Adrian Powers knows filmmaking.
“If you put a gun to my head I do believe that editing is the actual filmmaking. Everything else is acquisition of material, but editing is where you actually make the thing,” he says.
Based on such a statement, it’s hardly surprising that Powers is an experienced film editor.
He has edited eight feature films (including Skin Deep, Rip Tide and Forbidden Ground, which he also co-directed), and has worked as editor on the fifth and final season of internationally acclaimed web-series Starting From Now.
Powers is also a film director. Several of his films have screened and won accolades at film festivals across the globe, and his short film Scruples screened at the 69th Venice Film Festival.
With experience as both editor and director, Powers is a good authority on whether editors make better directors.
“Editing is the best film school because it allows you to be a fly on the wall and you can see how production goes,” Powers explains.
“You can observe the mistakes. You can see the things that you would have done differently…It really prepares you to go on set.”
As an editor, you are intimately acquainted with the rushes, which includes access to all the behind the scenes action. In the edit suite, all the disparate elements and departments that go into filmmaking come together.
“I use the word, kinesthetics, which is the feeling you get when, ‘Ooh, that sound and that image… gave me a little boost of energy.”
The result is a compelling story told with rhythm and energy, which provides Powers with ample creative satisfaction between big feature films.
“I use the word, kinesthetics, which is the feeling you get when, ‘Ooh, that sound and that image… gave me a little boost of energy.”
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The rest of this article can be read in Issue One of the TEN ALPHAS magazine The Art of Content, available here along with the other feature articles:
Shining a light on unbelievably beautiful content, with Alex Kesselaar.
Why editors make the best directors, with Adrian Powers
Getting savvy with your content strategy, with Monica Davidson
Why do our brains crave infographics? with Jess Milne
The Art of Perseverance, with Nick Bolton
A strategy for your content strategy, with Jess Milne