joy out of it. Whether it’s the process, or the final outcome, I still find myself really getting in the zone on jobs. It’s an immersive experience for me that I still love.

What's a small everyday thing that makes you feel grounded?
Matthew: Staying grounded has never been my issue, I guess. If anything, it's the opposite – how do you create a sense of loss of control to see what might come of it unexpectedly? I haven't figured that one out yet, but I aspire to it.

On Lucky Day

So, you just joined our roster. What drew you to Lucky Day? What are you excited about?
Matthew: Well, as a freelancer, I've been involved with Lucky Day for five or six years now. It’s just such a great group of people to work with – we work with folks I’ve known for one year, five years, almost 25 years (Corky and I started working together in 2002!). So, the team here spans my entire career. It’s all coming back together at Lucky Day, which is awesome.

What do you think makes Lucky Day a good partner for clients?
Matthew: Whatever the ask is, Lucky Day is going to go above and beyond to make sure that clients get what they're looking for, but also maybe sometimes get what they're not looking for because that's just as important, in my opinion. Like maybe the client didn't know it was possible or that they could even ask for that, but Lucky Day makes it possible.

If you could swap jobs with someone else on the team for a week, who and why?
Matthew: I don't know if I would want to trade because I still like what I do so much. But I would swap jobs with an assistant for a week just to be reminded of what it is to perform that role in this era of editing. I know what it was like when I was an AE. But I think the further you go in your editor journey, the industry changes, technology changes, expectations change... The editor has a responsibility to know how difficult something is before you ask for it, otherwise you might not be working as efficiently or humanely as you could. Things have become much more process-driven with our new style of working. When I was an assistant, it was as easy as finding something on a tape or a CD and digitizing it and just handing it over. Nowadays, you can be asking for motion graphics, masking, roto, the whole works… And if you don’t understand the effort that it takes to pull that off, then you're not being a very responsible partner.
Dasha: Dang, that's a really great answer.

RAPID FIRE

TV show: Currently: Silo, on Apple TV. I read the books. The show is so much better.
Movie: City of God, followed closely by Waiting for Guffman. That was actually the movie that inspired my friend and I to buy a camera and do our own stupid improv movie.
Book/Author: Neal Stephenson. I’ve been rereading a lot of his books. Fantastic storyteller.
Food: Brazilian cheese breads from Trader Joe's.
Restaurant: Bluto’s.
Color: Blue.
Music: I've been really digging Brent Cobb lately.
Favorite place on earth: Doesn’t matter where you are – when you're getting off the ski lift for that first run of the day.

You can check out Matthew's work here 🌟