Film editor's career gets lift
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Tom Elkins of Omaha can't quite believe the good fortune of his new career as a film editor, even though it's 20-plus years in the making.

Believe it. "The Haunting in Connecticut," which opened nationwide Friday, is the first big Hollywood release bearing Elkins' sole credit as editor.

The scary movie, starring Virginia Madsen, charts a family's terrifying, real-life encounter with the supernatural after it moves into a Victorian home. Formerly a funeral parlor, the house has a disturbing history.

Elkins, 44, has been wanting to make movies since he was 8, shooting Super 8 film and editing the pieces together with scissors and tape.

Born and raised in the Minneapolis area, he stumbled into a film career when in college in Washington state. A part-time Godfather's Pizza employee, he made a lampoon training film as a joke, titling it "Pizza Delivery: the Movie."

When Godfather's then-chief executive Herman Cain of Omaha saw the film, he hired Elkins on the spot as his corporate video maker.

That was 1987. Elkins moved to Omaha, married native Suzy Dalton and made Godfather's videos.

In 1995 the two moved to Los Angeles, where she was a nurse and he got in the door of moviemaking as a production assistant. Though the job is low man on the totem pole, he gained valuable contacts while learning about budgeting, equipment and scheduling on the sets of "Payback," "The Big Lebowski," "Gattaca" and other major releases.

When Elkins and his wife decided to have a family, they moved back to Omaha and Godfather's, where Elkins shot television commercials. Daughters Sam, 9, and Abby, 6, attend Mary Our Queen school.

Elkins' editing career began in 2003, and he credits Suzy for unselfish support, since it meant that as he traveled, she would keep the home fires, and the kids, going.

Oscar-winning film editor Mike Hill, who also lives in Omaha, made Elkins an assistant editor on "The Missing," shooting in Santa Fe, N.M. Director Wes Craven's editor, Patrick Lussier, hired him as an assistant on "Red Eye." Lussier later directed "White Noise 2," hiring Elkins again to co-edit his own film. Assistant editor jobs followed on "The Da Vinci Code" and "Wanted."

Gold Circle Films, which made "White Noise 2," hired Elkins to re-edit "The Haunting in Connecticut" last year.

"The film was looking for a fresh perspective," he said. "It was a dream come true for an editor, because they really let me take off the creative gloves on that."

The job took about a year. Elkins did most of the work in Los Angeles.

Look for his mark particularly on two scenes of seances that had been shot in a straightforward, linear way.

"I cut them aggressively and stylized them," he said. "And in a later scene, I made the lights flicker on and off. That gave me the freedom to make the ghost appear to move more unpredictably."

He also added sound, including scary voices provided by his kids over the Internet.

Other scenes shot for one purpose were reimagined into something else to better tell the story. Even frames shot before the director said "action" or after he said "cut" became morsels to improve a scene. Elkins also carefully trimmed gore to gain the film a PG-13 rating rather than an R.

"Editing is a wonderful puzzle," Elkins said. "And the great thing is, there's not just one way to arrange the puzzle."

He logged lots of frequent flier miles shuttling to Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancouver on post-production, while Suzy looked after the family. The payoff was some of the highest audience preview scores for any horror film released by Lion's Gate Films.

Saying goodnight to his kids by webcam isn't the same, though, and Elkins was ready for serious face time with family by the time "The Haunting in Connecticut" wrapped. He's editing his next movie in Omaha. "New Daughter," starring Kevin Costner, has no release date yet.

At least for now the family is anchored in Omaha.

"We ask ourselves about moving," he said. "But it's kind of a great feeling knowing you can get away from Los Angeles. It's big. It's cumbersome. Back in Omaha, you get off the plane, breathe the fresh air, hang with the neighbors. It's nice."

• Contact the writer: 444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com

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