David Chiu

Roy Eisenstein (the writer/director/cinematographer for “Do Something”) and I (the “star” of the piece) sat down last night for a 3-hour editing session of the short film. Since I’ve never really edited anything before (except for web videos), it turned into more of a class on editing than a collaboration. But what better way to learn than on your own project? I really began to appreciate the process and creativity of editors and editing. Within our 3 hour session we only ended up with a 30 second assembly of footage because of all the grunt work we put in hunting down specific scenes and shots and finding the best moments in my performance. I never knew how time consuming it all could be and it made me realize how much time must be spent trying to edit a full-length feature. It also made me look at my acting in a critically objective way and how important it is to be consistent and really deliver the best performance in every shot. It’s easy to see how an actor’s performance can end up on the cutting room floor if they can’t hit the right moments in a scene. But if you can deliver a good performance in every shot, it gives more options for an editor to work with.

I love the creative process of putting together a film. It’s very cool to see the project start to come together. I probably still have a couple days worth of editing ahead of me to complete the short not including possibly reshooting a couple shots or shooting new footage to add to the piece and then adding the sound effects as well, but I’m very stoked to be actually doing it.

Then there’s this other script I just wrote the other night - a 30 second commercial spoof that I hope to be shooting in the next week or so…