For Michelle Czukar, editor at Toronto post house Panic & Bob Editing, the most important thing an editor can bring to a spot is a fresh perspective. She says that although editors are sometimes involved in a spot from beginning to end, coming in towards the end of the process can be an advantage because the editor can look at the spot with a new set of eyes and contribute something really innovative.

Czukar certainly nailed it with ‘Anthem’ for BMW’s Mini Cooper. For her edgy cutting, Czukar has been recognized in the best editing category, adding to Mini’s list of Top Spots honors, which also include best spot overall and top sound design.

‘Anthem’ was produced by untitled through Toronto agency Taxi.

The spot has none of the slow pans over the shape of the car or wide shots of it speeding off into the distance that viewers have come to expect from car commercials. Rather it uses quick cuts, visual montages and an engaging array of disparate images to convey the central themes of swiftness and efficiency. ‘It was good fun to work on a car spot that wasn’t typically a car piece,’ says Czukar. ‘That’s what made it stand out.’

Czukar started her career editing music videos at Revolver Films in the early ’90s as an assistant to Mark Hajek, who is now at Toronto’s Stealing Time. Within a year at Revolver, Czukar graduated to full editor and soon after started editing spots. She left Revolver about two years after it was purchased by The Partners’ Film Company, joining Panic & Bob in its second year.

Czukar says editing ‘Anthem’ was unique partially because she was able to collaborate closely with director Curtis Wehrfritz, whom she worked with at Revolver. On some spots Czukar isn’t given the time to bring as much creative input as she would like, but on ‘Anthem’ she says there was time for experimentation.

‘We tried it lots of different ways,’ she says. ‘In the beginning we knew we were going to use the countdown with the fire crackers at the beginning and the car at the end, but everything in between was still uncertain.’

The spot posed challenges not because it was F/X-heavy, but rather because Czukar hadn’t worked with animation and special F/X directors Craig Small and Patrick Fay of Toronto house Swagger before. But with a little back and forth between editing and F/X, they were able to make it work.