Paul Coyne
Encyclopedia
Paul J. Coyne is an American
film and television editor
and producer
.
, and always thought he would someday become an artist. His earliest memory is of viewing a re-release of Jay North
's Zebra in the Kitchen
, at the Milford Cinemas. As a hobby, Coyne first picked up his mother's Bell & Howell
camera when he was 10, and combined with his skills in creative writing, began making Super-8 films
. His childhood friend, Mark Cicciu, worked as a theater usher, allowing Coyne to repeatedly watch movies free of charge, furthering his interest in films. It was not until high school, when viewing John Ford
's "Drums Along the Mohawk
," that Coyne realized he wanted to become a filmmaker. Coyne graduated from Milford High School
in 1982, and given his penchant for drawing, he was voted "Most Artistic" by his graduating class. He returned to Milford High as the keynote speaker for the graduating class of 2000.
in their film program. Among Coyne's accomplishments at Fitchburg State were co-writing and editing the first feature film attempted at the school, as well as directing a Casablanca-inspired fundraising film for the United Way of America. Coyne also made several appearances on WCVB-TV
's Nightshift program, which profiled student filmmakers.
Coyne eventually met, and soon married, fellow college student Elaine Hehir on August 12, 1989. Already a super senior
at Fitchburg State, Coyne and Elaine petitioned the school to allow the couple to seek a Hollywood
internship, the first such attempt made by students at the college. By the time they left for Hollywood in 1989, Coyne was only three credits short of receiving his degree. He officially graduated in 2005 with sufficient credits. In consideration of his successful career and other achievements, Fitchburg State honored Coyne as the Distinguished Alumnus of 2005.
in the documentary category, as well as a Cine
Golden Eagle Award in the amateur pre-professional category. After that, Coyne received his first feature film
offer for the low budget, Misfit Patrol.
Just as Coyne's career was beginning to take off, Elaine was diagnosed with a malignant
spinal tumor. The two returned to Massachusetts where Elaine died in 1994, at the age of 26. Coyne eventually returned to Los Angeles in 1996, and continued to edit and produce documentaries
, feature films and reality television
shows.
Coyne has five art, writing, and film scholarships available annually at Milford High School
, as well as "Women in Film" scholarships at Fitchburg State in honor of Elaine. Coyne is also involved in working with The Jimmy Fund
, a Massachusetts charity that raises money for children with cancer. In 2004, Coyne and his fellow Survivor
editors were nominated for an Emmy Award
for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera) for the episode "Shark Attack".
In recent years, Coyne has focused on producing, serving as Supervising Producer of Spike TV's Invasion Iowa
and Shaq's Big Challenge
and Homeland Security USA
on ABC. He has served as Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed If You Really Knew Me
on MTV, for which he received an American Cinema Editors
2011 Eddie Award for Best Edited Reality Show, and as Co-Executive Producer of Beyond Scared Straight, which became the highest-rated original series premiere in A&E's history.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film and television editor
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
and producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
.
Early life
Coyne grew up in Milford, MassachusettsMilford, Massachusetts
Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It had a population of 27,999 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Milford, constituting the center of the town, please see the article Milford ,...
, and always thought he would someday become an artist. His earliest memory is of viewing a re-release of Jay North
Jay North
Jay North is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of six, North became a household name during the early 1960s for his role as the well-meaning, but mischievous, Dennis Mitchell on the CBS situation comedy Dennis the Menace, based on the comic strip created...
's Zebra in the Kitchen
Zebra in the Kitchen
Zebra in the Kitchen is a 1965 American family comedy film, produced and directed by Ivan Tors. The film stars Jay North in his first leading feature film role, Martin Milner, Andy Devine, and Joyce Meadows, and tells the story of a 12-year-old boy's love and compassion for the animals he finds...
