EDITING IS A FLEETING ROMANCE

I received a text today from a friend hard at work on an iMovie edit for some internal proposal. “I have a whole new respect for what you do. How did I turn 8 minutes into 8 hours on this??”

Ahh, yes. One may as well ask how a glance across the pub turns into a whirlwind 6 month romance. For, much like the arms of another, editing is a warm, dark, tormenting, lovely place. For an editor, each project is essentially a brief relationship with highs & lows, risks & rewards, and ultimately, a final release into the world.

Oh, the edit is a coy muse. It circles one’s head at night, consumes all thoughts while awake, and does not release its grip when day draws to a close.

As with any relationship, there is a right way and a wrong way to approach, but so many exciting choices in between. One may lay exhausted and spent from some conflict, or one’s eyes may well up in tears, reliving the same beautiful or heartbreaking moment again and again. The subtleties and the tiny moments in between the big ones leave an editor even more infatuated — little surprises or gaps of silence where words needn’t be spoken.

And as each day hits a fulfilling stopping point, we walk away, head fuzzy from constant focus, eyes heavy from holding a constant gaze, ready to meet once again in dreams and start the next day anew with joyous reprise.