Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Hill.
Hi Natalie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the mid-2000s, so when I was in middle school video sharing platforms were in their infancy. Starting when I was around 10 or 11 (and now, to be real), I’d stay up all night falling down the YouTube rabbit hole, watching fan-made tributes and trailers that could both hype me up and make me cry. After playing around with iMovie for a few years, I was able to convince my parents to buy Final Cut Elements 4 for Christmas. I must have made hundreds of videos in secret with shows I was ripping from Pirate Bay and LimeWire, learning from tutorials and other teenage YouTube editors. It’s been so inspiring to see that genre of content take shape on changing platforms over the years and how the younger generation’s style of editing sets a trend that commercials and music videos follow.
After high school, I didn’t have the money or the grades to go to a film school with an editing track, so while taking Pierce Community College classes, I started submitting to online postings for editing jobs. After working for a few years at different startups and internet content companies, I started an on-staff position as an assistant editor at a commercial post house. Getting to assist on high-level productions and be a fly on the wall while different editors worked with clients, was a massive learning experience for me. Editors I’ve worked with have also been hugely supportive by passing off smaller projects to me and recommending me for future work to this day.
Throughout those years, whenever there was a short film, spec commercial, or music video that one of my school friends brought to me, I’d always say yes. Those independent projects have always been my top priority because they gave me the experience I needed to continue to refine my skills creatively and technically, as I built a network of directors that I genuinely love to work with. Currently, I’m freelance and focused mostly on music videos, but I’m drawn to a thought-provoking concept and a joyful team regardless of what kind of project it is.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have always been ups and downs – the job that I quit college to take ended up laying me off six months later before I had the connections and experience to quickly get new work. Years later, when I decided to quit my staff position and go freelance in February of 2020, a month later everything shut down, and all my bookings were canceled. But I’ve learned that the pendulum always seems to swing in the other direction eventually. Right when you’re looking to the sky, asking where the next gig is going to come from, something comes around the corner and keeps you going.
On the flip side, in the past I’ve also said “yes” to too many things at once, jobs where I’ve bitten off more than I can chew and paid the price with a little slice of my sanity. Working on non-union jobs, the schedules can be brutal for the gigs that come with the best paycheck.
The reality of forging a career as an editor is that it takes decades of work to really get good – and then longer still to get the right opportunities that will take your portfolio to the next level. If you look at the careers of people who are at the top of the industry now, there’s almost always a 20+ year history of smaller-scale jobs that precede their current projects. The ability to really listen to the material and understand what it wants to be is the true superpower of editing, and it’s a hard-earned skill. I know it’s going to be a lifelong journey, but the feeling of consistent improvement is a powerful motivator!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My niche has definitely become any project that’s heavily music-driven – trailers, dance films, commercials, video installations – but I really love to work on music videos because those projects are almost always the ones where I feel the most creatively fulfilled. You’ve got so many different avenues to take with style and shot selection, and turning the focus of the cut onto specific beats and instrumentation is always a lot of fun. I’m normally standing up and dancing along to the music while I work, so it always puts me in a joyful and present state of mind while I’m making something. “Venom” by Ghostgun, a music video I cut, got sort listed at Berlin Commercial and the UK Music Video Awards this year, and I’ve also cut videos for Tyler Cole, Mayday Parade, and Hương Tràm that I’m especially proud of. Both of my parents are musicians so it runs in the family!
With that being said, I think people who want to be editors are drawn to it because we love all the different tones and styles of filmmaking. Olivia Gastaldo’s collage-style interview series Show and Tell and the video art installation Ceremony were both long-time passion projects that couldn’t have been more different in format, but I got the same joy from helping create both. A short film I cut, Can We Pretend, was an introspective relational drama that screened at the Coming of Age showing at Hollyshorts 2023. Artists who direct or write often have a specific voice and tone that they tap into, making something identifiably theirs. For editors, there’s not just one genre of movie we want to make or one kind of project we want to work on – I’d love to make a noir heist crime movie just as much as I’d love to work on a blockbuster action trailer. Pigeonholing is probably an editor’s worst enemy. The story is king in whatever medium or genre you’re working in, and the freedom to play in all types of storytelling varieties in my opinion is essential in continuing to improve.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I think if anything is the key to succeeding in a trade job like post-production, it’s recommendations from past clients and crew members. Without a great network of directors, producers, and other editors, it would be impossible to maintain steady work or get in conversations for higher-level projects. In fact, I’m writing this now because of a director’s recommendation (thanks so much Sam Ozeas!)
Directors Olivia Gastaldo and Quinn G. Martin have continuously trusted me with their visions for over ten years, and I wouldn’t be the editor I am today without them. Creative director/photographer Karin Bar started my career when she hired me for my first on-staff editor position and has been a hugely supportive mentor ever since. Editor Stewart Reeves gave me my first feature film opportunity to assist him on the indie horror The Seeding, currently set for limited theatrical + digital release in January 2024. And of course, my assistant for the last few years, Lauren Worona, has been instrumental in helping me juggle multiple jobs at once and ensuring my sanity is intact.
There are dozens of other names I could add – and for that, I am eternally grateful. I’m forever indebted to everyone who has trusted me with their creations; my life’s dreams aren’t possible without you.
Contact Info:
- Website: nataliehilledit.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cutbynatalie/
- Other: Reel: https://vimeo.com/870904278?share=copy
Image Credits
Iman Hadid, Olivia Gastaldo
