Cutters Detroit and sister company Moonlink are sharing the unique dual skills of new arrival Jim Talbot, possibly the only combination editor/DP among Detroit production/post companies. His addition brings Cutters Detroit’s editorial staff to five.
Award-winning Talbot, who is considered a very respected and high-end editor, joined the companies two weeks ago after a 21 year Detroit editing career.
“Jim comes to Cutters with such a broad base of creative talent, it’s hard to isolate one thing that makes him a truly valuable creative partner to clients,” notes Cutters executive producer Mary Connolly.
He spent the last 10 years at Griot (now STS-Griot) where he was hired by then VP/general manager Craig Duncan, now Cutters Inc. executive producer. Previously, he worked for Image Express, one of the Motor City’s first big editorial shops and for Blue Highway, the one-time editorial wing of Producers Color Labs.
“Three years ago, Jim had an itch to start shooting and dove into the camera world in an effort to become a director of photography,” says Duncan. “He began training himself as a photographer, a creative area Talbot says he’s loved since he made Super8 movies in high school.
“Life goes on and I got busy,” says Talbot. “I love editing, but in the back of my mind I wanted to get back to shooting. The arrival of DSLRs cameras stirred my passion for photography again. The small format, affordable cameras came were in the right place and right time in my life and I went forward with it.”
Talbot augmented his immersion into 5D cameras with workshops at Still Motion in Toronto, producers of documentaries for CBS, whose work with small format cameras he has long admired.
He owns his own 5D camera, lenses and accessories.
On the photography side of his career, Talbot’s first commercial photography assignment was shooting for Ford via Team Detroit. Then came the University of Michigan’s evergreen “Light Box” branding campaign that runs on every U of M sports event and other assignments.
For almost the past year-and-a-half he has shot and edited 3-minute videos for use on a 13-part web series called “A Day in the Life,” for the Birmingham Public Schools’ website. Last July he spent 10 days in Kenya, Africa shooting fund-raising pieces for Lighthouse Ministries.
On the day after he started with Cutters, Talbot worked with Goodby Silverstein & Partners on a Chevy job.
Moonlink Studios is part of Ringside Creative, which was acquired last year as a joint venture between Chicago’s Cutters Inc. and Detroit’s Steven Wild, formerly of Grace & Wild.
