Who are you?

Scott Simmons was born in rural West Tennessee and didn’t really realize that movies and television programming had to be made by actual people until he went to college. After getting degrees in both Television Production and Graphic Design (though not at the same time) he was in one of the early graduating classes at the Watkins Film School in Nashville, Tennessee. During that time at Watkins he discovered editing. While most of his classmates in film school wanted to be directors, Scott saw real career opportunities in post-production and took a job as an assistant editor after completing film school.

In 1999, Scott took the leap into freelancing. The years of freelancing in a market like Nashville gave him the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects from music videos and live concerts to commercials and television programs, industrial and corporate pieces to documentaries and the occasional narrative film. If you can name it, Scott has probably cut it.

In 2007, he accepted a position as a staff editor at Filmworkers – Nashville and worked there as an editor until returning to the freelance world in 2013. He has worked on projects from artists including Taylor Swift, Kenny Rogers, Kenny Chesney, Ronnie Milsap, Rodney Atkins, Mercy Me and Rhonda Vincent to name a few. Television networks include programming for CMT, Nickelodeon, Great American Country, Speed, HGTV, Gospel Music Channel and ABC Sports.

In 2005 Scott created The Editblog, a blog dedicated to all things editing and post-production which is part of ProVideo Coalition, a website that brings together some of the best writers in the film, video and technology space. He’s contributed to many leading film and video publications on the internet as well as taught editing classes at universities and trade shows around the country. Someday he hopes to edit on a beach with a touch screen device, a wireless hard drive and a Red Stripe.

What do you edit with?

I often get asked that question above. I do not believe the tool should hinder the editor so I am platform agnostic and can edit with any application. I’m equally at home in Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, even doing craft editorial in DaVinci Resolve if need be. I have an edit suite with high-speed internet in midtown Nashville that is convenient for clients as well as a full edit suite at home. I have established workflows for remote editing as well including cloud-based transcription and script-based editing as well as online review and approval. For over a decade I’ve studied, tested and written about creative editorial and post-production technology for the website ProVideo Coalition.

Where is your editing montage reel?

I do not have an editing montage reel as all that really does is show that an editor can cut images to music. I think edits have to be looked at more in context and I have provided a lot of different projects here on this website. The whole site is my reel!

What else have you worked on?

Beyond the clips you can see on these pages here is a long list of other projects I have worked on. You can grab a copy of my resume here as well.

Broadcast Television

TLC’s The Willis Family
Huckabee - TBN
Animal Planet: Road to Puppy Bowl
Mentoring Kings
Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital and heart program broadcast specials
BET’s Black Music Honors
BET’s Stellar Awards
CMT Hot 20 Countdown
CMT’s 40 Sexiest Videos
CMT’s 40 Greatest Done Me Wrong Songs
TNA Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
County Music Across America – Great American Country
Bushnell Outdoors – The Outdoor Network
Dream Builders - HGTV
State of Kentucky Buckle Up Baby campaign (judges choice at Lexington Addy Awards) Commercial spots include Krystal, SERVPRO, Centennial Medical Center, Shoney’s, UT Medical Center, Tennessee Lottery, Kentucky Lottery, Lexington Public Library