Did you ever wonder what "Aazadi" means?

Did you ever wonder what the title, Aazadi actually means? To me of course it means months and years of work and more sleepless nights to come. In many South Asian languages, it means some sort of combination of freedom and independence but to those in our film, it means very many things. The freedom to go outside, the freedom to have friends and see friends and to do many of the things most around the world take for granted.

Here, Kokila, one of the main characters from the film tells us what aazadi means to her.

There is still a long way to go, please take a moment to visit this link and help towards continuing to film Kokila’s story and the stories of the others and help bring them to the big screen and as many screens as we can.

Weapon of Choice

I was recently asked what kind of editor I was. It’s not the first time I have been asked and apart from hoping the answer is ‘good’, it most often seems to relate to what I work on most and/or like to work on most. Film, commercial, music video, fiction, non-fiction etc. The answer to that is often, yes, all of the above and more, a story is a story, a message is a message in my opinion and the challenge is to make it the best possible, a challenge I love.

On this occasion though what I was actually being asked came after I answered with some form of the above. The follow up question was, ‘are you a Premiere Pro editor'?’. To sum it up, essentially, what was my Non-Linear Editor (NLE) or software weapon of choice?

It came at a time when I had actually just agreed to do a couple of days editing a bit of non-fiction German TV with Avid. I hadn’t used Avid for nearly 2 years or so when I agreed and quite honestly, I was not feeling the most confident going in. When I found a very nice suite ready to go (although with an ergonomic mouse not made for a left hander), it was into the deep end on a software I could barely remember how to create a new sequence on.

But then I began looking through the rushes, trying to find in the back of my mind some hotkeys to help go a bit quicker, looking another couple up online and then remembering a way I used to like to log selects as subclips. Soon enough I had wrestled a couple of sequences together with one resembling some form of rough cut.

It made me realise that despite not having all the hotkeys in my mind and using that stupid mouse with my wrong hand making me a bit slower than I might have liked, what I was doing was what I was there to do - editing. Despite the software, I was using it in essentially the same way as I usually do. Find my selects, build a sequence and then start to tune it and cut it down or make it feel the way it needs to feel. It was at that point that I was using some of what is fairly unique to Avid and I was lost in the edit in the same way as always.

Once the job was done, I decided I should probably do a bit of work on Avid to really sure up my skills again. Then I was asked the above question about Premiere, Fired up some rushes at home on Final Cut and my mind had 3 NLE’s flinging themselves around in it so here I am to put down in writing what I think about the whole argument/debate about it.

It would be nice in an ideal world that there was just one system that we could perfect and then use. However, the fact that there are more underlines my 100% belief that it is not the software or machine that makes the editor, it is what they use it to produce that is important. A good editor is a good editor and ‘good’ is based on how they are able to build a story or message and create a feeling and shape the footage.

The question I would ask to press the point further is whether a sculptor is a better sculptor if they use marble instead of bronze?

Naturally, there is a question of speed and knowing the ins and outs of a software can help in speed a huge amount but then so can experience and speed of mind for things to do, try and succeed in doing whilst shaping the footage. Simply being an expert with a certain software does not make a good editor, at least in my opinion. I always think that when I am in a position to hire editors for the films I am making, I will be thinking first and foremost about the person, their ideas, their unique approach to the story being told, their connection to it and how it ‘clicks’. Secondary to that is what we will use to get there. Maybe it could be best for the project, finances and other considerations to use a tried and tested workflow/software we are happy with as individuals and maybe best would be to go for something neither one of us knows/loves. What is lost in speed knowing keyboard shortcuts will be countered by the speed of mind and willingness. And over the course of a good, long edit, speed of software knowledge always builds. After all, my first couple of hours driving that Avid with the right handed mouse probably looked like Bambi on ice but (hopefully) by the end of the day I looked like I knew what I was doing and it got done.

