“Brett, I have to go. I think HBO is calling me.”
Sitting in her room in Boston, Mass., editing fandoms from Percy Jackson to Harry Potter, 17-year-old Melanie — now 25 — never imagined her side hobby would land her dream job at HBO.
It happened on New Year’s. Melanie checked her hidden direct message requests on Instagram Threads, where she posted her viral edit on Dec. 28, citing it as a good place to network with professionals.
The message was from an HBO executive, shocked, Melanie couldn’t believe it. She shared the message with her family who told her it was “obviously fake.”
But after researching his professional background online and discovering this was in fact real life, she proceeded to share her portfolio, not knowing what to expect.
After a couple weeks, Melanie was on the phone with her sister, Brett, when her iPhone began screening an incoming call — which identifies unknown callers.
The call was from HBO, offering Melanie a job as associate producer, where she would be editing trailers, recaps, interviews and episodics.
“Literally what I was doing as a hobby, as a full time career,” she added.
Within a week, Melanie accepted the offer.
Fan edits receiving recognition at such a high level is rare. According to Cosmopolitan, “… Their praise is usually limited to maybe a few hundred thousand Likes, a repost from their fave, and imitation attempts from the studios … who’ve recognized the success of their art form as an advertising technique and want to replicate it in an official capacity.”
‘We have to get her’
For the last couple of years, Melanie has been working in a “stable” job as a financial consultant. But her heart had longed for something more. Ever since she was 12-years-old, Melanie had been part of fandoms.
Curious, Melanie began researching different editing software before landing on Final Cut Pro, which she learned to use by herself.
When first starting out, Melanie described herself as “so bad” as she experimented with different styles. She was drawn to a cinematic style, which she continues to use in her edits today and finds it more “niche.”
She thinks this style resonates with people as it feels familiar to what they know.
“I feel like mock trailers tend to be more recognizable with people. The general audience may not recognize the talent that goes into a transition edit, but they’ll recognize an edit that looks like a trailer or a promo,” she said.
Her decision turned out to be a wise one, as this would later be one of the reasons HBO singled her out.
After meeting with HBO VPs, Melanie was told they usually do not pay attention to fan edits, but after stumbling upon hers, they said “We have to get her.”
Melanie added that a friend of hers who works at Netflix, overheard people in the lunchroom, showing one another the viral edit.
For Melanie, this moment went beyond a mere recognition of her skills, it was a confirmation that she is capable of achieving her dreams.
“People are always so incredibly kind about my edits, and it means so much to me, but it’s like, am I social media good or am I actually good? I was always really scared to find out the answer, and then actually having HBO reach out, having all these VPs gush over my work — it just blows my mind,” she said.
Fandom equals family
At first, Melanie used to hide that she was part of online fandoms, but gradually she began sharing that part of herself with family and friends, who have been accepting and supportive.
“I kind of started being like, why am I hiding this? I’m proud of the videos I’m making,” she said.
“I think some of them are kind of confused about fan edits — not in a bad way, but they don’t fully understand what they are because if you’re not in a fan space or into pop culture, it might be kind of confusing.”
In the past couple of years, she has even begun adding her accounts on job applications.
“I feel like once I started to believe in myself and put my work out there and advocate for myself, the world opened up with opportunity for me. I really feel like the biggest thing you can do is put yourself out there, surround yourself with people who support you and try as hard as you can to push through any embarrassment or uncertainty because it could genuinely change your life, like it did for me,” she said.
With over 40,000 followers on Instagram and around 24,000 on TikTok, Melanie’s preferred platform is Twitter, with 23,000 followers. She goes by @uhbucky and formed most of her friendships there.
“It’s really fun to be friends with a lot of editors, because then you can bond over edits. You can help each other out. I’ll have my friends come to me with questions, I’ll go to them with questions, and we’re always willing to help each other, which I think is a really beautiful thing,” she said.
