The Ruthless Art of Subtraction

A successful career in editing has many different component parts. From cultivating as many different client relationships as possible to creating a positive working environment in the edit suite. We need to nurture and craft the creative energy we put out into the industry in a very specific way so that directors want to work with us.

But there’s one place where we actually need to be amoral, Machiavellian and downright ruthless and that place is the timeline. Developing an unsentimental attitude to the vast majority of our raw footage is not just a good idea, it’s essential to our creative survival.

If we don’t master the art of subtracting content and never looking back we’ll never meet a deadline or be confident in any of our creative decisions. On this week’s show I talk through this unique perspective and see how it can be utilised for maximum effect.