Jon Kane discovered the craft of editing while experimenting with remixes as a club DJ in college. The cut-and-paste editing style he developed there soon led him to direct and edit ads and promos for multiple major cable networks. He worked on many of the earliest MTV promos, including The Man On The Moon and the original show open for The Real World.

Jon's first commercial assignment, a spot for the Marriott Corporation’s Allie’s restaurants, was nominated for a Clio award for editing; his global spot for TimeWarner was honored for its sound design and selected for inclusion in the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Cinema collection.

Jon created opticnerve™ in 1991, and the company soon took wing with work for MTV, ESPN, VH1 and Nickelodeon, as well as Madison Avenue's advertising agencies. Perhaps most memorably during this time, opticnerve™ produced the classic “VH1: Behind the Music” campaign which played during the Superbowl and was parodied 15 times by Saturday Night Live.

Jon's interest in documentary film also led him to create Fellow Americans during a tour of the southern United States with cinematographer Russell Lee Fine. The film was a model for the stylized documentary brand of filmmaking that has become a signature of Jon’s work.

In 2001, Jon spent eighteen months collaborating with director Godfrey Reggio, composer Philip Glass and producer Steven Soderbergh on Naqoyqatsi; he served as editor and visual designer. The third film in the acclaimed Qatsi trilogy, which began with the seminal film Koyaanisqatsi, was called “beautiful and prophetic" by The New York Times, and continues to tour globally to sold-out audiences.

At present, in addition to its continued service to the cable and advertising worlds, opticnerve™ is in production on Visitors, another feature film in collaboration with Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass. To accommodate post-production work on this film, the company has expanded to a third studio space on the pier in Red Hook.

Along with Jon, the current core group at opticnerve™ is: director/editor/cinematographer and snowboarding Expert Chris "Spills" Besecker; mild mannered, hirsute technical genius/film maker Max Blecker; producer and snack food impresario Mara Campione; studio chef and gastronomic scientist Alanna Baldasarri; art assistant, pro skateboarder, actor and very, very, hugely long red bearded tattoo aficionado Dustin Charlton ; editor and street fighting practitioner Mike Debbie; Rock 'N Roll star and After FX™ wunderkind Grier Dill,  french speaking kiteboarder, and motion grafx pioneer Manu Gaulot. The opticnerve™ mascots are Yorkshire Terrier Zucchini™ and Labradoodle™ Rosie™, best dogs on earth.  

The opticnerve™ studios are located directly on New York City Harbor's waterfront in an historic warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Miraculously, the studios were unharmed by the devastation of hurricane Sandy. 

The main studio and lounge house edit suites One and Two.
Edit One presents on a 10x5 foot screen in a movie theater environment; Edit Two features a 55 inch LED monitor.

Our production studio is home to three more edit and graphics stations and a production pit and open area for insert shooting. 

The studios feature original painted murals created by opticnerve™ studio members, a full kitchen, a fireplace and a gargantuan sound system. 

We also boast an indoor swing, a DJ booth, a steam shower, an intractable Yorkie puppy, a vintage 1976 Checker Marathon for transporting clients, and one of the most incredible water views on the planet.