Call it serendipity or maybe just good timing that brings award-winning superstar editor/director Chris Hafner to Chicago.
When Hafner, who had been editing for Detroit’s Ringside Editorial since 2006, expressed his desire to move to Chicago, he was unaware that Ringside was in the process of being acquired by Cutters and Steven Wild, formerly with Grace & Wild.
“As soon as we heard about Chris’ intention to move, we immediately said to him, ‘Come with us,’” says Cutters’ founder/president Tim McGuire.
On Tuesday, Hafner, 41, who made his bones as a director/editor of music videos for chart-topping artists – starting with Ozzie Osbourne when he was still in college – embarks on the latest chapter of his career.
He will be Cutters’ lucky 13th editor and also will direct for Cutters’ production affiliate, Dictionary Films.
“I loved Ringside and everyone there, and the best part is, I’m still part of it. But I was interested in getting to Chicago. My energy is already up ten times,” says the native Californian.
Hafner has been editing and directing even before he graduated in 1993 from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He had been interning at New York’s RVI Post when he was assigned to go on tour with rock star Osbourne and edit the 35mm longform rockumentary, Live and Loud and also direct the piece for Prong, Osbourne’s opening act.
This job took him back to L.A. in 1996, where his reputation spread and he went non-stop directing and editing music videos for artists like Tommy Lee’s Methods of Mayhem (“a monster shoot”), Gwen Stefani and No Doubt (“shot her on the beach in California”), R&B singer Tamia, with rappers Snoop Dogg and Warren G (“and many others”), Third Eye and Smashmouth, among others.
Since he’d been directing music videos and editing them at different post houses all over L.A., Hafner set up his own editorial shop, Brass Knuckles, “directing bigger and bigger artists and editing, going back-and-forth.
“There was a time when I couldn’t turn on TV and see a music video I hadn’t cut or directed,” Hafner says.
Then commercial work started pouring in, for advertisers like Microsoft, Gap Khaki, Best Buy, Heineken, McDonald’s, Bud Light, Target and Mazda.
One of his clients was Kurt Kulas, then Doner/Detroit’s production manager and now Campbell-Ewald’s director of integrated production, who designated Hafner as Mazda’s editor-of-choice.
Says Kulas of Hafner’s skills: “There’s always that one person you know you can count on when the project is going to be an absolute beast. Chris is that person. He doesn’t avoid the tough stuff. Instead he jumps in and then surprises the hell out of you.”
Hafner moves to Detroit to edit for Ringside
With Hafner commuting back-and-forth to Detroit, Kulas suggested that he seriously consider relocating to Detroit and talk to some people to see what was available. The idea was appealing as it would bring the Hafners to the Midwest and closer to his wife’s family.
One of the people Hafner talked to in Detroit was Doug Cheek, who at the time was running a full-service post house called GTN. “We hit it off,” recalls Hafner. “In 2006, I joined the company and to make it really cool, I changed the editorial’s side to Ringside,” which became the company name when Cheek bought GTN shortly thereafter.
Automobiles and automotive products dominated Hafner’s client list for the next five years, although he kept his hand in music videos by directing local acts. He’s currently directing and editing five videos for Wayne State College’s internal use.
McGuire views Hafner’s move to Chicago as expansive for the company and its new hire. “Chris’ current clients aren’t losing their ‘go to’ editor, and clients in Chicago will gain a new creative partner, says Cutters founder/president Tim McGuire. “And we’re pleased that we’re going to bring him back to L.A. under the Cutters brand.”
Cutters is located at 515 N. State; phone, 312/644-2500.