At this point, I’m very aware that a casual reader who has found this blog might be wondering if I actually give my opinion on the various tools and softwares editors use so I will. I will only point out what I believe to be the advantages of them. If I have left out certain things you are expecting to see here it will mean that I don’t actually see much difference between them and so just assume it is fairly similar across the board. So, in no order of preference:

AVID

This is what I learned on, way back when. I didn’t know any alternative for the first years of my career. It has had many facelifts, many improvements since but still seems to be the base standard for cutting long-form projects and also some shorter form. It (at least to me) seems to be designed to give a quite literally hands on approach with the keyboard being responsible for around 90% of the actual editing. Marking, lifting, extracting, trimming and more on a sequence can (and for speed probably should) all be done using the keyboard. I can fully see and feel why it is the weapon of choice for these longer form projects, its stable and the methods used really lend themselves to fine cutting after a bigger sequence build though it can lend itself to a perfect workflow short-form too. Of course however, it costs and is not at the cheaper end of the market and requires a subscription.

PREMIERE PRO

I came to Premiere Pro via wanting to use After Effects. I have worked a lot as a compositor/Visual Effects Artist and, after using things like Smoke & Flame, wanted to turn my attention to AE. The major reason forit was that I wanted to work more as an editor and have that advantage of being able to do the VFX too. The dynamic link across the Adobe Creative Suite means that you can easily share between Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects, Audition etc and keep going. I’m not writing that this is not possible elsewhere (and of course, Final Cut has Motion and Resolve has Fusion) but I like it. I have also found that there is work to be done for many companies who are newer to video and ‘content’ creation such as marketing companies who encourage Adobe use as they have the licenses across their firms. I have also found that there is nothing you can not edit via Premiere. For me personally, it would be a weapon of choice for short form projects, particularly those that will integrate multiple After Effects compositions etc in it down the line, music videos, some commercials etc. However, I am editing a 15 minute short in it without any issue and would be happy taking it on another very long-form spin. As Avid, it is a paid subscription model but you do get other apps such as AE, photoshop etc for what I think is not too dissimilar from Avid monthly.

FINAL CUT PRO

Talking of cost, FCP is (at least at the moment) based on a one-time purchase method of I think €300. You can top it up with Motion and Compressor for around €50 each. With that package you have an NLE in FCP, a VFX package and compressor which is Apples answer to Adobe’s Media Encoder for what I hope is for life. There is no denying that it works a little differently to those above but what many see as a problem actually can become an ally. The magnetic timeline can take some getting used to as can the media management, labelling, keywording, logging and general way of navigating an NLE. Some (many) hate it. Some (sadly fewer) love it. However, I have really found a love for it over recent months. Sadly, it is not necessarily found everywhere (yet) but Apple have however committed to an effort to support it in the wider post-production industry after an open letter (to which I was a signatory to) was met with a positive response. In my humble belief, I feel that it has a huge future at the very least within long and shorter form documentary. The way in which media is organised and logged really does allow for a unique look at what can often be countless hours and hours of footage.

DAVINCI RESOLVE

Born from the (mainly) colour grading software, some still don’t realise that Resolve has within it not just a very powerful colour unit but also an integrated edit tab, a finer cutting ‘cut’ tab, Fusion (which is a node based compositing/VFX tool) and also Fairlight, an audio tool. In many ways it is the Adobe video creating suite under one roof, no needing to open up various software using a dynamic link, just tab between the different tools. Even better, it’s free. Kind of. The ‘lite’ version is free and has within it many of the functions but not some of the heavier tools such as the dynamic resizing (to up-res footage to higher resolutions), de-noise and more. However you can edit, fine-cut, colour, key, make many VFX and export all within the free version. The ‘studio’ or paid version comes in at around the same one-off price as Final Cut Pro and has everything within it. It also reads Linear Time Code (LTC) which may be hidden in an audio track (when using something like a tentacle sync unit for synchronised timecode), something only Avid of the above does within it with FCP, for example, requiring an inexpensive third party software to do.

SONY VEGAS

Yes, there really are more than the above 4. However, I haven’t used it so I will link to the main page to find out more. It looks interesting and, despite there being countless others out there which can do a job (although within limits), will leave these here as the 5 I have encountered within professional circles and conversations.

