Michael Thomas James aka “Contact”

Senior Editor | Dailies Supervisor | Visual Effects Artist

Based in Chicago, IL

Michael Thomas James (aka “Contact”) is the Senior Editor at Periscope Post & Audio. He is known for his work on the coming of age drama The Class, as well as the Guy Pierce lead action film Disturbing the Peace. Thrillers like Range Runners and horror films such as You Don't Belong Here add to his versatility in genre. His upcoming narrative projects include the poetic fable Don't Be A Stranger, as well as the romantic drama Dog Years.

Besides narrative features, he is known for the Emmy award-winning sports documentary Pooh: The Derrick Rose Story, as well as the ESPN SportsCenter Featured segment on White Sox organist Nancy Faust. He was lead editor on the Roku documentary series United States of Rugby. His upcoming projects include a spotlight on youth American football.

Michael is happy to be a part of the Illinois film community, editing locally shot independent features and shorts such as Christmas With Felicity. He also is involved with short films, such as The Invite, Hafu, and Cellar Door- netting Michael a festival award for Best Editing Short.

He has been involved with the Community Storytellers program with Full Spectrum Features, working with up and coming filmmakers showcasing community driven narratives. Such shorts include Between the Silence, La salida, De la morera, Ask a Punk, Take 290, and Artista. Michael has worked with several multi-language projects, cutting in Spanish, Greek, and Japanese.

In addition to narrative shorts, Michael also loves to edit music videos such as The Smashing Pumpkins’ Beguiled and Ric Wilson's Yellowbrick.

Starting as a Dailies Technician on several network television shows and feature films (Sirens, Southside with You, Hala) Michael has now gone on to be a Dailies Supervisor, overseeing all dailies processing on our Chicago-based shows and features (The Bear, The Chi, Work in Progress).

When he isn't playing Dungeons & Dragons or singing karaoke, Michael is dreaming about his next personal project & looking to expand his network of collaborators.

Michael Thomas James’ full filmography can be found on IMDb.