For the Love of NYC: A Chat with Editor Jen Dean on ConEd’s ‘All Day Everyday’ Campaign

ConEd’s recent campaign is a love letter to NYC and its ability to inspire and amaze, from the company that provides the power to keep it all moving. Behind the scenes was an all-NY team from Code+Theory, Cut+Run, Catch & Release, Pull Studios, Sonic Union and Assembly. We sat down with Cut+Run editor Jen Dean whose love of her city as well as her spirit of collaboration shines through in the project. 

Q> How did the project come to you?

Jen> I had worked with the producer Cori Boudin years back on a fun multi-media campaign and she told her team about me, knowing I could handle experimenting with many layers of footage and graphics.  Because this project consisted of existing footage and stills, the creatives really needed to be convinced I understood how to bring their idea to life. We met on Zoom to go over my thoughts – I was very excited about the opportunity to work on something that needed to be extremely authentic to NYC. Previous NYC projects such as Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, NYTimes, NYC.gov, CFDA Awards were all highlights of my career! And I guess it doesn’t hurt that I have some kind of masochistic drive as an editor to find the emotional thread in a giant pile of footage.  And I had just finished a few jobs where I was finding a lot of my own shots / working with archival producers etc – so I was mentally in that groove!

Q> Since it was built with existing footage and stills, how much of a framework was provided? 

Jen> The agency provided a creative deck for me to go through before that first call. I loved the commercials they referenced –  I could see how each related, with lots of layers / fast edits, but  also remained cohesive and stylized.  At the same time I knew this wasn’t a “design piece” as it still needed to feel real in its representation of the street-level NYC / ConEd community.  They were very open to being aggressive and experimental with the editing style as long as it didn’t feel too pleased with itself or was just about the technique.  I loved this freedom and quickly went to work finding a few references of my own that might compliment their ideas. For me it was my all time favorites: Beastie Boys 'Root Down', A$AP Rocky 'D.M.B' and Rolling Stones 'Criss Cross'.  I watch these videos on repeat.

Q> Describe the workflow and creative collaboration with the client.

Jen> The creatives gave me folders of music ideas and footage from Catch & Release and ConEdison arrived daily. They also really wanted me to just dig in with my own music and footage and show them whatever I wanted on my first pass.  I can’t tell you what an amazing feeling it is to have that kind of support for the first cut.  They weren’t working from a place of fear - they truly wanted to see something exciting that encapsulated all we had talked about.  So I dove right in with my assistant Olivia giving her ideas about graphic elements to build, and truly just wanted to collaborate with her in this experimental “throw it at the wall” phase.  We soon were both digging into our own phones, Vimeo, etc. - I ended up using quite a few of our own shots in the edit. 

Q> Sounds like this project could be described as a labour of love. Do you feel this way and, if so, why?

This could be called a labour of love in the sense that we could seek new footage anywhere within reason and endlessly play with technique. Whether it was layers of footage, clip art, sounds, animation - if you could think of it, you could try it!  The creative director, Nick Francis, is an accomplished musician and it was fantastic working with him hitting every musical note in the edit and is composing the music with Pull’s Mitch Davis. Mitch Is a star! The sound mix was intense and I loved it so much (thank you Steve Rosen!)

For me, the joy of this project was in the collaboration and that really started from that first zoom call. Collaborating on references, footage pulls, music ideas, edit techniques, color (thanks Lez @ Assembly!) - and in the constant push to feel authentic to what it is to be a New Yorker.  When I was the Chair of the AICP Post Awards last year - my speech at MoMA was all about the importance of collaboration in our industry, and I truly meant it! This job was certainly a prime example of that, with the added bonus of the client not changing a frame.