I got to meet with the legendary Anne Coates this month, editor of Laurence of Arabia, and many other films you've heard of. She is 90 years old and has worked on a film nearly every year since her career began. She has worked on over 60 films, racking up 6 Academy Awards and 14 nominations, and still continues to work in the industry. In a very difficult time for women, she proved herself over and over to be one of the best editors in the world. I learned SO much from he. And am so thankful that I got to meet her.

Here are 5 things I learned from her. ​​

1. "Shorter isn't always faster."
The theatrical edit of Laurence of Arabia is 3 Hours and 36 Minutes. Anne struggled with this mentally, she knew it was a longer run time, and she tried to shorten some scenes, but they just "Didn't feel right" When she was called back a few years later to do a TV edit (for which she charged more than the original edit) She mercilessly cut it down to two hours. She hated the result, she said of this cut, It felt so long and boring.  She said, "When you are not involved with the character, it can feel so much longer because you're not invested"

When another editor who was there inquired why TV was taking over and people were leaving the Cinema, she frankly answered, "I would much rather watch TV than these movies they have out now. Those things that change from one thing to another", "Transformers?" Bobbie O'Steen Offered, "Yes, I don't like them."  Everyone Laughed

Breaking Bad was 62 hours long, and yet, I've never heard anyone complain about it's length. When we are engaged and involved with a character, we don't think about time in the same way. Inversely, I found shorter modern movies can feel so much longer, because they are edited, not for character, but for wonderment. Movie's need to stop selling sizzle, without the steak. The sizzle is fine, as long as the steak comes with it.

2. "If you don't get a scene right the first time, you often get it wronger and wronger."

When Anne was working for David Lynch on Elephant Man, which Mel Brooks secretly produced, Lynch and Brooks disagreed on how to introduce the titular character. Brooks said to Lynch " You may be a Genius, but I expect you to do as you're asked, please just try it" apparently Lynch didn't even blink when Brooks called him a Genius, he also flat out ignored Brooks which created quite a difficult time in the editing room. Lynch was being a brat. Multiple scenes had to be pasted together, flipped, rearranged, completely invented. This created more and more problems, Nothing worked at all. It was just getting worse, not better. Finally Anne said, "I can't do anything with what you have", Lynch, egotistically sticking to his guns, told her,  "I'm not going to shoot it, if you want it, you direct it!" So she did. She completely reshot one of the most critical scenes, and got no credit for it, but it gave her fresh material to start over with. 

3. "I would rather work as a second than not work."

Anne has edited over 60 movies in her lifetime. There have been times when she took a step back in "career titles" because she felt that working made her better, and that if she didn't work, she worried that she would "loose the touch" She's gone from editor to second assistant editor, and she's ok with that, she was very reluctant to bring up her gender whatsoever, she said she never thought of herself as a female editor, but just an editor, however, she didn't not hesitate to call out misogynists, by name, in public, with curse words.

4. "At the end of the day, you're just telling a story, and we're just using different tools"

She found the transition from physical film to digital difficult. When cutting on the Moviola, it was just her and the eyepiece (only one person can look at a time) she was physically inches away from the puzzle. The most difficult thing for her in digital was the distance from the material. She said, "Editing on film is like editing from the inside out, editing digitally is like editing from the outside in" she admitted, I have no idea what that means, but I know it's right. I agree with her, I also wouldn't be able to explain it, but it's right. She successfully edits on Avid, and has done do for years. Her last film was 50 Shades of Grey (which she says she hated working on, too many cooks in the kitchen she said)

5. "Have some courage"

Probably the most important thing I learned from Anne is her example, her story, her journey. At 90 years old she continues to work in the industry, she's producing projects, She's worked on a movie nearly every year of her career, movies you've all seen, but never even knew you saw them, and movies that you saw that were so good you can never forget them. She's won 6 Academy Awards, and 14 nominations. Her most inspiring attribute. Grit, work ethic, her can't stop, won't stop attitude which she still maintains. She takes a blue collar approach to a white collar job, and can speak both languages fluently (she frequently curses) I also Identified with her history, she started her career working on religious films, short promos for events, ect. Her big break, she wasn't sure she could accomplish the task, but she tried anyway, failed and then tried again, and succeeded. Have courage, keep moving.

