Post-Production

Back in March of 2016 an editor friend told me about a job that no one seem to want to take. It was to be the lead editor on the "Megyn Kelly Special" on Fox. I called up the production office and made an appointment to meet Bill Geddie the Executive Producer (creator of "The View"). Well, we met and after hearing about all the other editors that turned down the gig I said, "Let's do this thing! Let's put this show together!" He said, "You're hired". The rest is history. Megyn lKelly's last major project featuring Donald Trump, Michael Douglas, Laverne Cox and Robert Shapiro was completed in late May 2016 and the rest really is history!

At various times during the 1990s, AMI has edited and provided post-production supervision for HBO's highest-rated series, "Real Sex."

The shows are entertaining forays into the sexual lives and sexual cultures of peoples from around the world.

Executive Producer Sheila Nevins guides this successful series with an eye for what is provocative and flair for what is exciting.

It’s rare it be part of a definitive ground breaking project. The unique opportunity to both observe and be a critical component in the process of making an important film (and ultimately a franchise). And like any powerful and provocative document to the times there are always intrigues to recount and interesting stories to tell. Such is the case with Brent Owens’s film “Hookers at the Point”. We are sorry that the clip has been taken down. Brent Owens has been missing since and out of contact with us since the start of the Covid -19 Pandemic. Hopefully, he is hiding out somewhere safe and pleasant on the planet. 

Brent is perhaps the most important client and friend that American Montage ever had. I remember him coming to the original American Montage (Video Deal) office at 91 Second Avenue back in 1985. Brent always knew what he was doing. Sometime after working together on commercials and music videos around 1987 Brent asked me if I could help him by editing footage he had been shooting of prostitutes in the Hunt’s Point ho stroll in the Bronx. He had shot 16mm and 3/4” with his collaborator Bobby Shepherd. The footage was remarkable. The interviews powerful, gut-wrenching and beautiful.

Over the next eight years for little or no money I would take the tapes film in the light of the late night street lamps and headlights and the early morning sunrise and dutifully weave them into the next rough-cut. The next version of what would eventually become “Hooker’s at the Point”.

Character like Jazz, Angel, Babyface, Miriam and Brandy would flash across the frame telling the sad, funny, sexual and compelling survivor stories. It was not unlike listening to combat veterans that talk about a war. Except this was a war that never ended.

All of this was done on a SONY Rm-440 hooked up to 3/4” 5000 series U-matic VTRs. Both Brent and I thought that the natural home for this film was HBO. At the time HBO’s documentary department had the place. They had the budgets. They had the vision. It was before Michael Moore, Errol Morris and Morgan Spurlock had truly blown the roof off of the documentary box office.

Back in the early 90’s I had done quite a bit of work for Sheila Nevins at HBO, mostly editing and post-producing Real Sex episodes and programs. I had a sense of what she was looking for. What piqued her interest? The goal was to get a 55-minute cut to her sometime in the summer of 1995. Brent and I worked hard to bring the stories and atmosphere of these girls and their world to the screen. Brent would bring in Bobby Shepherd and another good friend Sam Pollard his to screening sessions where their sound advice would be incorporated into the each edit.

When the time came for Brent show the cut to Sheila I had no doubt that she would go for it. It was everything she craved, socially and politically provocative and sexually exploitative with hint of anti-male perspective. Indeed, after screening the film Sheila told Bent it was like watching an archeological dig that revealed a new sub culture. She offered Brent a sizable sum of money on the following conditions:
Replace me as editor (apparently because I was too independent).
Make himself a character with a first person voice over.
Remove any character that managed to leave the world of prostitution (Miriam).

Brent accepted these conditions. The program and subsequent episodes became part of the "America Undercover" series where it lives on today.

We are sorry that the clip has been taken down. Brent Owens has been missing since and out of contact with us since the start of the Covid -19 Pandemic. Hopefully, he is hiding out somewhere safe and pleasant on the planet. 

Director and Producer Brent Owens was one of AMI's original clients way back in 1985.