To conclude, editing is about so much more than the NLE you know best or prefer to use. If you were to ask what I have ready to go within my own set-up, I would have to answer with Premiere, FCP and Resolve Studio. But I’d be happy to sort out an Avid license (I do have the free Avid Media Composer First) to work on my own system if the workflow required it. Going in to a company, I’d be open to anything and am secretly hoping for an invitation to do something for someone on Sony Vegas some time. Would that make me a ‘Vegas editor’?

Whatever it makes me, I’ll just get on with it but, yeah, do give me a shout for any of the above.

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Making

Every now and then you get some real gems pop up on youtube. Yesterday was one of those days. Amongst the usual recommendations Google scarily know I am likely to click on was, The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing.

From 2004, it’s a feature documentary about movie editing and has accounts from editors such as Walter Murch, Thelma Schoonmaker, Sally Menke and filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Sean Penn, James Cameron and more.

It’s not a ‘how to’ video or film - an hour and a half of that would be pretty exhausting but it has great accounts of some of the industry’s absolute best talking (and showing) you their process, their belief, their theory and their practice.

There aren’t that many films out there about the art of editing so this one is well worth a watch. In thinking about it, I can only really recall ever watching another film about editing which was the one that was made about Final Cut Pro, itself on youtube.

If any people out there happen to stumble on this admittedly short blog, please feel free to comment down below and recommend some others on the subject. I’d love to check them out.

Synchronised and Coming Together

Once Upon a Time, I was living and working in Malta, making videos for numerous companies in the online and gambling world, many with a football (soccer) theme, one of which was The Longest Journey, a short documentary which you can find here.

That film proved to be a huge learning curve, particularly on the production side of things, battling and juggling a large amount of people I wanted to appear in the film who were scattered all over the UK and the North East of England and the very small team behind the camera and very little money to get it done. It got made, it got seen (at film festivals before being acquired by the popular football channel Copa90) and it, I believe, did for the company who commissioned it what they wanted. However, it wasn’t the only film I set out to make whilst living in Malta.

In fact, there were 2 others, one which got abandoned as the Covid-19 pandemic set in at the beginning and another that did see some action.

It began at the National Pool of Malta, a great pool that I loved swimming in under the (usually) blue Maltese island sky. A friend of mine, the eventual Director of Photography of the film, had been talking to me often about his fascination with underwater photography in recent weeks. My wife had a new camera she wanted to get to know as her career kept growing and she and the DoP had been hanging out a lot, experimenting and wanted to film something. I, of course, wanted to make a short, imagining I would be able to fit in some sort of experiment in between jobs that actually paid the rent. So, with all that in my head I went for a swim to be confronted by something I had only ever seen in passing every four years, televised as part of the Olympics; Synchronized Swimming.

It immediately fascinated me and looked amazing. I saw athletes with incredible grace above the water line and unbelievable endurance and strength below it. I sat on the side and watched for a while before swimming over once they had finished and asking one of the coaches about it. It was then that I started to hear about the sport more and how it established itself in Malta.

A couple of weeks later, a couple of meetings with this person and that person, some emails, phone calls and a little research, I wondered whether this could be something to scratch all of our itches. So, when I told the others about it and what I thought we could do, we decided to go for it, we would try and make a short documentary about it.

I felt we had some interesting characters and a nice little story which I saw as one of friendship and fate as much as the sport itself. Together, we felt that as we had access to what we needed to make a litte film, he had a GH5, we had a Sony A7sII, they could film, I would record sound, we all had enough about us to organise a few things here and there and I could edit at the end.

We also had that other essential ingredient; the will to give it a go.

It all sounded so easy!

What we didn’t have was money or a great deal of time. The money was, we naively felt, not an issue. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and whilst that is absolutely true, there is one thing that money does help with. Time. There are plenty of other things too, but we will get to that.

We first had to co-ordinate ourselves, with three different workloads, at three different companies, doing three different things on top of the schedules of those we wanted to film who were coming and going to the island as their lives started to move on or who were hard to pin down, a victim of time themselves. Doing things without any money is a really romantic idea at the beginning but then you slowly realise why it is needed.

