The Australian Screen Editors Guild celebrated its 10th Anniversary in style over the weekend, in an evening of laughter and impromptu performances at its 2006 Award and Accreditation Night.

In front of a packed house at the Vanguard in Sydney, industry legend Nicholas Beauman ASE celebrated winning his first ever editing award, after a forty-six year career, for “Unfolding Florence”. The adoring crowd, including Guest Speaker Anthony Buckley AM and director Gillian Armstrong couldn’t have cheered louder.

Actually, maybe thats not true, the crowd did get pretty raucous when Nick, in his excitement broke into Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" singing "My hands are shaky and my knees are weak I cant seem to stand on my own two feet..."

It was a magical night, and from the start host Emma McCleave, made it clear that the evening was for editors and indeed, in her slightly irreverent opening, marked the importance of the assistant editor too.  Emma introduced Guild President Peter Whitmore ASE who suggested that after 100 years of editing in Australia, it was time to celebrate it with our own awards. Peter then welcomed Anthony Buckley AM who gave an enlightening speech on the difference between cutting and editing. The speech, called "Holding That Extra Beat" was kindly given to the Guild by Anthony to go in the ASE archives. Anthony then helped the guild to honour its new Accreditees.

Five members were honoured in the Guild’s 5th Annual Accreditation Ceremony - all granted the right to use the ASE citation after their name, in recognition of the excellence of their work and career.   The first Accreditee, Andrew Macneil, rocked the house when he included his father in a Banjo Duet after his thank you speech. The song, which he'd written to the tune of the Fats Waller Classic - "Find out what they like" was about the Editor-Producer relationship. The lyrics, which are written in full below, had the crowd both cheering and laughing.

Congratulations to the 2006 Accreditees - Andrew Macneil ASE, Nick Meyers ASE,  Jane St. Vincent Welch ASE,  Tony Stevens ASE and Drew Thompson ASE.

Andrea Lang ASE took to the stage to announce the much-anticipated arrival of the inaugural ASE Awards.  16 members were nominated across 4 categories, with the winners receiving the distinctive bronze elephant statue, and in a wry nod to an old school tradition, each statue came complete with its own, personalised ‘elephant stamp’ - which the award winners ended up wearing on their heads as a mark of their achievement.

The winners of the 2006 ASE Awards for Best Achievement in Editing are:

SHORT FILM - Hayley Lake for "Brother"
TELEVISION DRAMA - Ken Sallows ASE for "The Society Murders"
DOCUMENTARY - Nick Beauman ASE for "Unfolding Florence"
FEATURE DRAMA - Dany Cooper ASE for "Candy"

Hayley Lake, who picked up the first "Elephant Stamp" was justifiably thrilled to be in such elevated company with the likes of Sallows, Beauman and Cooper. All the winners got to strut to the stage to the tune of Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" - Dany Cooper ASE, who won for Neil Armfield's "Candy" sashayed her way down from the balcony and was hand-clapped the entire way.

It was a night of high-energy and excitement and in acknowledging his award, Nick Beauman ASE, stated,  “For my money the ultimate accolade is to be judged and acknowledged by your peers as is the case with the ASE ‘Elephant Stamp’ Awards. All of the award winners and nominees from the inaugural awards should feel justifiably proud as I do, of their achievement. This is as close  as you are ever likely to get to a fair and equitable system, whereby your work can be evaluated and appreciated by people who really are in the know.”

Guild President, Peter Whitmore ASE,  added,  “It’s been an outstanding night for all - and a really important step for the ASE. With the roaring success of the Awards this year, plans are already in train to expand the categories in 2007 to include other genres and further represent the broad skill set and areas of expertise of all our members."

A big thank you to all those members of the Guild who helped to organise our Accreditation and Award event this year - and a big elephant stamp to all the sponsors who supported us. 

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"Find Out What they Like"
Lyrics by Andrew Macneil ASE.

Intro:
I used to worry all the time
Why some producers never called
My career'd been going fine
But one day seemed to stall ...
I'm having no more trouble now
My schedule's full as it can be
Comrades, we can stay employed -
That's if you'll take a tip from me!

Chorus:
Find out what they like
And how they like it
And let 'em have it just that way.
Give 'em what they want
And when they want it
Without a single word to say!

Just use more close-ups
If they say the scene's too wide -
Don't let a long shot
Cause professional sucicide!
Find out what they like
And how they like it
And let 'em have it just that way.

Repeat chorus:
Find out what they like
And how they like it
And let 'em have it just that way.
Separate the storylines -
Or intercut them -
Without a single word to say.
If your assistant's young
With an ambitious streak
You may well find them sitting
In your chair next week!

Find out what they like
And how they like it
And let 'em have it just that way.