If you enjoyed those short documentaries The Dogist and The Guy: The Brian Donahue Story that got Vimeo Staff Picks; please know your time to watch them again may be limited.
I have formally asked EJ the director to take them down. Why? I did them for free and I'm over it.
People on the outside will never know how much I put into those films. Years. Obsession. My heart and soul.
I was heavily involved in shaping the production and finishing even though I only have an editor credit.
It's very commonplace for post production people to do free work for directors.
Why?
You love your craft.
The project excites you.
You need someone else's footage to practice your art.
Not getting paid gives you creative freedom.
You're interested in documentary and want to get into features one day.
You want to keep and get new commercial clients.
You're incredibly naive.
Those films served a purpose but after maturing and getting a glimpse of the feature film world and seeing there's no end to this nonsensical dynamic I'm like dude, take those edits down. No dollar amount will suffice and who said I signed up for this shit for life? There's absolutely no path to freedom and sustainability for me here.
I don't like my pro-bono film edits being used to solicit your commercial directing work and having them be monetized by outlets like National Geographic. I know the dollar amount on that NatGeo thing is laughable but it's not about that. It's about energetics and not corrupting things I edited from a place of pure passion.
I was not polite (at all) like I'm being in this blog post; hence my favorite drawing from elementary school in the thumbnail.
If anyone else out there has done free work that they no longer enjoy being public please do not hold back from spitting that fire. You are entitled to that and you are entitled to growth. What you gave them already should be met with great appreciation. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I seek truth, authentic expression, creative freedom, and being compensated healthily. It is literally impossible to tick all those boxes as a film editor and trust me; I've exhausted all the options. No wonder Hank Corwin's website used to look like an acid trip down to a hell realm and Spike's editor croaked at 52. Dude had the same nickname as me too; although spelled a bit differently.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what freedom means. It's pretty simple for me really. Freedom is being free from being exploited by other people.
My heart goes out to all the film editors and post production people out there. Unpaid work and exploitation is incredibly rampant within the production world. If people outside the industry knew what these directors asking for favors day rates were they might faint and grab their pitchforks upon waking. Some even have trust funds too. You know who you are.
For me, the party's over ladies and gentlemen and it has been for a hot minute. We had an alright time but now you gotta clean up your shit and go the fuck home. I'd appreciate a contribution that will be responded to with merely a you're welcome. Good luck nursing that hangover. All that money you've siphoned is just going to fund your IV drips.
Who knows if the films will actually get taken down. That would be rad though. I am for sure done with them myself and there was some gnarly energy latching onto me that got released after sending those emails.
I'm feeling more like a feather each day 🪶