However, we battled on and slowly, a day here, an hour there, we started filming and filmed some really nice stuff. Some of it we instantly thought was ‘gold’ whilst some got old very quickly as people or stories changed. Then, due to the stop/start nature of our production, some of the gold became old or worse - irrelevant. But, we battled on, kept filming here and there and kept chipping away at what we thought could achieve something like what I wanted to do story-wise and they wanted to do in terms of picture. We had grand plans for a beautifully lit, full, grand performance of a routine in an amazing pool over looking an amazing view. We had ideas to film from below the surface and from above and mimic the way this camera tech avoids the problem of air to water refraction.

And then, it all stopped.

There were reasons of course. Time kept on being our enemy, then there was the pandemic which hit Malta just a couple of weeks after it came to Europe via Italy. Everything shut down just as we felt we wee getting somewhere. And when I say shut down, the island locked the gates, closed the airports and we were all banished indoors. Then, there was an impending move back to Germany which my wife & I had decided to do, not to mention a baby on it’s way (for the DoP - not us).

All momentum was lost and with no reason to be making the film other than the sheer will to make something and try some things, bills needed paying and moves needed making. Of course, I never quite let it go but a new country on our side, the new baby on theirs and a pandemic keeping us out didn’t help. That, plus the feature I had been developing, writing and researching since around 2015, Aazadi was starting to gain a little momentum and needed a lot of attention. So, that was that. I feel sure we are not the only filmmakers who have tried, got something in the can but had to leave it there, never to be finished. In fact, I know we are not.

But, I can’t let it go, I don’t want to leave something unfinished, not when there are some really lovely shots, some lovely moments and the building blocks of something that really shows the three main characters as really great ambassadors to their sport and to each other and their lasting, oddly coincidental but enduring friendship. I also feel I owe it to them, my wife, our DoP and to our time on the island to do something with it.

So, I took a look at the rushes and loaded up the Premiere project I had started organising in as we shot. I had a couple of interview sequences synced and marked up which I had forgotten and a timeline of bits and pieces I had thrown together that I felt could lead us somewhere (in actual fact I remember exactly what it was for - it was supposed to lead us in to our big, gorgeous, amazing set-piece as mentioned above). I also found one of what I call a ‘text cut’ which is a sequence I often make at various stages - often just before post begins or during production. What that generally is is a bunch of text cards put together as a sequence, outlining scenes that have been shot (and if so I put a representative frame underneath), are going to be shot (where I sometimes draw something to represent it) or should be shot (something I feel is missing or is needed or going to be shot). If I can, I put a few sounds in there, music if I have it and any soundbites I know could spark a scene or moment. Pretty rudimentary but I like it and it often helps communicate the ideas and directions to others. Sadly, as I went through the sequence, there was a fair amount of strange stick figure drawings and what felt like cryptic text clues to what we never got.

I also realised that part of the problem was going to be the sound. Malta is often a noisy place with half a million people crammed on to a little island with most of them in the area in which we were always shooting - the National Pool Complex. Add to that a swimming pool with whistles, water polo religiously practised and a general mass of people and traffic and borrowed sound equipment that I hadn’t had a chance to use often if we had it to use at all, it made for a challenge.

But, I started so I thought I would try and finish and so here we are. If this blog has felt a little like a battle between the past tense and the present tense at times, then I apologise for any confusion but, having decided not to give up on the project we are calling Synchronised (the jury is out on whether to go with an s as in the British spelling or a z as the Americans use), it lives both in the past and the present for me.

I then had a weekend free, alone with nothing to do on a wet wintery German weekend. I decided to take my new mac (with M1 max chips) for a spin. I soon remembered that we shot a lot (but not all) in 4K and with three different cameras (I had forgotten we had a couple of sessions using a Blackmagic pocket 4K). What resulted was a re-worked, not as originally intended but not altogether terrible assembly cut of around 35 minutes, admittedly missing what I felt were a couple of shots of the island of Malta for context here and there and some sort of key ‘action’ scene I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

Then I slept on it. And then slept on it again and then again as other things got in the way until this last weekend, I found myself alone, free, needing a break from making a new pitch deck and an urge to do something constructive. Or maybe it was just another wet, miserable day outside and the (mostly) blue sky of Malta felt like the thing to look at.

