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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For any blossoming talent, perhaps one of the biggest personal and professional moments comes with the opportunity to work on a project involving a veteran who has inspired young careers. Montreal-based picture editor Richard Comeau recently marked a career milestone when he was brought in as an editor on the feature La Comtesse de Baton Rouge from noted Quebec director Marc-Andre Forcier, whose films were fodder for Comeau growing up through the 1960s and ’70s.

Comeau is a Montreal-based freelance editor, working out of Avid facility Montage Metaphore. With a background in short films, documentaries and tv projects, he is now establishing himself in features.

Comeau graduated with a cinema degree from Concordia University and has a background cutting on film. He began editing short films in 1986, concurrently working on sound editing for a variety of long- and short-form projects.

When the Avid nonlinear systems came along, he says they were a natural extension for him.

In 1995 he worked as picture editor on Roger Cantin’s feature La Vengeance de la Femme en Noir from Allegro Films. The transition to digital technology was easy for the computer enthusiast, who had previous experience with computer graphics.

When Avid systems were released, Comeau says there were only three or four machines in Montreal, ‘there for the taking’ for an editor who wished to get in on the technological developments.

Comeau is one of about 20 editors who work out of Metaphore, which houses five Avid systems.

Comeau says the typical time frame for a feature edit is between nine and 12 weeks, and though the pace is fast, he says the Avid system allows for a smooth and organic process and the necessary time to focus on the quality of the edit.

Comeau recently completed Cosmos, an anthology feature from Maxfilms set for release in November, which he says was an intense challenge for an editor.

The film was a collective project shot by Jennifer Ayllen, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, Andre Turpin and Denis Villeneuve, all of whom contributed a separate short film to Cosmos.

The narratives are connected only by the character of a taxi driver, who eventually appears in every tale, and all the stories take place over a 24-hour period.

Comeau says the first cut was made with each of the pictures in order, but the resulting look – a series of short films – prompted his suggestion that the stories be intertwined to make one film instead of collected discrete units.

Editing the films together to create unity yet retain the integrity of each was a challenging exercise, says Comeau. There was to be no ‘cutting for the sake of cutting.’

One of the segments features the slow buildup of tension in the central character, an intense existentialist filmmaker, leading to his eventual explosion. The angst builds as the character goes for an interview at a MuchMusic-type broadcaster, and while he tries in vain to explain his film which deals with issues of time and eternity, his hosts are more concerned about issues like his haircut.

Comeau says indiscriminate cutting would have lessened the effect of the tension in this story, while others would benefit from various degrees of editing. In another segment, two friends drive around rediscovering their innocence while one waits for an appointment to discover the results of his hiv test.

‘It didn’t work in a 16-minute setting,’ says Comeau. ‘You didn’t get the feeling of them loitering around; spread out it worked much better.’

Comeau, who says he plans to work until the seasoned age of 75, says he favors the feature format for the time and effort involved to create exacting results, a luxury not always afforded an editor on tv projects.

He also appreciates commercial work, which he says provides an opportunity to branch out, utilize more visual effects and investigate methods not always exploited in feature work.

Comeau has worked on spots for McDonald’s, Molson Export and Yellow Pages. He says a commercial assignment is like a little recess between pictures and tries to do about 20 per year between long-form projects.