Tracks and Titles and Tears, Oh My!

You know, it's a bit of a line that I don't want to be crossing here- getting rather specific about situations here in Post, but I had to ask myself- how many people read this thing and also surely no one who attends this school knows of this blog, so, um, whatev.

Right.

And tonight was really weird.

Because there were tears shed in the edit room (not by moi of course) but by a student I was helping with an edit. It had begun as a critique (who on earth decides i am qualified to do such things?! the instructor of course, go figure) and this edit had Problems. But the Problems could be Solved, of this I was sure. So we spent maybe 15 minutes going through the possibilities and several things became clear to me:
1- People should not shoot personal docs and edit them themselves. This is just asking for trouble, is stupid, and I can't really figure out what the point is, honestly. A friend of mine went through something like this in the spring, and it made no sense to me then, and it makes no sense to me now. Being too close to a project does no one any good. That's what Editors Are For. Use Them. We feel useful and appreciate the paycheck.
2- This person hated the piece after seeing the footage, largely because they were on camera and were narrating. I sympathized for sure. I DETEST being on camera and do my best to make sure any cameos I'm part of end up on the editing floor. Past directors can attest to this fact. So this person hated it, and there's not much you can do to convince someone not to hate themselves on camera. It can rarely be done.
3- People need to learn how to chill the fuck out and move past things and this person surely did. I could not convince them to do so, not that I thought I could succeed, but I had to try. Move on! It's a short project! There are more! It's not the final for chrissakes!

So the gates of Niagara didn't open when we were working together, no. I'm not that evil, but I am brutally honest, as we all know. My commentary was helpful to many other people in the class, so I knew whatever I was doing was working. No, this person decided to bawl when the instructor asked how it was going. Oi. Neither of us knew what to do really. Time was spent calming them down, etc, but, shit, you know? Crying! Macs! Final Cut Pro! These things do not mix! Nor should they. Oi!

Now, wine and a walk would've helped them, of this I'm sure, but they stuck around and continued to fiddle with the project.

Le Sigh.

Hopefully when I come in tomorrow, they will be feeling significantly better about the piece, but I doubt it. Mmmph.