, at the Milford Cinemas. As a hobby, Coyne first picked up his mother's Bell & Howell
Böwe Bell & Howell
Bell & Howell is a U.S.-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery, founded as Bell & Howell in 1907 by two projectionists, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company merged with Böwe Systec Inc...
camera when he was 10, and combined with his skills in creative writing, began making Super-8 films
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
. His childhood friend, Mark Cicciu, worked as a theater usher, allowing Coyne to repeatedly watch movies free of charge, furthering his interest in films. It was not until high school, when viewing John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's "Drums Along the Mohawk
Drums Along the Mohawk
Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 historical Technicolor film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author, Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the...
," that Coyne realized he wanted to become a filmmaker. Coyne graduated from Milford High School
Milford High School (Massachusetts)
Milford High School is the secondary school for the district of Milford, Massachusetts. It is one choice for Milford students to attend high school. Another is Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School. As seen on the side, the principal is Mr. Michael Tempesta, formerly of...
in 1982, and given his penchant for drawing, he was voted "Most Artistic" by his graduating class. He returned to Milford High as the keynote speaker for the graduating class of 2000.
College
Coyne attended Fitchburg State CollegeFitchburg State College
Fitchburg State University, also known as Fitchburg State, is a four-year public institution of higher learning with a compact urban campus, located in the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Fitchburg State University has over 3,500 undergraduate and over 1650 graduate/continuing education...
in their film program. Among Coyne's accomplishments at Fitchburg State were co-writing and editing the first feature film attempted at the school, as well as directing a Casablanca-inspired fundraising film for the United Way of America. Coyne also made several appearances on WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
's Nightshift program, which profiled student filmmakers.
Coyne eventually met, and soon married, fellow college student Elaine Hehir on August 12, 1989. Already a super senior
Super senior
A super senior is a student in an American four-year educational institution such as a high school or university who has been attending the institution for 5 or more years or has more than the usual number of credits required to graduate without achieving a diploma or bachelors...
at Fitchburg State, Coyne and Elaine petitioned the school to allow the couple to seek a Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
internship, the first such attempt made by students at the college. By the time they left for Hollywood in 1989, Coyne was only three credits short of receiving his degree. He officially graduated in 2005 with sufficient credits. In consideration of his successful career and other achievements, Fitchburg State honored Coyne as the Distinguished Alumnus of 2005.
Professional career
In Hollywood, Coyne began working as an assistant editor, before moving on to editor. One of the film's Coyne edited, Dolphins: Minds in the Water, received a Silver Medal from the Student Academy AwardsStudent Academy Awards
The Student Academy Awards is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual competition for college and university filmmakers. The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first presented in 1973. Since 1975, the awards have been given annually, usually in June...
in the documentary category, as well as a Cine
CINE
CINE is a consortium formulated to depict American life and thought realistically for a global audience. CINE recognizes and fosters the highest quality of non-theatrical film and video production through its semi-annual film competitions....
Golden Eagle Award in the amateur pre-professional category. After that, Coyne received his first feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
offer for the low budget, Misfit Patrol.
Just as Coyne's career was beginning to take off, Elaine was diagnosed with a malignant
Malignant
Malignancy is the tendency of a medical condition, especially tumors, to become progressively worse and to potentially result in death. Malignancy in cancers is characterized by anaplasia, invasiveness, and metastasis...
spinal tumor. The two returned to Massachusetts where Elaine died in 1994, at the age of 26. Coyne eventually returned to Los Angeles in 1996, and continued to edit and produce documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, feature films and reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
shows.
Coyne has five art, writing, and film scholarships available annually at Milford High School
Milford High School (Massachusetts)
Milford High School is the secondary school for the district of Milford, Massachusetts. It is one choice for Milford students to attend high school. Another is Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School. As seen on the side, the principal is Mr. Michael Tempesta, formerly of...
, as well as "Women in Film" scholarships at Fitchburg State in honor of Elaine. Coyne is also involved in working with The Jimmy Fund
The Jimmy Fund
The Jimmy Fund raises vital funds to support adult and pediatric cancer care and research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 to raise funds for patient care and the fight against children’s cancer, the Jimmy Fund now supports the search for new cancer...
