As the level of Canadian production increases in volume and sophistication, the Canadian production and post scene has, like an attractive and sonorous onion, created layers of talent to support every audio and visual requirement.

Rising behind the established stars of the audio production, audio post and post-production sectors, is a field of up-and-coming-talents, the next generation who bring a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to commercial, feature and tv projects.

Many of the rising stars in sound and video editing emerged together with digital technology; with early schooling in traditional film methods, they were present at the rise of nonlinear editing and grew along with digital developments. They bring a variety of artistic experiences and technical acumen to their projects and are now hitting their stride, tackling some high-profile Canadian and u.s.-based projects.

In this report, a sample of some of the ascendant names on the audio and visual firmament discuss some of their recent projects, where they come from, and where they and the industry are going.

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‘If you watch tv commercials these days, it’s amazing what’s on there. It’s really kicking ass.’

It’s kind of comforting to know that even those at the epicenter of digital editing still have a little wonder left in them, still are a little in awe of the capabilities. It makes the rest of us feel less like the Flintstones, still marveling over the wheel.

In the vanguard of nonlinear editing, The Daily Post’s Chris Van Dyke is one of the commercial sharpshooters. He’s been editing in some way, shape or form since 1990, but in the last year or so he’s been making a serious name for himself and his trusty Avid. ‘It could be said that I’m hitting my stride,’ he says, modestly.

‘It’s an amazing time to be in post-production right now because of all the technology. It’s turning these commercials into mini-films.’

Van Dyke comes by his love of the craft honestly. His dad is none other than Archie Van Dyke, also of The Daily Post.

At 28, Chris has been in the industry for 10 years. A summer job after high school as a pa for Rhapsody Pictures (now extinct) turned into a career.

‘I was going to go to film school somewhere, I just didn’t know where. And at the last minute I turned it down because I thought, `I’m the guy hiring all the other pas and I’m 18 years old.’ I turned down school and just kept working.’

When production assisting and production co-ordinating wore thin, Van Dyke had his last hurrah working on a few features before accepting a spot at The Daily Post, then The Editors.

‘I loved production, I thought production was going to be it for me. But I’ve been in edit suites since I was a little kid, and it’s a family thing.’

1990 was still the age of cutting and screening on film, and Van Dyke was assisting his father and Mark Hajek. Looking back, he says having the knowledge of film editing is a bonus.

‘I was in the suite with the editor, sitting next to the editor handing him trims from the trim bin. I was glad I did that, it helped with the whole learning curve when it came to tape editing.’

As a tape editor, Van Dyke did the spectrum – from music videos and footage for concerts to industrials and corporates. There were also psas and he did sequence editing on a couple of short films.

But it was with the onset of nonlinear editing that Van Dyke found his medium, and for the last two years he’s had his hands full: ‘I’ve just been consistently working, and I’m always busy.’

Where some editors born and bred cutting on tape or film might have fallen victim to option paralysis when Avid hit the scene, Van Dyke found the switch to nonlinear fit his creative sensibilities well.

‘As an editor, options were always a big thing for me, and with Avid the options are almost endless. On tape you could maybe cut a few alternates, but the chances of cutting options in the time you had to get the job done were pretty slim. I like to take those extra steps, I like to show clients how I’d like to see the spot move.’

As someone who comes from the collaborative production world, Van Dyke also appreciates how the nonlinear realm has tended to bring more people into what used to be a semi-solitary creative process. ‘It allows everyone in on that process,’ he says, ‘and it allows everybody to understand what post-production’s really all about.

‘When everybody is allowed to stick around and be part of it, they look to put their stamp on it, like a dop would on a music video. And things that are happening in the transfer suites these days are incredible.’

Sometime down the road, Van Dyke says he’d like to make a jump into feature work (‘that’s always been in the back of my mind’), but right now he’s looking forward to big changes in the commercial post world.

‘I’ve always been curious about some of the other machines in town, like Flame and Inferno. They’re high-end digital compositing systems, but there are times, for example, when jobs will go straight into the Flame and the spot will be completely put together without an offline process. So I see a time when everything will be done on one machine. It’s kind of a scary thing, but I think I have something in me that will translate and move with that.’

In the meantime, he’ll be honing his skills for his clients – the likes of Chrysler, Molson and Gatorade – and trying to put a name on the definitive style he’s been told he has.

‘I’ve been told I have my own style, but I don’t think about that much. I just do it. Which is interesting, because I’m really big on style – in design, music, film. But I think right now is a perfect time for me to be in this industry. People are relying a lot on editors, a lot of things sit on the editor’s shoulders in terms of the look and the feel of the spot. And that’s cool with me.’