JEDIDIAH JENKINS
GoPro
DIRECTOR
PRODUCER
DP
EDITOR
PRODUCER
DP
EDITOR
Rafael August
Rafael August
Ryan Truettner
Brittany Delph
This edit landed in my lap because the Writer-Director resigned shortly after Principle Production wrapped. After cutting footage to the inital script, the Producer and I felt that without the original Director’s vision to guide us, the story lacked its initial spirit.
Most of the footage was shot in slow motion and there was minimal footage featuring Jedidiah’s face. The latter makes it hard to emotionally connect with the main character. The former can drag the pacing down, limit music choices, and become monotonous. While the Director planned to balance out the overcranked shots with stylized, fast-paced inserts and cutaways, these clips never got filmed before his departure, so it was something we had to do our best to solve in post.
The Prodcuer and I decided a pickup interview with Jedidiah would be helpful, both to address the face issue and to try to bring more depth to the story. As a writer, Jedidiah is interviewed regularly, so I intentionally drafted follow-up questions that would hopefully reach beyond the routine answers and get into what inspired him at a personal level to become a writer.
It was incredibly helpful to have the original interview to reference for my follow-up questions. This taught me the importance early on in my career of conducting pre-interviews whenever possible — they are invaluable on any project where interviewed subjects will comprise the primary story beats. Pre-interviews are an opportunity to gather a bit more information from subjects and gather helpful clues for deeper questions to be asked in the official interview.
The original Director was contracted out to film the pickups and did a wonderful job conducting the interview. Jedidiah’s depth and honesty came through in ways that I think totally made the edit. I found his answers about why he became a writer deeply inspiring, and I hope others do too.