Meet Ric Thomas of Buddha Jones in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ric Thomas.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Ric. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It’s been a long road getting to the point where I’m a trailer editor working in Hollywood! I’d always edited, splicing together 8mm film when I was a kid and cutting from camcorder to VHS in my teens – but I never thought it could be my career. I grew up in the UK and after a college degree in theatre, I found myself in London looking for any entry-level job in post-production. Luckily a friend of mine worked at a trailer house and they had a tape operator job there. After six months of making tea for all the editors, working hard and learning as much as I could, I started editing and haven’t looked back.

I’m so lucky that I ended up in this industry. Before I got into it I assumed that the directors and producers of the films made their own trailers but when I found out it was a separate industry it made total sense. We have to take such liberties with the material to get it to the short form that the filmmakers would be too close to the material. After 12 years working on campaigns for all the major studios, between London, New York and LA I made a more permanent move to the West Coast – and that’s where I am now, working at Buddha Jones in Hollywood!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This job is never smooth! You’re constantly balancing the needs of the client with finding interesting ways to represent the film in the short form, and ultimately persuade people into the theaters – or to tune in at home. Sometimes though you get that perfect bit of alchemy and everything comes together to make a piece that is truly an art form to itself. It sells the film or show but also exists on its own merits. It was hard moving from the UK, becoming a small fish in a big pond. Even though ours is a small industry, there’s a lot of talent here and that can be intimidating. Ultimately though it has made me raise my game, and it’s very creatively satisfying to be surrounded by so much talent.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
I work for Buddha Jones who is an amazing trailer house with a fantastic reputation and culture. They are known primarily for horror and have some of the best horror editors in the business. I work a lot on comedy and animation but have definitely come up as versatile in my career, so I enjoy all genres. Coming from the UK I have worked a lot in international marketing which is a totally different market to the USA, and I like to think I bring that more global approach to my creative work. I’m also a massive trailer geek and love this industry so I have a podcast, The Cutdown, where I talk about trailers and marketing from an editor’s perspective. A lot of reviews of trailers look through to the film and we try to focus on the editorial itself.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
As an editor, you have to be creative, both in terms of style and in storytelling. You also have to have a thick skin. 90% of the work we do is never seen as you have to keep revising and adapting and there’s a lot of competition to get to the finished trailer. The future of trailers is ever-changing. People are constantly trying to innovate and do something that’s never been seen before. The moment you anticipate that joke or scare or cliche it loses its impact. Also, technology has made huge differences.

The way people are trailers is moving to digital and the industry has changed to reflect that. Ultimately though what we’re trying to do is find the best way to represent the entertainment in the short form.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.ricthomaseditor.com
• Twitter: @ricthomas

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