The timeline coming together

35 minutes became 30 as I trimmed and constructed something resembling a through thread, then it became 25 as the path got a little clearer. Some temp music helped trim another 2 minutes and the big black hole of whatever it is I am missing shrank before I knew that there is a 15-20 minute short, just waiting to get out. We never intended to make anything other than a short under 40 minute film in the first place so I feel good that despite everything, we have something approaching a film as I write this blog at the end of that weekend.

So, what now? As I wrote above, I feel like I owe it to those involved, and myself, to finish what we started. It might not be as grand a vision as we had but there is something I think we can be proud of starting to form. The big question is, how to finish it? Firstly, it needs some time. Secondly, even if I find the time to finish it, it probably does need some money. There is, ideally, a little archive to buy which would really help what was originally a black screen with ‘archive goes here’ written across it and stick figures which are supposed to be swimmers dancing in the water drawn on it. It will need a really good audio mix (and some fixing) when done as well and a couple of music tracks, though let’s see how the usual suspects of royalty free music suppliers can serve up.

So, this is the first of what I expect to be a few blogs on how the project comes together. We set out to make a short documentary that celebrates these three women in Malta who met and made something happen in their sport and I’m determined to finish it, one way or another and finish it. The aim is to find a way to create something that doesn’t need an asterisk next to it explaining why it isn’t better. It is what it is. Whoever might read this will know that it isn’t what I originally wanted to do but then, what film ever truly is?

In the words of the great Werner Herzog, “day one is the point of no return” and that, “there is never an excuse not to finish a film”.

Quite right. No excuses.

Now I just need to find some more wet and miserable weekends with nothing else to do…

Can a director edit and an editor direct?

Many directors edit and many editors have gone on to direct. Over the years it has become far more common within commercials, branded content, music videos and corporate image films with the ever decreasing budget dictating a lot of it.

But then there is longer form work such as television and film. The numbers doing both things become far fewer and the opinions on the subject become a little louder. The question often changes from whether it can be done (it can) to whether a director should edit. I purposely left off the other half of the original question as to whether an editor should direct as there are many examples of editors who went on to direct. Martin Scorsese worked as an editor, Robert Wise cut Citizen Kane of all things before directing films such as The Sound of Music and David Lean began as an editor cutting more than 20 movies such as Pygmalion and working with Powell & Pressburger before making his classics such as Lawrence of Arabia. Don Siegel and John Sturges worked their way to the director’s chair the same way going on to make films such as Dirty Harry & The Great Escape respectively whilst both John Glen & Peter Hunt both went from editing a James Bond movie to sitting in the director’s chair on later Bond efforts. Though there are many more examples I could throw out there, I recently saw a film called The Farthest, directed by Emer Reynolds* who has edited countless films, whose work is fantastic and The Farthest is the coolest film about the Voyager probes you will ever see.

You would be forgiven however in assuming that all of the above also have edited some of their films alongside directing them. It’s well known that Scorsese works with the amazing Thelma Schoonmaker and David Lean sat only in the directors chair for around 4 decades before he decided to both direct and edit A Passage to India (for which he won an Oscar for direction and was nominated for editing). Robert Wise never went back once he closed that door, nor did the great Hal Ashby despite a career that saw him cut In the Heat of the Night (for which his editing won an oscar) before a directing career that includes Harold & Maude and Being There.

There are others, however who take on both (or sometimes more) jobs on a film. Mary Ann Bernard and Roderick Jaynes both do it. They are the pseudonyms of Steven Soderbergh, who prolifically edits, directs, shoots, produces many of his films, and the Coen brothers respectively. Akira Kurosawa did it, Takeshi Kitano does it now, as does Benny Safdie, half of the Safdie brothers team who you will know from Uncut Gems although personally I adore their film Good Time. Then there was Frederick Wiseman who edited, directed, produced and often did the sound on over 40 films over a prolific (and successful) career not to mention Steve James (who made the great Hoop Dreams), Alfonso Cuaron and Xavier Dolan.

Slowly, you get an argument that suggests that not only is it possible but either starting as an editor or continuing to do it by editing and directing is a good thing. Those who would argue against might fairly point out that equal or greater numbers have come to the directors chair via cinematography, the art department, writing and various other routes.

