Transitioning to Filmmaking Day 20: Working Remotely as a Film Editor
For those of you that don't know, I host a podcast called Transitioning to Filmmaking, where I interview filmmakers all about cutting edge filmmaking technologies, how they got into the business, what it takes to make it in filmmaking and much more.
Today, I had a great time interviewing Joaquin Elizondo, a film editor who's worked on many feature films and TV shows, and is also the host of the Hollywood Editing Mentor podcast. I actually found out about him by searching for podcasts about editing I can listen to on my way to UCLA Extension, where I'm attending the filmmaking certificate program, since I sit in traffic 3 times a week for 1.5 hours on the way there, 45 minutes on the way back home. I highly recommend his podcast if you want to listen to real editors tell you how it is. Joaquin is also very energetic, entertaining and definitely passionate about editing.
After listening to Joaquin on multiple episodes, I decided to reach out to him and ask him if he wants to be on my podcast, and to my surprise, he agreed.
Today we had a great conversation all about how to work remotely as a Film Editor. In today's environment, where filmmakers can work from any location, we still have a pandemic going on and so many other variables that prohibit us from being "on location", understanding how to work remotely is key.
I had tons of questions for him all around the following topics:
Communication
Logistics
Tools
Mentoring People
Politics of the Edit Room
Career Development
Work / Life Balance
Creativity and Inspiration
Diversity and Inclusion
Education and Continuous Learning
The interview went really well, and I personally learned a lot. The interview will air live (and for free, of course) on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 8am. You can register to watch it here. If it's after October 3, then it's already on-demand here.
The main thing I got out of my interview with him is that we have to work really hard on building community and relationships with the people we work with, even when working remotely.
He gave some great tips such as:
Call them on the phone.
Have weekly zoom "lunch" meetings where you just chat about everything except work and eat together.
Try to meet them in a location for coffee (if you live close to each other).
I highly recommend you listen to my interview with him as he shared a lot.
Until the next entry!