At the very start of a documentary edit, we're usually feeling optimistic. Low on funds, but full of determination. Often it's because we're still riding the momentum of the filming stage.
But if we're not careful, this is when we face several factors that can sabotage our edit.
I'm not talking about the obvious things that can derail us – like lack of time, lack of money, or the steep learning curve with your editing software.
I’m talking about "silent saboteurs" – silent because you might not even realize that they're undermining your documentary edit.
Silent saboteur #1: The urge to rush the process
Filming is like jumping into a rushing river. Once you're in it, there's a lot of fast maneuvering involved, yes… but you don't actually have to paddle very hard in order to move forward, because the current pulls you along.
For the most part, you and your camera go wherever events and your film's participants lead you. Adrenaline is your fuel.
But once you switch from filming to editing, maintaining momentum suddenly becomes a bigger challenge – especially if you don't have a deadline bearing down on you, which is most often the case if you're editing a self-funded doc.
Going from the rushing river into the much calmer waters of Editing Lake can feel like a relief at first. But the trick is, you actually have to paddle harder than before if you want to keep making progress.
Here's where the urge to rush the process often comes in.
Now that you're spending a lot more time at your desk rather than in the field, you may have an itch to reignite some of the energy and exhilaration you felt while filming. Maybe by playing with putting shots and music together.
The little rush this gives you can be a good thing - you've got to make editing fun somehow. Getting little glimpses of how the end product is going to turn out gives us those feel-good dopamine hits.
But if you're not careful, you might get carried away with rush-seeking in the edit, and skip over many critical foundational steps. The result? Days, weeks, or even months later, you feel stuck - wondering why your edit isn't coming together as you'd hoped.
The fact that you jumped right into cutting, rather than being methodical about the process, could be the culprit.
You skipped over or took short cuts through important steps, like:
organizing your material
setting up your project properly
reviewing ALL of your material, and doing so objectively
cataloguing dialogue and interview soundbites
making shot selects
casting character roles
mapping out your story
and only then starting to edit sequences.
Silent saboteur #2: Imposter syndrome
Another unseen danger that lurks in the seemingly placid waters of Editing Lake is imposter syndrome. Or what I call the mindset gremlins who start to gather in the shadows along the shore. They're ready to strike the moment you start to feel the least bit discouraged about your documentary edit.
We can experience imposter syndrome in lots of ways:
A feeling of ickiness starts to creep in as we edit.
An inner voice tells us we're terrible filmmakers.
We feel like know-nothing newbies, not qualified to edit a film.
We torture ourselves with all the mistakes we made while filming, until even the simple task of opening our edit program becomes unbearable.
And we'd do anything to avoid sitting down and working on the project that we once felt so passionate about.
If the mindset gremlins have their way, we end up overwhelmed, exhausted, and disillusioned. And we eventually just give up.
The Result? Another film in the Abandoned Docs Club ☠️
None of this is meant to dump a cold bucket of discouragement on you. It's to make you aware so you can do something about it.
Because the good news? These silent saboteurs - rushing the process and imposter syndrome - are actually the ones that we have the most control over. Especially if we have support, a roadmap laid out for us, and accountability.
On the other hand, not addressing these issues - the urge to rush the process and imposter syndrome - is why so many self-funded docs end up in what I call the ☠️ Abandoned Docs Club ☠️.
Abandoned docs are would-have-been films that we shot ourselves and had the ambition to edit ourselves, too. But instead of finishing them, our edits fizzle out. And our hard drives with all our footage end up on shelves, where they will sit forever, collecting digital dust.
Personally I have more abandoned docs in my digital vault than I'd like to admit. But on the other hand, I do have several independent projects that I saw through to the end and got published in media outlets.
So the takeaway is – having projects in the abandoned docs club doesn't define you as an independent filmmaker. Persistence and process do.
How to break the abandoned docs vicious cycle
If you're currently editing your own film, I want you to do a quick mental scan for mindset gremlins and urges to rush the process – any silent saboteurs that might be threatening to derail your edit.
If you detect any, I find that the best way to disable them is to simply name them and write them down. And if you share your gremlins with other people? That's like sunlight – it kills them.