Post Profile: Jonnie Scarlett

As Jonnie Scarlett – the editor awarded for work such as the BBC’s Rush Hour – celebrates 18 years at The Quarry, he tells Selena Schleh how he turned a lunchtime hobby into a successful career in cutting, and why time, not technology, is an editor’s most powerful tool

Never judge a book by its cover, so goes the old adage. A maxim that works well in a post production context: never judge an editor by his name, or his surroundings. Waiting to meet Jonnie Scarlett – a man with a moniker straight out of Mills & Boone – in The Quarry’s Tardis-like Brewer Street offices, it’s hard to ignore the neon glare of a hot-pink sign: “Sit with one of our young pussy’s [sic] and watch her purr.” It’s something of a surprise, then, that the 46-year-old turns out to be softly-spoken and self-deprecating, decked out in full normcore uniform of white T-shirt, jeans and Converse sneakers.

Yet given Scarlett’s unorthodox early career, perhaps it’s no surprise at all. During his 18-year stint at The Quarry, Scarlett has worked on some of the UK’s most lauded and successful spots, including the BBC’s Rush Hour, Vodafone’s Time Theft and recently Mulberry’s #WinChristmas, but he’s something of a latecomer to the industry. Graduating during the early 90s recession, his first job was a “pretty dull” admin role at the Civil Service. “It was meant to be a summer job, and six years later I was still there,” he shrugs resignedly.

Filing and photocopying didn’t take up all his time, however. Lunch breaks were spent in cafes with a colleague from the seventh floor, writing scripts that they shot and edited on Super8. Those early forays into film led to Scarlett signing up for a part-time course at film school in Kings Cross, which really focused his interest in cutting. “We did a bit of everything – camerawork, editing and directing – shooting on old Arri cameras with 16mm film and editing on Steenbecks,” he recalls. “I realised editing was the thing I loved.”

After handing in his notice at the Civil Service, Scarlett dropped “three or four hundred CVs around Soho”, eventually landing a job at The Quarry, via a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stint at Blue Post. Starting as a runner, he rose swiftly through the ranks, something he attributes to a combination of the company’s small size and strong support from The Quarry’s founder editors, Paul Watts and Bruce Townend, whom he assisted for five years. “Guys starting now might run for nine months, a year, before they’re given anything vaguely editing related. Whereas when I joined, I was loading rushes and cutting showreels straight away,” Scarlett explains. 

As The Quarry’s numbers swelled from four to 18, so did the film count on Scarlett’s own reel. While he admits the transition from assistant to editor is gradual (“No one rings a bell and announces: ‘Right, from here on in you’re an editor,’”), his first real break came with the BBC’s parkour-themed Rush Hour. Shot by Tom Carty, to whom, along with fellow Gorgeous director Chris Palmer, Scarlett owes a “big debt of gratitude”, the spot was only his tenth edit and a baptism of fire. “I’m not sure it would happen these days, but because Paul Watts was booked on another job, Tom suggested I cut it. Luckily for me, it worked,” he says. The result bagged a 2003 silver Creative Circle award, and Scarlett went on to make a name for himself in commercials, broadening his network of directors to include industry greats Andy McLeod, Ivan Bird and Stuart Douglas.

Storytelling and narrative are at the heart of Scarlett’s craft, as reflected in an oeuvre of seamless visual and montage-style work. Yet the job he’s proudest of is the Frédéric Planchon-directed Time Theft for Vodafone, which won him a D&AD Yellow Pencil in 2008. “That was unusual, as it was a film specifically about editing,” he says. “Normally, as an editor, you don’t want people to be aware of the cuts. But for Time Theft, we went as far as printing up the shots, physically standing on them and getting the negative cutter to splice them together, so it would jump in the telecine.”  

The slow editing movement

Clawing back time in a world of tripwire-tight deadlines is a theme close to Scarlett’s heart. After all, this is the man who spent three weeks sifting through 80 hours of sports footage to construct the emotional Sky Goal spot. Asked about how he sees the future of his craft, Scarlett predicts ever-shorter turnaround times, thanks to speedier software. On the subject of tech, the self-dubbed Luddite – who listens to vinyl and “doesn’t do Facebook” – is non-commital about the respective merits of Avid, Final Cut and Premier, in contrast to many editors who swear almost evangelical allegiance to a particular camp.

For Scarlett, the software is “just a tool. Editing is more about considering and mulling stuff over. Often the breakthroughs come when you’re making a cup of tea or having a walk round the block. It’s no coincidence that my best jobs have been when I’ve had the most time,” he muses.

That rationale also underpins his reluctance to visit sets. “Obviously you have to be flexible, but personally I’m not madly keen on it,” he says. “It’s a whole different atmosphere, it’s all about speed. It’s no accident that cutting rooms tend to be more peaceful than a shoot.” 

With an upcoming spot for Barclays, directed by Si & Ad through BBH, as well as a big project for Mercedes in the pipeline, though, he’s unlikely to be slowing down any time soon.