Full Sail Stories

Being nice on the internet pays off – just ask Chancler Haynes. The Full Sail grad recently won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing for Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” video, but he got his foot in the industry door by going online and complimenting Torque, the first film from seasoned music video director Joseph Kahn. His comments laid the foundation for a long professional relationship with Joseph, which helped Chancler work his way up to his current role as a Film Editor at high-end editorial house Cosmo Street.

Connecting with Joseph Kahn

Chancler saw Torque when he was studying film at Full Sail. He went online to IMDB to learn more about it and discovered that people were bashing the movie.

“Torque was visually the best thing I'd ever seen,” Chancler says. “I was on the IMDB message boards just telling off everybody who didn't like it. Apparently, Joseph was reading all of that. A couple of years later after I graduated from Full Sail, I found him on MySpace, and I just sent him a nice little note saying, ‘Hey, I'm a big fan, love your work.’ He remembered me from my IMDB comments, and we became friends online.”

That connection was a big deal – Joseph has directed more than 180 music videos from the ‘90s to today, including Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” Eminem’s “Without Me,” “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by the Backstreet Boys, and several of Taylor Swift’s videos. Chancler started sharing videos he’d shot and edited with Joseph, and Joseph gave Chancler behind-the-scenes insights about his work with major artists.

Chancler and Joseph finally met in person in 2010 when Chancler was visiting California. Joseph was working on Eminem’s video for “Love the Way You Lie” and didn’t have time for a casual hangout, so he offered Chancler a gig as a Production Assistant on the video. Chancler moved to Los Angeles shortly afterward and started working with Joseph on a regular basis.

“I started PA-ing for Joseph, and the video editing stuff came in when he had just finished his second film… He showed us a rough cut of the film and I asked him if I could play around and cut a trailer. I don't think he really expected anything, but I showed him a first cut and he was like, ‘Wow, this is really great. Why aren't you editing?’” Chancler remembers.

“He had me cut his music videos and commercials after that,” he continues. “I started liking editing as a career. Prior to that, I didn't really know what I wanted to do in film, I just knew I wanted to be in the industry. Editing just made sense after he made it make sense.”

Chancler started working as an on-set editor for Joseph and built his portfolio up with additional freelance editing projects. He eventually found his way to Cosmo Street, an editorial house that produces commercials, music videos, and other TV and web content. Chancler is currently on their roster of Film Editors, and he’s done commercials for brands like Burger King, Nintendo, and Disney. He’s also edited videos for big artists like Mariah Carey, the Jonas Brothers, and Jennifer Lopez – and he’s become a go-to editor for Taylor Swift.

Working with Taylor Swift

Editing Taylor’s videos has earned Chancler some big accolades. He was nominated at MTV’s VMAs for his editing work on “Bad Blood,” “Anti-Hero,” and “Look What You Made Me Do,” and he won the 2024 VMA for Best Editing for “Fortnight.”

Chancler is primarily an on-set editor for Taylor’s videos. During filming, he takes footage from the playback monitor and cuts sequences together so that Taylor (who frequently directs her own videos) can see how it’s coming together and make adjustments if needed. He’s also involved in other production steps.

“Taylor has her videos storyboarded [before we start filming]. I'll take those storyboards and cut an animatic of the whole music video based on them and sometimes suggest some extra shots or take some things away. Then we just shoot things for the edit and fill it out and cut it in real time. By the time we wrap on the video, we have a rough cut, and then we just tweak things with sound and go from there. Every now and then, she'll also have a pre-production meeting where she'll come up with ideas and come up with shots and production design,” Chancler explains.

For “Fortnight,” preparing the video for visual effects in post-production was essential.

“For the part of the video where Post Malone’s tattoos start appearing on Taylor’s face, the important thing we did was making sure that stuff was mapped out and timed correctly. She had little markers on her face, and we had to time out when she said her lines and when she wiped her face and how all that was supposed to play out. Then VFX made the magic and put those tattoos on her face,” says Chancler.

“Every video with her is always super fun because she comes up with really, really brilliant ideas in the story process, and making the video is just a matter of bringing her ideas to life,” he continues. “She's always really excited once she sees things play out in the edit.”

Chancler’s come a long way since he defended Torque online, but using the web to connect with Joseph and share his early videos was essential to his progress. He thinks that up-and-coming filmmakers should also take advantage of technology to show off their work.

“I think students have it really good these days because the technology has advanced so much… You can shoot full-fledged feature films on an iPhone and just get your work seen. You have all kinds of outlets, YouTube, Vimeo. My advice to students would be to just take advantage of all the material and technology that you have at your fingertips and just be creative and let people see your work.”