Editor – Dean Zimmerman ACE
Free Guy editor, Dean Zimmerman ACE wrapped working on location for the film exactly two years ago. Like so many movies lately, Free Guy had been locked in a pattern of pandemic postponement. It was originally supposed to be released late in the spring of 2020, but then got bounced around until it eventually hit theaters on August 13th of 2021.
Free Guy stars Ryan Reynolds as a bank teller who discovers he’s actually an NPC (non-playable character) in an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game). With the advent of his self-awareness, Guy decides to become the hero of the story and save his friends from deletion by the game’s creator, played by Taika Waititi.
DEAN ZIMMERMAN ACE
Free Guy finds Dean collaborating once again with director and longtime friend, Shawn Levy. The two have been working together for over twenty years on projects like the Night at the Museum franchise and a little series called Stranger Things. In fact, a lot of Dean’s crew from Stranger Things is on board for Free Guy. Assistant editor Kat Naranjo, VFX editor Brad Tobler and sound editor Craig Henighan are all on hand for the film. So, clearly Dean takes a family-oriented approach to putting a crew together and keeping them together. And editing is a family business in more ways than one for Dean. His father, Don Zimmerman, is a highly accomplished editor in his own right.
Dean is currently working on Shawn Levy’s upcoming film with Ryan Reynolds, The Adam Project (2022).
Editing FREE GUY
In our discussion with Free Guy editor, Dean Zimmerman ACE, we talk about:
- The pain of cutting out Taika Waititi scenes
- Questions editors ask test screening audiences
- How working on Free Guy compares to Stranger Things
- Why stereo is better than 5.1 monitoring
- Teaching the Duffer brothers about “cowboy shots”
The Credits
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See Dean’s Avid timelines from Free Guy
See the Stranger Things panel with Dean, Kat, Brad, Craig and all the gang
Listen to the Sound Design podcast with Craig Henighan, Will Files and Ai-Ling Lee
Subscribe to The Rough Cut podcast and never miss an episode
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