So why is this even a conversation or a question?

It is an argument of perspective and having additional perspectives on a film that is what concerns those who suggest it is not always a good idea (at least in film and television - with TV often having a speed issue to navigate with a series often being cut as it is being filmed).

Filmmaking is a team effort. It really and truly takes a village to create a movie. If you ever wonder why a film often needs two different pieces of music to run credits over, making one will show you. However, when you think about it, even doing a commercial, music video, image film or anything has with it a collaboration which affects the final piece and the editing process, even if the only collaboration is with the client.

But the sheer length of television and films mean that it is so easy to get stuck in a viewpoint or not see the wood for the trees as they say back in Britain. A new perspective, fresh eyes - like that of an editor - can prove so valuable, Even Benny Safdie and the Coens have the other brother to lean on during the process. I have been those fresh eyes, seeing something new, providing a new idea, a new thread or even just playing Devil’s Advocate in helping others trust their initial decision more and I like the process and appreciate it.

At the time of writing, I am just at the end of key development, going towards the beginning of production for Aazadi (freedom) and have development rushes to start doing something with before going back to India to film the next block. Some say I need an editor, some have assumed I am doing it in an effort to assert full control over the project and some have, in fairness, thought it a good thing that I am going to edit. I can understand two of those three arguments. What Frederick Wiseman & Steve James have in common in directing and editing their films is working in non-fiction where the budget is often much more limited. You go from a question of wondering who might be the best person for the job to being the only person for the job via the only one you can afford. In assuming a director who wants to edit (or has to) has the mind of a despot is wrong and there are many other ways to gain fresh perspectives along that road though admittedly, it is a bit more difficult.

In an ideal world I would love to work with another editor. A good editor is a story teller and a sculptor of a story over and above someone that knows what all the buttons of software x can do. Likewise a good cinematographer is one who can spot a shot, moment or emotion and capture it to the benefit of the film (or whatever kind of project) independently of or at least in conjunction with the director. In making Aazadi, I choose purposely to only very very rarely pick up a camera and only if it is unavoidable not to.

I hope it will keep my mind fresh with what is on screen. I know that whatever story unfolds within the 4 walls of wherever is always a unique experience only a small handful of people will ever have. I chose to record sound during the developmental shooting out of necessity, concentrating on that as things progressed in real time, mostly due to budget restraints again but I also do like recording sound. It also means that the first time I see and hear what happened within those 4 walls properly, together, in sync and ready to sculpt, it will be within the 4 sides of my monitors. This provides me as fresh a perspective as can (literally) be afforded. Because I think there is a very strange trick that happens in non-fiction filmmaking. In my experience editing and/or directing, what feels like is being experienced in those 4 walls (or open spaces) is different to what presents itself on screen afterwards. What once felt a bit mundane has a moment you never knew or saw in the moment when on screen and what you may have thought was pure gold in the real moment is drab and lifeless on screen or has that something not quite right.

As the above article has perhaps suggested, there is a bit of a split personality needed to both direct and edit. I truly believe that you have to separate one part of the brain to another. On set and in pre-production, it is one thing but it is something else entirely on those monitors. You need to forget the 4 walls experience of the shoot and know only the monitor. What was to you in the room a wide shot, void of emotion could now be a close-up of a character, expressing something you had not initially seen live. The director in you may have written it off as probably unusable or something that went nowhere but the editor should now see a shot full of possibility. Likewise, a scene you once thought key might, when put together, seem flatter than expected or not driving the narrative the way you once thought. It doesn’t mean the director in you failed after all, that new close up that expressed something special could be something you forgot you even asked for. A good editor would tell you the same thing, but the director who edits has to tell themselves. But to imagine that assemblies, rough cuts, ideas and other things are not shown to others for a fresh perspective is usually nonsense. The director/editor doesn’t just disappear into a dark room and come back out months (years even) later with a film ready for screen with nobody looking. At least I won’t.

I hope one day to ask all of the above and more about their process for doing both or deciding not to do one in tandem with the other. Until then, I will continue doing both until I have the opportunity not to. I look forward to editing for a director, bringing with me only my editing hat, maybe making something with only a directors hat and continuing to wear the two hats together to get to where the projects need to go.

