1. 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18104
box office: 484.664.3333administration: 484.664.3335
www.muhlenberg.edu/theatreanddance
August 16, 2011
To Whom It May Concern:
It is my great pleasure to recommend Kristen McCusker to you. I worked closely with Kris during the
year she spent at Muhlenberg College, and she impressed me every step of the way with her native
talent, her work ethic, her ever-increasing facility with Final Cut, and with who she is as a person.
I teach an On-Camera Acting class for which I hire two student editors every year. Kris bravely applied
for the position as a first-year student. I will confess that I was nervous going into the interview
process. This is a high-pressure position that demands skill, sophistication and, most importantly, the
ability to work to very strict deadlines. I was concerned that a first year student might not possess the
necessary organizational abilities to handle the job while also juggling her coursework during her first
year of college. Kris eased my anxieties at every turn.
As part of the interview process, Kris sent me some of the short films she made while still a high school
student. They were very good – very polished considering her age and experience and the conditions in
which she made them – and I could see then how strong her eye for visual storytelling was. She would
need to make the adjustment from using Adobe Premiere to working with Final Cut in order to take the
position, but she had some previous Final Cut experience, and she did very well on a little Final Cut test
project that I offered to her. Her eye was good, it was clear she was invested in filmmaking and
working with technology, and she seemed eager for the position. I decided to take a chance and hire
her, and I’m so glad I did.
Most of what my student editors do for me (and for the class they support) is most accurately described
as technical editing: I tell them what I want from the footage we shot, and they use Final Cut to capture
the footage and then cut it up to my specifications. (I should add here that I have set the position up
this way because that’s what my student editors in the past could handle.) Kris did very well with that
type of editing in the first half of the course. She always followed my instructions to the letter, was on
time with her work, and was able to trouble-shoot effectively – one of the best assets any editor can
possess – as she encountered technical difficulties along the way. She also worked hard to become
more familiar and more facile with Final Cut as she went along. It was exciting to work alongside her
during those early months and see how very steep her learning curve was with the software and how
eager she was to continue to explore all that it could do. I always admire people who can ask for help
and grow their skills, and Kris is certainly one of those people.
During the first half of the course, most of the material Kris was editing was either solo actor/audition
material or single camera shoots. It was when we got into multi-camera work and scenes that Kris’s
gifts really began to be apparent. I normally would have handled the multi-camera and scene work the
same way I had been handling the previous material, but the first time we sat down together to edit a
scene, I realized what a truly fantastic eye Kris had for visual storytelling. She was making suggestions
2. 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18104
box office: 484.664.3333administration: 484.664.3335
www.muhlenberg.edu/theatreanddance
and fixing problems in ways that I couldn’t have come up with, and I walked away from that editing
session ready to revamp how I interfaced with her. I knew then that I could trust her to tell the story of
the scene effectively – and very often, with style and grace. I also knew that she was about to make my
life a whole lot easier, which she absolutely did. From that point on, I would send Kris the takes that
featured the performances I was interested in looking at in class – usually a few lines or moments here
and there – and then I would trust her to fill in the rest of the scene with a selection of shots that made
sense and worked together visually.
Kris became my partner in the work rather than a student employee, and I am sure you will have the
same experience in working with her. She possesses a maturity beyond her years, and she is
undoubtedly a true talent as an editor. She’s hardworking, smart, curious, organized, and a joy to be
around. I will miss her dearly both because of what she gave to the work of the class as our editor and
also as a person. Kris and I spent many, many hours editing together, and I discovered through that
process that she’s a lovely young woman.
I was heartbroken to hear that Kris was transferring to NYU, but you all are gaining someone truly
special. She is a talented actress, a gifted filmmaker, and by far the best student editor I’ve ever
worked with. I’m not sure that Kris is even aware yet of how good her eye is. I say if you don’t have a
position for her right now, find one. She is a diamond in the rough, who I predict will blossom into a
true artist with the right nurturing.
I recommend Kris McCusker to you with the greatest enthusiasm. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if
you need additional information.
Yours sincerely,
Holly Cate
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Muhlenberg College
646.319.5594
hcate@muhlenberg.edu
