This week all I did was edit, well at least that’s what it felt like. Sleep. Eat. Edit. And edit some more. It’s funny how quickly and how slowly three hours can pass in the edit suits. I equate it to being trapped in a dungeon, as I hunch over the keyboard starring unblinking at the screen, replaying the same sequence over and over again. The music I had chosen presented the hardest task for me. It was classical piano written by Mozart, so it naturally had dramatic tonal shifts that would range from matching appropriately to my footage, to thundering bass notes that played during moments that were supposed to be whimsical. It was very difficult to find a balance of when to play music and when not to. At one stage I had to cut a few notes from the track and replay them over a few times to avoid having the music begin so rise in volume and intensity, only to fade it out. The other task which I found to be tricky, was when to put in cutaways. Naturally I had to cover jump cuts in the interview footage but otherwise I was always very unsure of their placement. This was only made more difficult by beautiful alternate angles of my artist, that unfortunately didn’t match her gestures at the time. There was one shot of my artist’s reflection in a mirror that was also a piece of her artwork, that I could only use a snippet of because it didn’t fit continuity wise.

After countless hours in the edit suit I finally finished my film. I was triumphant but very exhausted. I don’t know if I’m entirely happy with my final edit but I don’t think I’m ever satisfied with my final product. There’s always something you think could be changed or doesn’t feel right. But at the end of the day, after watching it over and over again, you’ve got to accept that it’s done and it’s time to take your hands off the wheel.