Issac Balachandran talks about his success as a film editor

The films he has worked on — ‘Spring Break Forever’, ‘The Old Man’, ‘Tiger Blanket’ — have been selected for screening at various international film festivals this year

“Although, credit is not visible on the outside, working in this field has its rewards,” says Issac Balachandran, an independent film editor, who has worked in films such as Spring Break Forever (2020), The Old Man (2019), Tiger Blanket (2021).

These films have been selected for screening at a plethora of international film festivals including the Greenwich International Film Festival, New York City Independent Film Festival, Carrboro Film Festival, Venice Shorts film festival, and Joedance Film Festival for his work in picture editing ( The Old Man), sound editing ( Spring Break Forever) and editing ( Tiger Blanket).

At 23, Issac, who is also a supervising sound editor, is proficient in background, dialogues, and picture editing too. Originally from Bengaluru, he studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Speaking on the phone from New York, he says he was always interested in the technical part of filmmaking. “When I was exposed to this side of the film industry, I wanted to know more about it, and the whole auditory experience piqued my interest to take this up.”

Issac says the demand for this field is very high. “If you do not notice the editing in the film, it is a good thing, because that means it was well done.”

Music, says Issac, is one of the most important parts of the whole filmmaking process. “I have composed music for a short film, and I know what role it plays. Music can shape other sounds.”

Talking about his work, he says Movie Night is about a boy’s love for old movies that takes him into the VHS world. “In terms of sound, the process included several layers of dark, eerie backgrounds to fill the space of the VHS world and the demon alterations of the voice of the antagonist. Some of the challenges faced were balancing the demon’s deep voice with similar tones from the sound effects and score.”

Issac says cutting each scene separately is easy because it is like finding the edge pieces of a puzzle and creating the border of the puzzle. “What is difficult is cutting each scene with the entire project in mind because the picture that we create can end up completely different from what was first intended.”