Lifetime achievement for filmmaker

Dartmouth-based filmmaker and editor Alan Collins will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Cinema Editors Association on June 4 in Toronto.

His Hollywood credits include Von Richthofen and Brown and I Escaped from Devils Island. He worked on the Canadian features The Brood, a huge cult classic directed by David Cronenburg and Giant Steps. From 1987- 88 Collins edited the Emmy Award winning TV series De Grassi Junior High.

From 1994 – 2006 he taught film editing at Ryerson University and Centennial College in Toronto. In 2006 Collins moved to Dartmouth.

With his recent documentary work he has made a Dartmouth name for himself.

In 2013 he directed and edited Drowning in Colour: The Art of Wayne Boucher, a film about the life and work of the abstract painter from Annapolis Royal.

Last year Collins wrote, directed and edited Terminal, a film about a day in the life of the main Dartmouth bus terminal.

The 25 minute film was shot in about 24 hours spread over a little more than two days with the blessing and support of Halifax Transit.

Terminal featured original music by drummer/composer Benn Ross, as well as Joel Plaskett’s upbeat song “Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin.’”

Collins received word of the Lifetime Achievement Award through an email.

“I was taken by surprise. I am looking forward to going to Toronto and receiving the award.”

Looking back over his career Collins could name drop, but he doesn’t. Instead he recalls how some people in the film industry have influenced his work. And he talks about how much he enjoys mentoring other editors.

“A way to become a good editor is to work as an assistant editor on a project. Feature films usually have assistants. I would give them straightforward work to do. They would learn. And they would teach me. Editing is like a tradition, handed off from one generation to the next.”

One of his assistant editors in Los Angeles went on to work for Robert Altman, a five time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director. Altman is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in history.

And then there was the assistant who taught me some things Martin Scorsese did in his editing. When I worked with Cronenburg he first insisted I edit a scene 10 times. I thought we would never get to complete the movie that way. But then I got to understand his pacing, his style and what worked for both of us.”

Thelma Schoonmaker is an editor he admires. She has worked with Scorsese for over 40 years. And Collins credits Robert Murch’s book “In the Blink of an Eye” as a great teaching tool.

Canadian editors that he follows: Kimberlee McTaggart and Chris Cooper.

“Editing is about putting the shots together that tell the story. The order can have a huge impact on how the story is told.”

In 2009 Collins was invited to write the foreword to the second edition of The Technique of Film Editing.

To be a good editor you have to have a sense of timing.

“There is a rhythm between the shots. Like a drum beat. You have to know what works and what doesn’t. It becomes like an instinct.”

Collins is the Nova Scotia producer of Relative Happiness, based on the bestselling novel by Lesley Crewe, directed by Deanne Foley, which opens at the Park Lane Cineplex cinema in Halifax on March 20.

Filmed in Nova Scotia and based on the best-selling novel by Lesley Crewe, this film is about Relative Happiness is about a plus-size, feisty 30-year-old Cape Breton bed-and-breakfast owner, who has never received the same romantic attention as her two pretty and conventional sisters. Then one day, the man of her dreams arrives on her doorstep.

In order to get it held over for a second week so that it opens in other Canadian cities, Collins said they need to score a high box office total during the first weekend.

To get your tickets in advance go to www.Cineplex.com/showtimes