NEWS

Film editor beams with pride at screen awards nomination

Motion picture editor Aden Bahadori loves to butcher film.

The lead hand for EditRoom Inc. flashes a big grin while seated inside his office, a small room located at Redlab Digital, in the Queen and John area of Toronto, after giving a tour of the building he calls his second home.

“You want to cut off all of the excess fat and you want to have this nice, solid cut that you want to present to the barbecue, if you will, which are the producers,” he explains. “That’s what I do: I cut the fat — things that are slow, things that aren’t working.”

The 33-year-old Bathurst and Davenport area resident was beaming in a mid-January interview, shortly after learning he’s been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award.

He’s been in the business for 10 years, having learned his craft from Trailer Park Boys director Warren P. Sonoda, and was excited by the idea that his work on the “Dimwit Dad” episode of reality TV show Meet the Family was nominated for Best Picture Editing in a Comedy/Variety Series.

“I was sitting right here, and I ran over there and high-fived [Rouzbeh Heydari], “Bahadori said. “Yes! We did it!”

Bahadori shares the office with Heydari, another freelance film editor.

He jokes that his email server crashed with the announcement, and the nod came as a bit of a surprise.

“One thing I’ll tell you — Rouzbeh and I — I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, and Rouzbeh just behind me, and we’re the younger kids of editors,” the Iranian-born editor admits. “Usually these kind of awards are a lock for the very senior editors in the city that do the Rookie Blues.”

Still, the honour has given him high praise, especially from his wife, actress Ann Pirvu.

Meet the Family is a reality show that features a girlfriend or boyfriend getting their significant other to meet their fake family.

In the “Dimwit Dad” episode, the father throws sandwiches at an open-faced fan, the brother has rabies and the mother is into graphic crime scenes. The show airs on CTV.

Bahadori was brought in by post-production supervisor Stephanie Fast and director Derek Harvie on a one-episode trial, but he ended up editing for three shows.

“[‘Dimwit Dad’] was solid,” he recounts. “It wasn’t a traditional one.

“It pretty much cut itself. The producer, Derek, came in and he loved it. We tried a few different funny things. I did a fine cut with him, sent it off to the network, which was Rogers. They loved it.”

Next on the butcher’s block for Bahadori is his work on two full-length features, Total Frat Movie (with actor Tom Green) and Jake Joins a Cult. Both are with Sonoda.

“His strategy was to lock me in a room, and make me edit,” Bahadori says, with a chuckle. “Everything I’ve learned from Warren, I pass on to Rouzbeh.

“The secret with this business, on our end, is to get to know good people and stick with them. You will always need people to have your back.”

Canadian Screen Week is Feb. 23 – March 1, with the two-hour live airing of Canadian Screen Awards set for CBC on March 1.