, a Massachusetts charity that raises money for children with cancer. In 2004, Coyne and his fellow Survivor
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...
editors were nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera) for the episode "Shark Attack".
In recent years, Coyne has focused on producing, serving as Supervising Producer of Spike TV's Invasion Iowa
Invasion Iowa
Invasion Iowa is a television mini-series that aired on Spike TV beginning on March 29, 2005, on ITV4 beginning on 3 November 2005 and The Comedy Channel in April 2007. The series depicts events from September 2004, in which William Shatner played a hoax on the small town of Riverside, Iowa by...
and Shaq's Big Challenge
Shaq's Big Challenge
Shaq's Big Challenge is a reality television show hosted by Shaquille O'Neal that debuted on ABC with its first episode on June 26, 2007, and concluded its first season on July 31, 2007. It featured Shaq's efforts to help six severely obese middle school aged children from Broward County, Florida...
and Homeland Security USA
Homeland Security USA
Homeland Security USA portrays members of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security performing their day-to-day duties. It is the American version of the Australian reality show Border Security....
on ABC. He has served as Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed If You Really Knew Me
If You Really Knew Me
If You Really Knew Me is an American reality television series which airs on MTV that focuses on youth subculture and different cliques in high schools. Students from each clique participate in Challenge Day, which is a program designed to break down stereotypes and unite students in schools. At...
on MTV, for which he received an American Cinema Editors
American Cinema Editors
Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...
2011 Eddie Award for Best Edited Reality Show, and as Co-Executive Producer of Beyond Scared Straight, which became the highest-rated original series premiere in A&E's history.
Editor
- Dolphins: Minds in the Water (1991)
- Gas Food LodgingGas Food LodgingGas Food Lodging is a 1992 movie directed by Allison Anders about a waitress trying to find romance while raising two daughters in a trailer-park. It stars Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, and Fairuza Balk. The film was adapted from the novel Don't Look and It Won't Hurt by Richard Peck...
(1992) (second assistant editor) - Scared Silent: Exposing and Ending Child Abuse (1992) TV documentary (assistant editor)
- Last Call (1993)
- Misfit Patrol (1998) Feature film
- This Week in History (1999) TV series
- Big Brother (2000)
- The Living CenturyThe Living CenturyThe Living Century is an American biography television series that premiered on PBS on December 3, 2000. Each episode of the half-hour series documents the life of someone who is over 100 years old.-Episodes:...
(2000) - Flipped (2001) TV series
- The Amazing RaceThe Amazing RaceThe Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
(2001) - Ultimate Reality (2001) TV series
- The Bachelor (2002)
- Children's Miracle Network Telethon 2002
- Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska (2002) TV series
- Music Behind Bars (2002) TV series
- Dear Santa (2002) TV special
- The Family (2003)
- Average Joe: Hawaii (2004) (supervising editor)
- SurvivorSurvivor (U.S. TV series)Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...
(2004) - Joe Schmo 2 (2004)
- Situation: ComedySituation: ComedySituation: Comedy was a reality show that aired on the Bravo network in 2005. It was produced by Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner. The winner of the series was "Stephen's Life". The runner up was "The Sperm Donor".-The Sperm Donor:...
(2005) - Invasion IowaInvasion IowaInvasion Iowa is a television mini-series that aired on Spike TV beginning on March 29, 2005, on ITV4 beginning on 3 November 2005 and The Comedy Channel in April 2007. The series depicts events from September 2004, in which William Shatner played a hoax on the small town of Riverside, Iowa by...
(2005) - The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan GreenThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan GreenThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green is a syndicated comic strip drawn by Eric Orner. Appearing in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publications, the strip's title character is Ethan Green, a young gay man trying to balance his professional career as a personal assistant with his...
(2005) - American InventorAmerican InventorAmerican Inventor is a reality television series based on a competition to be named America's best inventor. It was conceived by UK entrepreneur Peter Jones, who appears on the British version of the somewhat similar programme Dragons' Den, a format originated in Japan where it is owned by Sony....
