ReCON
Toronto
2017
MAY 2017 \\ TORONTO \\ CANADA
EDITORS/DIRECTORS PANEL
SAUL PINCUS
Biography: Born in Montréal, Saul Pincus joined La Femme Nikita in its first season, and went on to assist and collaborate with editors David Thompson and Richard Wells. Saul was also responsible for editing the “previously on” segments, as well as several LFN promotion reels, including the internal promo sent to then-new USA Networks president Barry Diller to acquaint him with the concept, style and highlights of the show. In addition, he compiled and edited the season two wrap reel, which in addition to bloopers featured gags, music, and glimpses of cast and crew on set and off. Blaine Johnson, LFN’s late music supervisor, would often carpool to the production office in Saul’s car, regaling him with stories of bringing up his beloved daughter; Blaine and Saul’s jokey repartee and their mutual love of music for film remains one of Saul’s fondest memories of the LFN experience. Saul remained with LFN until the mid-point of season three, when he left to edit his first feature film solo.
Today, Saul is a Toronto-based editor specializing in shaping long-form entertainment. His foremost collaboration, with veteran director Sidney J. Furie (The Ipcress File, Lady Sings the Blues, Iron Eagle), spans eight films and sixteen years. He is also the editor of Leon Marr's The Second Time Around, featuring Don Francks in his final screen performance.
Appearances may be subject to change due to unforeseen professional or personal commitments.
Recently, Saul co-wrote and directed Nocturne, a multi-award winning feature film about an insomniac who falls in love with a sleepwalker; Nocturne premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival and is now available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and X-Box in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and in 47 other countries around the world.
DAVID THOMPSON
Biography: David B. Thompson’s "La Femme Nikita" history goes back to the very start of the series. After being hired in the fall of 1996 by Jamie Paul Rock and Joel Surnow to edit the pilot (directed by Jon Cassar), he cut 44 episodes over four seasons. Although “LFN" came back for a shortened fifth Season, he was pre booked on another show and unable to return. “LFN" was shot and cut in Toronto, but the editors would fly to LA to fine tune each episode with Joel. The partnerships proved fruitful, and he would continue on with Joel and Jamie, editing the pilot of the long-running hit Fox television series “24", "Mutant X”, "Wild Roses", “Cracked", "The Kennedys" and Joel's feature film, "Small Time”.
David's career started in 1967 at a small TV station “ CKNX “ in Wingham Ontario. In 1973 he moved to Toronto to work at CTV's flagship station CFTO. After a few years he was offered the project "The Littlest Hobo” produced by Simon Christopher Dew (Christopher was the film editor on the original Hobo 1963/64). It would be one of the first times a electronic editor was allowed to edit and present his version of an episode to the director and producers (before this, a film editor would sit with the technician and make the creative decisions). He went on to edit over 60 episodes.
In 1984, he met with producer Sonny Grosso, the former real-life cop portrayed onscreen by Roy Scheider in William Friedkin’s "The French Connection”. Sonny and David edited the pilot "Night Heat", a late night drama for CBS. Before this, Sonny had only edited on film. Although Sonny was warned not to edit electronically he did – only to have the rest of the industry follow over the next few years. Sonny and David went on to edit together from 1984 to 1994, when David left to edit "Due South" with Paul Haggis. In 2006, David went to LA to cut "The Black Donnellys" with Paul.
David continues to edit freelance in Toronto and looks forward to meeting the Nikita fans at ReCon Toronto May 27 and 28, 2017.