You might say Chris Van Dyke was born into editing. The son of Archie Van Dyke is this year’s Bessie winner for editing.

Chris Van Dyke is one of many following a trail blazed by his father, Daily Post founder Archie, himself a Bessie winner, who is close to his 50th year in the biz, as his son wraps up his first decade as an editor. Van Dyke Sr. is still very active as a freelance editor, while his son is still in the honeymoon phase with Toronto’s School Editing.

Chris Van Dyke says watching his father work in his younger days might have been the catalyst for his career in post-production.

‘I can remember back then it was just film and there was film all over the place,’ says Van Dyke. ‘I went through school knowing I wanted to get into the business but not what I wanted to do.’

Van Dyke was working in production, still trying to find his calling, when he heard about a job opening for an assistant editor at his father’s company and decided to give it a go. His first job, to the best of his recollection, was for Lotto 6/49.

Now he is one of the best-respected commercial editors in the country, and says his career is extremely fulfilling. He parted ways with Relish, a post company he helped found, last September.

‘I felt in order for me to progress as an editor I had to hook up with certain people in town to help me evolve into a better editor, so I went to School because of their reputation, but also because of their work,’ he says.

Van Dyke’s Bessie-winning work is out of TBWAChiatDay for client AGF and production house Steam Films. Titled ‘Teacher’ and ‘Dry Cleaner,’ the spots (directed by Carter & Blitz) were designed to show the drudgery of life as a working stiff. Somewhat ironically, the challenge of editing the spots reminded Van Dyke why he actually enjoys his job.

‘AGF was really the type of job that I love,’ says Van Dyke. ‘[It was] the kind of job where, as an editor, you create something. From the track up, this was a job that allowed me to completely take it from footage in the can right up to a complete spot put together.’

Not to make Van Dyke’s job on the AGF spots sound easy, of course. Quite the contrary, although he speaks about the process as though it was a breeze. He was given the responsibility of editor as well as sound effects/music coordinator for the early cuts of the spots, a challenge he embraced. The effectiveness of the ads was largely dependant on whether Van Dyke could establish a mood of ‘repetition and monotony’ on the spots’ soundtracks.

‘Before I had to start cutting picture I had to cut and create the track from scratch,’ he says. ‘All I had to do was dip into my sound library, and with sound effects and guide music tracks, and come up with the pacing, tempo and rhythm before I could even show the agency how the picture was going to flow.’

After he created a template for the soundtrack, Van Dyke was able to cut the picture. He says neither spot was ‘easier’ to deal with than the other, but he does say ‘Dry Cleaner’ had more scenes to work with.

Lately, Van Dyke has been keeping busy editing spots for McDonald’s (via Cossette) and Molson (through agency Bensimon*Byrne). At a company he is truly comfortable within, Van Dyke is optimistic about his future and place in the industry.

‘I think the big thing right now is concentrating on editing the best commercials,’ he says. ‘My goal over the next five years is to stick with it, but I’m interested in working with great people and on great work, and I know that School and myself over the next 10 years are going to do really well.’