Speaking of two hats (or Twin Peaks) David Lynch has also done both too.

Life's a pitch

Money. As I shared a platform with other filmmakers, some of which with long track records in making non-fiction films and are greatly respected in the industry, you realise that essentially for them, for their projects, for me and for mine (Aazadi) it all comes down to that same thing. Money.

The Global Pitch event from Sunny Side of the Doc was this year on the theme of ‘Women’s Voices’. It was with great pride and excitement that Aazadi was chosen from a field of 180 applicants as one of 12 official selections to pitch to the great and good of the non-fiction world. It also provided the first laurels - displayed here - to attach to the project, hopefully the first of what will become many of the lifetime of the project.

To be one of 12 from 180 was already a good achievement which carries with it a kind of validation from the industry that you have a project that needs to be heard about. But within it, there are similar odds to award one of the 12 official selections a €3,000 prize for best pitch. Instantly, you start imagining what that extra €3,000 could do for your project, for Aazadi, that would help pay for the huge amount of translation and transcribing needed and put another little sum in the bank to help when going back to India to continue shooting now the first stage is ‘in the can’ (or in my case - the RAID). You also start to assume it will bring further validation of the project and attract more meetings with those all-important decision makers looking to fil their slates with new productions and to help finance, co-produce and help get new non-fiction projects made and importantly - seen.

This wasn’t the first time I had taken the project to this kind of event. As a film coming out of Germany, it was chosen by German Films to put in their showcase at the 2021 Sunny Side of the Doc which allowed me the chance to network a little (online only) and see the chosen projects present themselves. I was also invited to attend Sheffield DocFest as part of the Welsh delegation, I am a Welshman after all. This allowed me another look into what goes on and view some pitches and things, network a little (again just online) and prepare to do it myself for Aazadi.

So, what happens at these things? When you have a project accepted, you pitch. you stand up in front of everybody assembled (or pre-make a video in times of corona) present a trailer, talk about what the project is about and what you need and want from those assembled and then take questions. Then, you hope to take any interest in the project into further meetings which can turn into further meetings or some follow ups, some emails and, in all honesty, a bit of promise before hearing a great deal of nothing much, at least until the next time or the next event.

I don’t blame the delegates and decision makers for their ghosting after the initial meetings. They are bombarded. There are a lot of great projects out there. In many ways, you take a project in to these things like a model or actor will go to a casting. Those the other side are looking for something. Are we it? Possibly. So we show them what we’ve got, try and convince them a little and hope for the callback. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t but, just like the actor or model that ended up with that one big job that started everything, it didn’t happen overnight, so you battle on.

I have however realised that there are a few important things going in to these things. I say important rather than these are the things that create success. After all, what is success? A bag full of cash to make the film you want? If that’s the case, only very few know what to write next and sadly, it is not me. However:

1. Have a project you truly believe in. Speaking of it with confidence and passion will help

2. Know your project. Saying ‘I don’t know’ to any question seems to disappoint everyone. I haven’t yet but I have seen it. Know at the drop of a hat, the what, where, who, how and why of the project.

3. Don’t make it about yourself. Unless, you are a filmmaker with worthy reputation, your perspective is integral to the project or even a part of it, you appear in the film or something really worth mentioning. Ultimately, the project matters most.

4. Have follow up material. It might be stuff you have used to get in to the event but have it on hand to send to people after the event, don’t assume all have seen it despite their presence.

5. Build a thick skin. People will ignore your emails or simply just not see them. They get a lot, they are humans with lives, it will happen, it will go dark, but hold on to those few great and little leads even if all they do is provide confidence in what you are doing. It will be needed!

Perhaps an unofficial 6th one is one I cannot yet confirm but it is something around being memorable. The first event I did with the project where I was able to pitch was one called Medimed (again just online). I took part with the project in a ‘speed dating’ event where you get 15 minutes or so to present a delegate/decision maker your pitches and take a few questions and then follow it up with a little Q&A and then hope. I thought at the time it was a washout for me but then, during Global Pitch, took a question from someone at a great company who I would love to work with who remembered me and the project. One of the comments was on how the project had developed (which it always is doing) as had the pitch (which it has to). At the time of writing this, it is very much a let’s see where that little lead goes.

