Chapter 6 Recording and Presenting Reality 247material.” So there’s that tension, and I think that this tension can be
really helpful in fi lm. And when I teach, and students are editing their
own fi lms, I always tell them, “You are doing the most diffi cult thing
possible.” You go out, you round up the subjects, stand in the snow
and rain to fi lm them and go through all that, you become convinced
you’ve got a masterpiece and every frame is wonderful. And the person
who didn’t do any of that and they’re just seeing what ended up in the
footage—and not what the entire surrounding experience was—they
can see more clearly. So when you’re editing your own material, you
have a unique challenge compared to when you’re editing someone
else’s material.Q
What challenges do you face as an editor of non-fi ction motion
pictures?A
A documentary editor has a thrilling job because you really make the
story in the editing room. You do wonderful things as a fi ction editor
too, but you’re not sort of writing the story, and I feel that you really
are doing that as a documentary editor. It’s a wonderful thing, and you
really can discover unexpected things in the editing room.Q
Was your previous work as an editor helpful to your role as a
director?A
If I ruled the world, or at least the world of documentary fi lm, I would
make every director be an editor fi rst, because I do think that you learn
so much about what makes a scene and what tells a story by actually
having to do it in the editing room. So I felt it was really, really helpful
that I had been editing before I was directing. Th e fi rst thing I directed
was a personal fi lm I made about my mother and Alzheimer’s, and that
was almost not a decision, it was just an overriding need that I had to
make that fi lm. And then I thought, this is kind of fun, you get to make
all the fi nal decisions.Right now, documentarians can be a one-man-band. A lot of my
students go all over the world, take one crew person with them, do
everything incredibly cheaply, and then they edit it at home with Final
Cut Pro. Th e expenses have come down in a lot of ways, but it’s still
tough in a lot of ways and the constant search for money can really
beat you down. It’s grueling work, but it’s thrilling work, so until you
get burned out, your problem will not be that you’re unhappy at your
work. It is a way to go places and meet people that you would otherwise
have no way of experiencing. You have the excuse of making this fi lm,
and you meet the most fantastic people in the world.
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