Philosophy
When I meet with a potential client, there are two questions I'm sure to ask: What is your story and who is your audience? There's no right answer. It's the beginning of a conversation that will last throughout our work together. A film's story, as obvious as it all may seem on the big screen, is equally as mysterious in watching the dailies. I'll often use the phrase "found the story", because its there in the footage waiting to be sculpted out. Editing is as much about what to include as what to exclude, what to juxtapose as what to build, and the beats within a scene as the overall arc. Typically, I am not given a script or an outline. Instead I develop the story through the building of scenes, which becomes the building of themes, and later a beginning, middle, and end. I ask myself: what is the state of the world for the audience: what do they know, how do they feel about it, what do they learn, how far do they travel, and how do they feel at the end? I believe test audience screenings are extremely valuable for identifying problems and less helpful in identifying solutions. The thrill for me is creating something that works; that expands the worldview of an audience and makes them approach life the next day a little differently.
Services
Although I'm best-known for my work as a documentary feature editor, I also cut narrative films, promotional videos, trailers, and internal corporate R&D videos. My strength is seeing the connections in the research and communicating it as a story. In addition to editing work, I also am available as a story consultant (pre-production or post).
