Sometimes all that’s needed is a little TLC. A narrative hit man to come in and be brutal about what works and what doesn’t. With 3 passports and an acute desire to help make films as good as they can be, I like to think of myself as the Jason Bourne of editors, traveling the globe to blunder through a project’s confusion until we figure out what makes it work.
Rough cut analysis, story editing, proposal writing, and character evaluation are some of the tools I use on international projects like Missing Fetine (Yeliz Shukri: Cyprus), Bikes vs Cars (Fredrik Gertten: Sweden), Targets (Maziar Bahari: Canada/UK), Home Games (Alisa Kovalenko: Ukraine), to name just a few.
Notable films:
Home Games, How Big is the Galaxy, Good Neighbours, Liberation Day, Bikes vs Cars, Ghost Rockets, Missing Fetine, Emergency Rations, When Pigs Come
Since 2013 I’ve had the pleasure of tutoring filmmakers at the pitching stage of their projects. Looking at rough trailers and raw material, I and my colleagues from <a href=”http://www.edn.dk/”>EDN</a> have helped new and experienced documentarists to hone their material and ideas into effective pitches, and select the stuff that best serves their purposes right now.
Do you use the trailer to answer questions, or ask them? Who is your protagonist and how do you present them? Do you use footage that sets up the journey, or shows it in all its glory?
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uniquely collaborative endeavor with the filmmakers, working together with them to refine the style and tone of the film as part of an ongoing process.
PHIL JANDALY 