Dear Frank,

It’s been an exciting journey since I started my new job as a trailer editor a year ago. A successful stint of cutting trailers in Sydney has recently put me in the company’s New York office, producing and editing cinema trailers for high-end independents to big studio releases, and the opportunity to work with filmmakers I admire. I owe much of this success to The X-Files.

The X-Files was invaluable in exposing me to much more than learning technical skill, with tools of digital editing accessible right alongside my enjoyment of the show. The X-Files taught me aesthetics. In the feel and flow of music. How what characters are doing can be more important than what they are saying. Being sensitive to story that means more than plot. Artificially creating scale. Above all just comprehending an exceptional showcase of theatricality. Chris Carter said in ‘Inside The X-Files‘ that its fundamental appeal is “interesting stories about interesting characters played by interesting actors,” but it’s more than that. The X-Files is as brilliantly executed as it is crafted. Those first five seasons in particular still jump out of that screen with a craft of tone so enticing even by the best of today’s major motion picture standards.

So when I’m locked in a dark edit suite with an unfinished film, a creative brief and looming deadlines, often I follow my instincts and draw upon the aesthetics I learned from The X-Files. Few films offer raw material for brilliance, but I know I’m getting close when I approach that glimmer of excitement I experienced as a kid with a new installment of The X-Files – when all the lights were turned out, with the HiFi turned way up, and Mulder and Scully’s deadpan delivery booming into my family’s living room (where my parents and brothers knew better than to talk, except during commercials). That was entertainment!

Already I encourage apprentice-like relationships with new cutters who learn creative tricks alongside me, and often I’ll give them the DVD box set of The X-Files. It’s now tax deductible, and the perfect environment for learning my trade that cuts across demographics and genres. We all go to the movies hoping to have our worlds rocked, and welcome the offer or promise of experiencing something intangible. I grew up learning this from The X-Files and I’m learning from it still.

Best regards,

Lyle