For editor Dean Gonzalez, joining Hootenanny editorial is more of a homecoming than a new job. Returning to Chicago after 15 years of high-profile editing in L.A., he reunited with Hootenanny founders Liz Tate and Jim Annerino and producer Don Avila, with whom he had worked with for many years at Avenue Edit, at one time the city’s biggest commercial post house.
They remained friends over the years so when Gonzalez announced his intentions to return home, Hootenanny quickly offered him a permanent berth. “I’m super psyched about Dean joining us. He is a great addition, a real presence and his work speaks for itself,” says Hootenanny producer Avila.
Gonzalez brings back with him L.A. glitz from a wide range of work on big budget national commercials, feature music docs and videos for famous artists and bands that took him on tour with bands throughout the world, and this year, his first feature film.
A Columbia College graduate, Gonzalez worked as a PA on some of the features that filmed here in the mid-‘90s and left in 1996 when he was promised a production job on a network TV show that disappointedly didn’t materialize.
Determined to stay on the West Coast, he contacted a friend, an assistant editor at Avenue Edit in Santa Monica, who helped bring him into the company. “I worked there for six years and that’s where I knew Liz and the guys. We were like a small family.”
Music videos among the highest profile in the business
Leaving Avenue Edit in 2004, Gonzalez, a drummer himself, spent the next four years at Sunset Edit where he hit his stride as an in-demand editor of music videos with such artists Kid Rock, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes, ARCKID and Nicki Minaj (who’s being tapped as an “American Idol” judge).
When Gonzalez opted to freelance (and was represented here by Hootenanny) his music editorial assignments accelerated. He worked with actor Jared Leto, lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter for his rock band, 30 Seconds to Mars. “I had an amazing time with them,” he says. “The band took me on two tours, where I cut two videos.”
He also edited a feature doc, “Green Day: Heart Like a Hand Grenade,” for director John Roecker. His last L.A. feature doc, “Changed: Rascal Flatts,” was released last April.
The dramatic feature, “Between Us,” starring Julia Stiles, that Gonzalez edited for writer/director/producer Dan Mirvish, a cofounder of the Slamdance Film Festival, is set for fall release.
As for a permanent return to Chicago, Gonzalez says, “I’d been traveling a lot on my jobs and realized I didn’t have to live in L.A. any longer. After 15 years in L.A., it felt like this was the right time to come home.”
Gonzalez hasn’t been idle since joining Hootenanny a few weeks ago. His first assignment was editing a package of DeVry University spots for Leo Burnett.
Hootenanny has a staff of nine, including editors Tate, Jeram Sloan and Sean Halversen, Smoke artist Annerino, producer Avila, and assistant editors Annaliese Smith and Hannah Welchel.
