The Neon Unicorn: Experiments in Film Editing
- Gary Miller
- Feb 26, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 26
My last completed project with Angotango Pictures — at least for the YouTube channel — was a short fake trailer that parodied The Neon Demon. We called it The Neon Unicorn. It was weird, artsy, lo-fi, and fun. It was also the final video on that platform featuring the now-married Ben Humphrey and Megan Elisabeth Kelly before we jumped into working on a feature-length film together.
Marla Keown took some of my favorite pictures from that shoot, and yes — there was a talking unicorn head involved. Anthony shot it, and I got to edit it, which meant a lot to me. By that point, I think I was the only one still pushing edits through. Our original pace and energy had started to taper off. I was developing a distinct voice and style — messy, earnest, experimental — and I’m not sure it aligned with the more refined or curated direction Anthony was trying to go. That’s no knock, just creative evolution.
All photos by Marla Keown Photography
The Neon Unicorn: Famous director Nikolaj P. Gunderson brings you a tale of love, murder, and fashion in The Neon Unicorn. Megan Elisabeth Kelly stars as a woman who finds herself in love with her former imaginary friend, Mr. Chuckles. She finds herself torn between the literal half-man-half-unicorn man of her dreams and the half-man-half-model man of her reality. What will she choose?
I learned a ton working with Angotango. I started my relationship with them as an actor in a project that was submitted to HBO. Soon after, I was meeting every Monday, writing scripts, learning how to edit, pitching ideas — trying to make it work. My passion absolutely outpaced my talent and my equipment. But that’s natural. It’s part of the process. You want to do the next big thing before you even know how to finish the small one in front of you.
Eventually, I began focusing more on my own channel. I just needed to create and fail. Repeatedly. In public. Angotango as a collective slowly shifted — and I think, especially post-pandemic, it’s really just been Anthony carrying the torch. The YouTube side faded, but I’m pretty sure he’s still working on commercial projects and supporting his family. And that’s the dream too, honestly.
It was a fun run working with everyone involved. I wish we’d completed more projects — who doesn’t? — but I also started to understand something I hadn’t put a name to yet: bottlenecking. So many projects die not in the writing or the shooting, but in the editing room. It’s easy to come up with ideas. Easy to hit record. But the real work? It happens when you sit with the footage and build a story from it.
Editing is where the film is made. Where the tone is sharpened. Where the story either lives or falls apart. If you really want to be a filmmaker, you have to finish your film.
And sometimes that means finishing a bizarre fake trailer about a neon-lit unicorn. Because even that counts.
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