Making the Cut: Terilyn A. Shropshire, ACE—The Editing Journey is an Adventure

Terilyn A. Shropshire, ACE, began editing short films and blossomed into a career editing feature films, including Eve's Bayou (1997), Love & Basketball (2000),The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Jumping the Broom (2011), Beyond the Lights (2017) and episodes of the Shots Fired TV limited series (2017).

American Cinema Editors (ACE) awarded Shropshire an Eddie for her editing of the TV crime drama mini-series Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004). In 2002, Shropshire was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy for outstanding editing of video packages for The 74^th Annual Academy Awards.

When Shropshire embarks on any film editing project, she begins by 'watching the script,' and visualizing how she would want to see it as an audience member. She asks herself, 'Is this a story that interests me? Are the characters something I can relate to? Is it a journey I want to go on?' To serve the film properly, she also reviews all of the media at hand so that she is prepared to discuss the creative possibilities with the director.

Shropshire has come to believe that the tools and skills she masters on one film are usually the resources that prove useful to the next journey. She discusses the editor's role in greater detail as a contributing writer for 'Think Point Shoot: Media Ethics, Technology and Global Change,' a new book by Focal Press.