Whatever happens. Keep going. Apply to the next one. Attend the next one. Speak to people who were nice to you before, complimentary to the project and remind them of what you have hopefully made somewhat memorable previously.

I realise as I get to the end of this little blog that it has gone from me writing about my experience pitching Aazadi to advising an imaginary reader on what to do. The realisation has just hit me that in all reality, I am giving myself a talking to, reassuring myself and telling myself to keep going and the project will come together, find the partners it needs and, most importantly, find it’s audience. It needs to and, it deserves to.

So, with that, back to work. See you at the next event where I hope to pitch Aazadi or whatever I might make next (got a couple up my sleeve already). So, see you there.

Some questions, some answers...

Have you ever sat in a bath and decided to interview yourself as if you just scored the winning goal in a cup final or have just been handed a nice golden Oscar by the academy? Have you ever just sat there interviewing yourself after this imaginary moment of glory? Is it really just me?

Because you might be checking me out as someone you can work with, I have decided to interview myself so you get a better idea of me:

What exactly am I? Filmmaker, editor, compositor, finishing artist?

Yes to all of these. I spent over a decade in various ways in various places as a compositor/VFX artist working on commercials and movie projects. You can check out a few of the films I worked on with my IMDb listing. I have always edited, starting in film school where I did a lot then cutting promos, commercials and trailers before settling in to comp work as well (luckily, these often sit side by side when creating things like commercials & branded content etc and fortunately, I do both). In the last years, I wanted to work more towards creating things from the front rather than at the back end of projects and have been writing, producing and directing things such as branded content, some shorts and now my first feature non-fiction project. So, that’s me.

Of these things, what do I like doing the most?

Again, all of them. For me, the important thing is the story, message and/or content. I love making things, finding solutions and making the best of what I am given whether it is a brief, a budget or some footage. To purely edit something previously shot is a great job which I love to do, helping to sculpt a story out of the raw materials I get. I enjoy that collaboration. Equally, I love the turning of a blank piece of paper into something that I (or anybody else) might film, record and later edit and finish.

Which software do I use?

Depends on the job really.

For editing I will use anything but have a particular affinity for Adobe Premiere Pro & Final Cut Pro (yes, really). It has been a while since I used Avid but happy to jump on board if needed and same goes for DaVinci Resolve. I find myself drawn Premiere for shorter projects, especially if an integration with After Effects will be useful and FCP on longer form things (or again, Avid).

For VFX & compositing I tend to use Adobe After Effects whilst in the past I was a heavy user of Autodesk Smoke & Flame and have played around with NUKE a bit.

For colour, I like DaVinci Resolve though FCP has some great tools within it as do both Premiere & After Effects.

I also use various plug-ins and third party tools as well as other apps within the Adobe cloud such as Photoshop etc.

What do I use in my home office?

I have a Mac based workflow with a heavy duty amount of RAM and latest M1 Max chip. I have licenses for Final Cut Pro & the full Adobe Suite and the full DaVinci Resolve Studio software.

Do I only do post-production?

No. As I previously wrote, I enjoy to get involved in the entire process of a project from script to screen or dive in to different areas along that process. I write, I direct, I produce a little bit, I do camera when needed to (though I will not call myself an accomplished cameraman) and even record sound (which I love to do and am pretty good at).

Where am I based?

I am mobile but I can mostly be found in Berlin and the surrounding area. I can work remotely from home or am available to work wherever you want me.

Where am I from?

No, I’m British (Welsh) but was here long before Brexit thankfully.

What languages do I speak?

English is my native language. Ich kann auch in Deutsch sprechen aber, leider bin ich noch nicht perfekt! I am currently learning German at B2 level which means I still make some mistakes and sound a little strange to a native ear but can manage most things. I can also speak a little Italian and a little Hindi.

However, I have found that I can work with a project in any language and look forward to doing it again.

How do we work together?

Simply contact me here and I will get right back to you.

Many thanks to the academy…