(2006) - The One: Making a Music Star (2006)
- Raising FlaggRaising FlaggRaising Flagg is a 2006 film directed by Neal Miller and co-written by Miller, Nancy Miller and Dorothy Velasco. It was shot entirely on location in Portland and St. Helens, Oregon.-Plot:...
(2006) Feature film - Shaq's Big ChallengeShaq's Big ChallengeShaq's Big Challenge is a reality television show hosted by Shaquille O'Neal that debuted on ABC with its first episode on June 26, 2007, and concluded its first season on July 31, 2007. It featured Shaq's efforts to help six severely obese middle school aged children from Broward County, Florida...
(2007) - Hell's Kitchen (U.S.)Hell's Kitchen (U.S.)Hell's Kitchen is an American reality-television cooking competition broadcast on Fox...
(2009) - The Great American Road TripThe Great American Road TripGreat American Road Trip is a reality television competition series that aired on NBC. It follows seven families as they go on a road trip and compete against each other at different landmarks in and around U.S. Route 66 in the United States. The series is hosted by comedian Reno Collier.The show...
(2009) - If You Really Knew MeIf You Really Knew MeIf You Really Knew Me is an American reality television series which airs on MTV that focuses on youth subculture and different cliques in high schools. Students from each clique participate in Challenge Day, which is a program designed to break down stereotypes and unite students in schools. At...
(2010) - Beyond Scared Straight (2011)
Producer
- Rita Hayworth: Dancing Into the Dream (1990) (coordinating producer)
- Big Brother (2000)
- We the People (2002) (co-producer)
- Children's Miracle Network Telethon 2002 (executive producer)
- The Living CenturyThe Living CenturyThe Living Century is an American biography television series that premiered on PBS on December 3, 2000. Each episode of the half-hour series documents the life of someone who is over 100 years old.-Episodes:...
(2000) (associate producer) - Joe Schmo 2 (2004)
- Invasion IowaInvasion IowaInvasion Iowa is a television mini-series that aired on Spike TV beginning on March 29, 2005, on ITV4 beginning on 3 November 2005 and The Comedy Channel in April 2007. The series depicts events from September 2004, in which William Shatner played a hoax on the small town of Riverside, Iowa by...
(2005) (supervising producer) - The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan GreenThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan GreenThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green is a syndicated comic strip drawn by Eric Orner. Appearing in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publications, the strip's title character is Ethan Green, a young gay man trying to balance his professional career as a personal assistant with his...
(2005) (co-producer) - Shaq's Big ChallengeShaq's Big ChallengeShaq's Big Challenge is a reality television show hosted by Shaquille O'Neal that debuted on ABC with its first episode on June 26, 2007, and concluded its first season on July 31, 2007. It featured Shaq's efforts to help six severely obese middle school aged children from Broward County, Florida...
(2007) (producer) (supervising producer) - Homeland Security USAHomeland Security USAHomeland Security USA portrays members of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security performing their day-to-day duties. It is the American version of the Australian reality show Border Security....
(2009) (supervising producer) - If You Really Knew MeIf You Really Knew MeIf You Really Knew Me is an American reality television series which airs on MTV that focuses on youth subculture and different cliques in high schools. Students from each clique participate in Challenge Day, which is a program designed to break down stereotypes and unite students in schools. At...
(2010) (executive producer) - Beyond Scared Straight (2010) (co-executive producer)
Actor
- Hoggs' Heaven (1994) (Audience Thinker)
- The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan GreenThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan GreenThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green is a syndicated comic strip drawn by Eric Orner. Appearing in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publications, the strip's title character is Ethan Green, a young gay man trying to balance his professional career as a personal assistant with his...
(2005) (NancyBoy42)
Art Department
- The Paint Job (1992) Feature film (storyboard illustrator)
- Hoggs' Heaven (1994) (storyboard illustrator)
External links
- Official website
- Paul Coyne at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...