How many of you editors are introverts?

[Christopher Travis]

Not sure where I fall on the intro/extro spectrum. I’d basically say I’m a bit shy. I like people and enjoy company, but I’m not gregarious. I tend to wait until I’ve been spoken to before speaking my mind. This could be because I’m English. Anyway this thread seems to have turned into one about working alone Vs working with others, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on that.

I’ve been cutting broadcast docs and factual stuff for about 7 years and have had a nice variety of experience when it comes to the solo vs collaborative ways of working. I think the dynamic here is different to the corporate world because you tend not to be working with “clients” but “collaborators” in the form of producers or directors who (hopefully) know as much or more about film making as you do.

When I started out, I was working with lazy directors who knew I was young and keen, so they would dump the footage on my desk and say “have at it”. Which was fine by me, I got to take ownership of the project and develop my own storytelling skills, and they got to go to the pub. So for the first few years I really enjoyed working alone because it felt like I owned the end result more. One problem with this was that I never really had any mentors. No guidance from those more experienced than me, which would have been useful in those early years.

Despite the lack of mentorship I’ve managed to hack my way into slightly bigger jobs these days and find that now more often than not I’m working with a producer or director over my shoulder all day. This was a big shock to me at first and took some getting used to. The first thing I learned was that even if your producer knows exactly what they want, don’t slip into “auto-pilot” mode and just blindly implement their instructions, because at some point they will ask what you think and you need to have been paying attention. That was a big one for me.

Over the last few years I’ve had good and bad experiences with producers but overall I must say that I broadly prefer working with an engaged partner. I love just sitting there and swapping ideas for ways to make scenes or stories work. Sometimes we’ll just talk from 9am till 4pm. But by that time we’ve hammered out the bare bones of the story and I can just throw the sync cut together in an hour or two because we know it’s going to work.

I’m finding this way of working to be a revelation to me because A) if I’ve worked with someone to get the structure right, then I don’t find that I’m terrified of exec viewings because I’ve got the support of my producer and B) I feel like I’m finally getting the help and guidance from more experienced film makers that I didn’t get in my early days. I honestly thought I knew it all about 3 years ago, but I’ve learned so much more since then and am excited at the thought of how many other people I’ll (hopefully) get to work with in the years to come.

Naturally working so closely with one person for 12 hours or more a day 5 days a week can become stressful and there have been times when I’ve been staring at my screen, clutching my mouse tightly, willing the producers head to explode so I don’t have to hear them say “I’m still not sure about this music” one more time.

I think the perfect scenario for me is working closely with someone to get the story straight, then being left alone to make it look and sound right. It does not take 2 people to choose every cutaway, reaction shot and music track.

[Stephen Smith]

[Christopher]
Anyway this thread seems to have turned into one about working alone Vs working with others, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on that.

Sorry, that is probably my fault. To answer the question, I’m an introvert who can be an extravert when I need to be. A fellow charity volunteer was surprised when I told him that I consider myself an introvert.

Stephen Smith

Utah Video Productions

Check out my Vimeo page

[Bob Cole]

sorry, too shy to answer question.

(Bob C)