Editing hours of Afghan footage
It has begun. The third, and final, leg of this journey. I’m editing the 12 hours of footage I shot in Afghanistan. I’m calling this the third leg, the first was planning, the second was traveling and now I’m home, looking at, organizing and grouping sound bites from the 8 interviews I conducted in Afghanistan.
Early themes are emerging. Nothing surprising has popped up. Surprises, at this stage wouldn’t be good.
I’m editing with Final Cut Pro. For those who know Final Cut Pro you know how powerful of a storytelling tool it is. For those who don’t, Final Cut Pro is a video editing software that masterfully combines the left and right brain of the storyteller. It has more artistic visual effects & transitions than you could ever possibly dream of using, it also has nerdy database functionality so I can organize, mark, and group like sound and images.
I have a couple of good leads on two more interviews. The local angle on this story is important; Ghafar Lakanwal, a man who gave me the fantastic advice to See What Afghans See and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a world-class advocate of food production, cooperatives and peace-keeping are on the short-list of remaining interviews.
I’ll make semi-regular posts updating progress on this final leg. Later on this will be as good a venue as any to roll out early clips and video. Thanks for reading. More later.
In this day and age editing the rough cut of a documentary can be done pretty much anywhere. Laptop, portable hard drive, head phones and a cup of coffee, check, check, check & check. Now where did I put that inspiration?
You should intervie Davin’s kids. His littlest girl says her daddy is in Afghanistan giving shots to unicorns so that they don’t get sick. Genius idea ! My daughter thinks I am the newest addition to the TNMT team. I bet you would get quite a collection of “what my mom/dad” does stories. I might steal that idea for a blog of my own.
I honestly cannot fathom how parents can be away from their kids. You, Davin, and all of the other Soldiers who’ve left kids home have my respect…all of it. Sarah, do your daughter’s caretakers need any help? My ‘almost 8′ y.o. daughter is all about meeting new kids, if there’s anything the Heikkila clan can do holler at me… or, better yet drop a line at luke.a.heikkila (at) gmail (dot) com.
Luke’ If you have time to hear about traveling in Afghanistan in the good old days 1954-57 and in the 60′s with 4 kids to Bamian, the Lakes and Herat, camping. please get in touch. Ghafar can tell you more about my family’s connection. Find happy inspirations Leila p
I can’t wait to see the finished product. I’m happy to know you’re back home-
Thank you for the encouragement…I’ll be announcing airtimes within the next few weeks.
I am Zalmai Safdari video editor in TOLO TV . I want to work us an editor half time .
I am seeing for a good job.