How does one balance their wellbeing while also working 16 hours a day? How do you sift through 300 hours of documentary film footage in an efficient manner? What type of people skills and character traits are necessary if you are thinking of becoming an editor?

In today’s episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins, Yaro Altunin and Editor Meredith Rathiel Perry

discuss:

The film, Plan C, and what it was like to create such a timely documentary
Working remotely from a 28 acre farm in Washington
Why Meredith was excited to work on this particular documentary
Feeling retraumatized over and over again when editing documentaries
What is was like to manage 300 hours of footage
Cool tricks for keyboard shortcuts
Why ripple deleting is so satisfying
Helping directors through the birthing process of their films
What really makes you a good editor
Remembering to be excited about the things that are working

Memorable Quotes

“You’ve been working 16 hour days for a month and you’re like ‘what am I doing with my life, I am so tired.’” [16:02]
“With docs you are shaping the story whereas a narrative has a script.” [29:18]
“I am a really visual screenwriter. I can see what I’m writing.” [30:40]