Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson (born March 16, 1970) is an American film, commercial, and music video editor who began his career in the early 1990s. Nelson has edited work for an extensive catalog of brands including Starburst, Grey Poupon, Honda, Google, Heinz, and Microsoft, and artists including Rage Against the Machine, Everclear, 311, and Cake. His feature film editing work includes Wild in the Streets (2012), The Bronze (2015) and Pirates of Somalia (2017). Among directors Nelson has worked with are Bryan Buckley, Lance Acord, Guy Ritchie, Jason Reitman, Michael Gracey, Larry Charles, Peter Berg, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Christopher Guest, Roger Spottiswoode, Art Alexakis, Marc Forster, Noam Murro, Craig Gillespie, and Jeff Tremaine.

Jay Nelson
Born	James Hissom Nelson IV (1970-03-16) March 16, 1970 New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Film editor
Years active	1992–present

Life and career

Nelson graduated from college-preparatory school Columbus Academy in Ohio in 1988 and earned a BA from Hamilton College in 1992. He began his film career in 1992 at Los Angeles post-production house, Graying & Balding, where he was introduced to Grass Valley linear editing and exposed to pioneers of the new medium of non-linear digital editing, among whom were Jim Gable, Eric Zumbrunnen, Steve McCorkle, Angus Wall, Robert Duffy, Tom Muldoon, Christopher Willoughby, and James Haygood.

From 1994 to 1995, Nelson worked as a visual effects and editorial assistant at Two Headed Monster in Los Angeles and began his commercial editing career with a Starburst ad featuring Ali Larter and Eric Nies. Nelson’s first music video was for country music artist Brooks & Dunn’s “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” in 1994, and it would be the first of many music videos edited by Nelson from 1995 to 2003 for artists including 311, Blues Traveler, Everclear, Cake, and Hot Hot Heat, among others. In 1997, Nelson edited the public service announcement “This Is Your Brain On Drugs” for Drug-Free America, featuring actress Rachael Leigh Cook wielding a raw egg and a frying pan. In 1999 Nelson joined editorial company Swietlik, which would eventually become Cut+Run in 2003.

In 2000, Nelson edited the short film, “Quantum Project”, the first film created expressly for the internet, and the first stateside film shot on the 60 frames-per-second format by Panasonic. The web short had a budget of 10 million dollars, starred Steven Dorff and John Cleese, and was directed by Oscar-winning production designer Eugenio Zanetti. Though not a widely embraced film, it was the first of its kind and heralded the beginning of a new era in internet content, pre-dating YouTube by 4 years, and advancing the medium toward what would become Netflix.

From 2001-2005 Nelson collaborated with Lucas Donat, of Donat/Wald advertising agency, on the campaign for the online dating company, eHarmony, contributing to the designing of stories and shaping of productions from planning to final execution. In 2002, Nelson was hired as a post-production consultant and editor on the Comedy Central series, “Gerhard Reinke’s Wanderlust”, produced by Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla. He edited 3 episodes of the show and contributed to the rest of the series. Nelson edited the 2005 feature film, Broken, starring Heather Graham and Jeremy Sisto for Focus Features. That same year, he directed the music video for “Time Bomb” by the band, Goldspot.

In 2011, Nelson joined company owners Michelle Eskin and Steve Gandolfi in the re-founding of editorial house, Cut+Run, which was originally founded in London by Steve Gandolfi and Andrew Christie, uniting offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Hong Kong. In 2012, Nelson established an additional office in Austin, Texas. At Cut+Run, Nelson has edited spots for Skechers, Skittles, Dodge, Old Navy, and a vast list of others, many of which have aired during various years at the Super Bowl.

Nelson wrote, executive produced and edited the 2012 film, Wild in the Streets, a documentary directed by Peter Baxter, about the birth of modern football and the current-day town in England that plays the original Pagan form of the game. The film was shot by American cinematographer, Lance Acord. Nelson’s self-produced documentary, The Third Crossing, chronicling Hawaii’s all women paddling team as they rechart an ancient course to a remote village on Maui, premiered at the 2012 Ocean Film Festival in Hawaii. Nelson edited the feature film, The Bronze, which premiered as the opening film of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and Pirates of Somalia, starring Evan Peters and Al Pacino, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Voice-over work

Nelson’s voice has been the voice of TaylorMade golf clubs since the 2003 Masters, as well as the voice of John Deere, Heinz, and Miller Lite beer. Additional voice-over work includes Roundtable Pizza, Popeyes Chicken, Microsoft, Geico, and Southwest Airlines.

Business activities

In 2005, Nelson and business partner, Christie Cash, founded Puakea Ranch on the big island of Hawaii. The ranch is a sustainable alternative to modern hotel travel and features four homes, restored to their original historical state. The eco-friendly retreat has been featured in Sunset Magazine and Frommer’s travel guide.

Awards and nominations

Nelson edited the Microsoft commercial “Really” (2008), which earned him nominations for several awards, including the Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) Best of L.A. award. In 2009, Nelson won the AICE award for visual design for Hyundai’s Super Bowl campaign “Genesis.” Nelson won the 2012 AICP prize for best editing for Grey Poupon's Emmy-nominated commercial, “The Chase, “ which is included in the permanent archive of the MoMA in NYC for advertising excellence and as an example of the state of the arts in editing. Nelson’s editing work was featured in USA Today’s top 5 super bowl spots with Skechers “Mr Quiggly, (2012). Nelson also edited the acclaimed spot, Starburst “Tiny Jet” (2014), which has had an ongoing showing in theaters since its inception, along with Skittles “Settle it” (2015) which aired during the Super Bowl and garnered a Cannes Lion.

Filmography

• Control/Option/Escape (2018)
• Pirates of Somalia (2017)
• The Bronze (2015)
• Wild in the Streets (2012)
• Holy Wars (2010)
• Broken (2006)
• Quantum Project (2000)

Select music videography

• Rage Against the Machine "No Shelter" (1998)
• Agents of Good Roots "Come On (Let Your Blood Come Alive)" (1998)
• Melanie Doane "Adam's Rib" (1998)
• 311 "Transistor" (1997)
• Ben Folds Five "Battle Of Who Could Care Less" (1997)
• Cake "Frank Sinatra" (1997)
• 112 "Cupid" (1997)
• 311 "All Mixed Up" (1996)
• Squirrel Nut Zippers "Put A Lid On It" (1996)

Select commercial list

• Southwest "Mastermind" (2018)
• Infiniti "Conrad's World" (2018)
• Honda "World of Meh" (2018)
• Dodge "School Talk" (2018)
• Northwestern Mutual "Fish Out Of Water" (2017)
• Google "Wifi Hotspot" (2017)
• Quicken Loans "Super Bowl Translator" (2017)
• Heinz "Weiner Stampede" (2016)
• Skittles "Settle It" (2015)
• Starburst "Tiny Jet" (2014)
• Old Navy "Kids Table" (2014)
• Turbo Tax "Love Hurts" (2014)
• Grey Poupon "The Lost Footage" (2013)