Being part of the editing world and fandom community has not only become a space to exchange editing advice but is a venue for shared interest and connection.
“I’m super big on finding your community in fandoms. I think that you can meet people from all over the world and walks of life, and I think it’s just such a great way to meet people you never would have met before,” she said.
Melanie has been part of a Percy Jackson fandom for three years now, which consists of 11 members. They have gone on vacations together, visited each other’s apartments and even attended the wedding of one of the members.
“I also think that editing is so personal to each person, and each person’s style is so unique to them, and it really says a lot about who they are. You can see a lot of how somebody interprets a show or movie through their edits. I feel like because of that it brings people together.”
For Melanie, edits are an art form.
“Everybody has a connection with music in some sort of sense, and I feel like there’s something about seeing your favourite song or hearing a new song that you fall in love with paired with a TV show that you love,” she said.
“It creates a new connection, both with the song and with the show or movie and elevates the experience that you already had with either of those two things.”
Where it all started
Her infatuation with Heated Rivalry came after binging the books before the show’s release. She became inspired, filling her notepad with songs she imagined using in future edits.
For Melanie, Heated Rivalry “hit home,” citing the importance of queer stories, the actors’ palpable chemistry and the author’s hands-on involvement, honouring the genre of romance. She added the show is the product of a director taking “romance seriously.”
“I feel like editing it was kind of like second nature to me. I just kind of knew as soon as I read the books I would be editing it once the show came out,” she said.
The “previously on heated rivalry” edit currently has 79,000 likes and 4.5 million views on Twitter. This edit is referred to as a “hit on beat,” where the changing of scene clips is synchronized with the beat of the music.
“The Percy Jackson friend group was screaming in excitement for me. My other mutuals on Twitter were over the moon. Everyone’s been celebrating it. It means so much to me. It’s so insane to see this much public support,” she said.
This is the edit that encouraged an HBO executive to reach out.
An Instagram user who goes by @emhannweg commented sharing her thoughts on the news, “THANK YOU FINALLY SOMEONE IS HIRING THE GOATED EDITORS!!! THEY SHOULD BE IN CHARGE OF MAKING TRAILERS.”
Unlike prior edits, where Melanie would find music that paired well with an idea she visualized in her mind, she took a different approach. She worked on it periodically as the show aired, beginning with the first two episodes, and then adding on weekly.
While she described the process as “fun” she said she was hesitant about posting it online because it became “boring” to her after re-watching it so frequently.
It was only after her friends encouraged her that she posted the edit online.
Another Instagram user by the name of @monica_magee1, commented under the edit saying “Not going to lie, I thought this was the … official trailer.”
Melanie also posted another edit entitled “sweet dreams” which is what she speculates drew in the Heated Rivalry fandom towards her page.
The future of fan edits
Melanie views this move as a turning point for all online communities: editors, artists and fanfiction writers. She believes more networks will continue to dip into fan spaces because they’re realizing their “potential.”
“There’s such a huge pool of talent out there. I feel like it would be so smart for [networks] to keep reaching into that pool, because it’s not like where we had to pick a major or career path. This is something we’re doing because we love it,” she said.
In October, Variety reported on Lionsgate hiring multiple TikTok editors to market films. According to Rachel Karten, a fan edit of Michael racked up significantly more views and likes than Lionsgate’s official trailer.
Melanie attributes the rise in popularity of edits due to COVID-19, when people began using TikTok more frequently which ushered in a new stream of supporters, and networks and companies followed suit.
“I think that it just put the talent further in front of them, and they actually were able to see the talent out there because it wasn’t so hidden. I’m hopeful that it continues to happen because people absolutely deserve these exact same opportunities,” she said.
Melanie will officially start her position in one week.
“Everyone I’ve talked to seems so incredibly kind and it just seems like such a great place to work. I’m just so excited to experience all of it and to actually be doing this work, which has been my absolute dream,” she said.