Our Staff

Owner and Founder

Josh Apter

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Josh Apter attended NYU's Graduate Film Program, where his film, The 53rd Calypso, was honored with the Martin Scorsese Award for achievement in directing. The film, which stars Edward Norton, received numerous awards for directing, editing, and cinematography at film festivals across the country.

For his first feature as director, Kaaterskill Falls, Josh was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards - the John Cassavetes Award and Best Debut Performance.  Kaaterskill Falls was also awarded the Critic's Jury Prize at the IFP/West Los Angeles film Festival. It screened on the Sundance Channel, and Is available wherever movies are sold, rented or streamed. Josh is completing his second feature as writer/director, an urban romance titled, "Delivery Method."

Josh has worked in all areas of filmmaking, from location sound recordist on numerous feature films, to videographer for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, where he recorded the testimonies of over 150 Holocaust survivors.  As a film editor, Josh has worked on over ten feature films including The Holy Land (winner Slamdance FF/Cavu Pictures Distributor), Kaaterskill Falls and Barbecue is a Noun (Audience Award for best Documentary at the Rome International Film Festival and the River Run Film Festival).

From his love of post-production, Josh founded Manhattan Edit Workshop in 2002.  MEWShop is an Avid, Adobe, Assimilate, and Blackmagic Autodesk Authorized Training Center offering a variety of classes in the art and technique of film editing.  With clients ranging from AMC Networks, HBO, NBC, CBS, WNET, and CNN; Manhattan Edit Workshop has become the premier training destination for the highest-level content creators and media professionals.

Josh is also the Founder and CEO of The Padcaster (www.padcaster.com.)  In 2012, Josh invented, designed, and founded The Padcaster®.   As a filmmaker, Josh is always producing, shooting and editing projects of all shapes and sizes.

President

Jason Banke

As MEWShop's President, Jason oversees all of MEWShop's operations, including instructors, employees, courses offered, marketing, events and facility management.   He has helped solidify MEWShop’s reputation as the “top spot on the east coast to learn the editors craft” with annual events like “Sight Sound and Story” and has expanded the series to include sound design, VFX and cinematography events.    

Jason has worked in various capacities on set or in post production on commercials, reality shows, corporate videos and several independent films.  He received a B.A. from Hofstra University in Film and Video Production, where he completed five short films.  He is also a graduate of MEWShop's Six Week Intensive workshop and a former teaching assistant for these classes. Jason also oversees all strategic partnerships and continue to build on the stellar reputation he has helped build in the past eight years. 

He shoots and edits his own projects when not at MEWShop, and is a member of the satirical video team, “Cringe Factory” which has produced a number of viral videos garnering almost 7 million YouTube views.

Director of Education & CERTIFIED APPLe, AVID & ADOBE INSTRUCTOR

Janet Dalton 

Janet is a freelance editor who has been in the film and video world for over 15 years. She first became interested in film while studying audio engineering at The New School. Since then she has edited for PBS, MTV, CNBC, and Link TV.

She has been an Avid certified instructor for over 10 years and teaches both the introductory as well as advanced edit and effects classes. She is also one of just a handful of instructors who teach Avid's high end HD edit systems, the DS Nitris. She has taught editing classes at NYU, Columbia, SVA as well as taught industry professionals on-site at CBS, NBC and Fox. Her work is primarily short format though she is currently working on a feature length documentary.  Janet is also an Adobe Premiere Pro & Apple Final Cut Pro certified instructor.

Janet is a licensed School Director and School Agent by the New York State Department of Education; as well as licensed Teacher by the New York State Department of Education.