So, it was with great pleasure that we accepted the challenge of taking the extremely popular documentary on HBO from a 60-minute version to a feature-length film.

The process of going into an already well-made film and revising it can be fraught with difficulties. Fortunately, that was not the case with this cut. New footage and interviews were smoothly incorporated into the piece. The results make for a powerful film.

"Pimps Up Ho's Down:The Directors Cut" must be seen to be believed.

Take one notorious horror movie director, add a generous helping of John Waters as host, liberally stir in copious amounts of spousal homicide, cook for thirty minutes and serve: Till Death Do Us Part.

The creator of the series, Jeff Lieberman, is an old school horror director who’s career started with the cult classic “Squirm” and most recently was responsible for “Satan’s Little Helper”. Jeff has a feel for this marital bliss turned bloody mess subject matter.

An original pilot for Court TV, the series is hosted by the one and only John Waters.

Cast as the “Groom Reaper”, Waters introduces and narrates this doomed romance from start to finish. The series focuses on actual murder cases that have occurred between once beloved married couples, dramatizing real-life characters from wedding to sentencing.

Jeff Lieberman notes, “You see all these one sided lovey-dovey drama’s on television and I’m sick of it. It’s such an inaccurate picture of what marriage is really like so I decided people ought to know what holy matrimony can actually lead to…hence Till Death Do Us Part.”

Jeff went to the School of Visual Arts just like the editor and post-production consultant on this piece, Eric Marciano of American Montage, Inc.  Marciano notes,“I had worked with Jeff before and have a good sense of what he’s looking to do with a scene. He had to work fast and he and cinematographer Igor Sunara managed to pull off great coverage which always makes the editor’s life easier. Also, the lighting was great and the High Definition look exceptional”.

It was crunch time and in order to get the green light for a series Jeff needed to have the  pilot finished in a speedy and stylish fashion.  Jeff knew Eric could deliver. “All the years of film making do come in handy when you’re under the gun.”

The series has been approved and has moved production to Toronto.

Till Death Do Us Part is due to be aired on Court TV sometime in the near future.

The 1990s began with AMI's work on a special television series on the history of African-Americans called "In Search of the Dream," for the Arts & Entertainment Network.

This six-hour program chronicled the life of host Haskell Ward amidst the events and history of African-Americans from the 1940s to the 1980s.

This insightful and informative series was nominated for a Cable Ace Award (now part of the Emmys).

Punk Rock Angel Girl an animated pilot for a show conceived by the musical artist Jewel. It’s the story of a band, fronted by Punk Rock Angel Girl. The band plays super hip music and fights nasty robots that work for an evil corporation.

The two-minute show is for Nickelodeon and features Jewel’s voice (especially her yodeling) and of course her music.

The show was animated in Flash by director JP Dillard and his company Funkmation and produced by Nikon Kwayntu, from Kali Raw Productions.

They desperately needed a facility that could stylishly take their excellent work another notch at the right price. This included After Effects, Compositing and Sound Design. They found their post-production home at American Montage, Inc.

AMI’s ability to produce on time and on budget, not to mention their history with animation made this a perfect fit. The pilot highlights the outstanding special FX and post-production work from American Montage’s Joe Piazzo and Eric Marciano as well as sound design by product msd.

The pilot will be aired on the web and for broadcast on Nickelodeon in Fall, 2006.

During every segment of "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street there is a section devoted to explaining an idea or concept to young children. It happens on a television set that magically appears just when Elmo wonders how something came to be or how something works. This is how the Baby Channel, Farm Channel, Hair Channel and many others came to be.

These humorous and engaging segments are the work of animation maestro Joe Ahlbum of Ahlbum Animation. Joe comes to American Montage with Andrea Martin's hilarious voice over tracks. AMI then test edit the storyboards, edits the sound if necessary, adjusts the pencil test into synchronization, and completes the post-production. When it's perfect, it's sent to Children's Television Workshop to be broadcast around the world.