Editing first feature doc

If you found yourself on my blog page via my website, you may have noticed my last post was from this summer. So I thought I'd chime in with a quick update.

In July I started editing a documentary feature, a music doc about singer/songwriter Ana Egge. This is my first foray into documentary editor as the lead editor. I have assisted on docs in the past, both for director Margaret Brown (Be Here To Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt and The Order of Myths). 

So as soon as I returned from the Sundance Documentary Story and Edit Lab this summer, I took all that wisdom I had cribbed from Fellows way more experienced and smarter than I and began applying said wisdom to this project.

Over 140 hours of footage. Interviews, verite, live concerts and archival. We are currently in the midst of taking the story from an assembly to our first rough. It's been daunting, stressful, overwhelming at times. It's also been invigorating, exciting and a satisfying challenge. I am becoming a better editor and storyteller because of it. 

If I'm sporadic in my updates on this blog, that's the reason. But you can always find me on Twitter or G+.

One of the unique aspects of the documentary is that we're editing in the much maligned Final Cut Pro X. If you're interested in what that process is shaping up to be like, check out my workflow blog that I recently began which chronicles the ins and outs of editing an independent feature documentary in Final Cut Pro X.