Today I visited the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. If you don't know much about the Barnes, it is completely unlike all other museum. The collections he assembled, and arranged are works of art themselves. Most archives arrange the work by artist or decade. Uniquely, Albert Barnes, created "ensembles" with common thematic elements. He had a keen eye for spacial relationships, symmetry, lines, shapes and colors. ​

4. It allows for the wisdom and expertise of others to be seen in your own work, your ability to work with others is vital to the creative life. There are no truly GREAT "one man shows" Every truly incredible work, has multiple experts executing tasks behind the scenes. 

5. And Finally, and most importantly, It addresses head on,  a phenomenon I call "drivers blindness" 

I first considered this approach when about 3 years ago I encountered a phenomenon. Web designers with no website, Photographers with no head shots, mechanics driving old beaters. This is something I came to call "drivers blindness," due to something that happened about a year ago (there may be some other term for it that I'm unfamiliar with, and I would love to read studies on it if you know of any) 

About a year ago I rented a friends car, he left town and dropped the car off at my house, the first day I started it up, I had a hard time turning the key, I promptly noticed the funny noises in the cabin, the rear headlamps didn't function... over time other problems came to light, numerous fuses had been blown and certain functions didn't work, the breaks were worn down, and you had to break much sooner, and with caution. The rear treads were bald etc. When I called my friend about these issues, he told me that when he left the car in my position, it was in perfect condition, he was noticeably upset, and it seemed that he believed me responsible for these issues.

 I fixed many of them myself, upon inspection, his headlamps were completely FULL of water, like little fish bowls.... something that had been happening over months, as well as other issues that obviously had taken time to develop. But I realized that I had a name for this phenomenon I encountered years ago. 

Driving this car for so long and getting used to it's "quirks" he became unaware that they even existed, he knew how to turn the key a certain way, so as to start the engine smoothly, he never drove at night, so he never noticed that the lamps had blown, he didn't use cruise control, or drive on the highway, so he never knew that he had multiple blown fuses. Being so entrenched in personal patterns, and acclimated to numerous defects, he attached such defects to me, it must have been my use that caused these issues. In truth, it was not my use, but rather, desensitization and established patterns that caused him to never notice, and thusly, deal with numerous issues. ​

This is something that can be avoided when others are brought in on a project. When the mechanic employs another mechanic to fix his car, he's less likely to drive a beater, when a film maker, hires and editor to do his reel, he has a great reel, when a web-designer, hires another web designer to make his website, he has a website that displays his work beautifully, When a photographer, needs head shots, he hires another photographer for amazing photos. ect ect.  

Number 5 is the primary reason I involve others in their given field, It's also the reason I seek out business mentors, it's the reason I show others my work, It's the reason I'm constantly studying the old masters of various arts and comparing myself to them, and not to others in a similar or lesser skill tier, and it's the reason I will take the time to mentor others, and to be constructively honest about their work, just like my mentors are with me, All of this helps us prevent "drivers blindness."

I've seen this happen to churches, and marriages and friendships as well, often problems go so long, and people become so acclimated to them that they don't notice them, and all the sudden they have a broken down vehicle, left with a broken marriage, a church in shambles, a long lost friend...They don't quite know what happened, was it the loss of intimacy? Something that was said or done? No, it was probably the slow, long, mechanical breakdown that no one noticed...


and that tore people apart...


and left them wondering why...

Let's prevent that in our art, and in our relationships. Bring in the foreign driver, let them see what you cannot, what you are wholly incapable of seeing. First, see your own blindness, get settled into the fact that you CAN'T fix it, the only thing you can do is borrow other people's eyes. ​

Things like pores and subtle wrinkles, we see different people in different types of light, and moments don’t get frozen permanently in our head, our memories and the way we perceive the world is constantly in flux, There is some very interesting research done in this field . The way that memories are formed and the way that we perceive others, is not the way the camera treats us.

   As a visual artist turned film editor I’ve always wrestled with the idea of "Photoshop". I left the creative industry for a long time, because I became very discouraged at all the dealings within the creative community and the images that we were creating for the world to perceive. 

But I learned a very important lesson from my friend Lecia McDermott, an amazing Boudoir Photographer. 

Image correction is about allowing the camera to see them the way other people do. 

      To me art (and language, and probably human nature) is symbolism, and I fully believe that what can sometimes be perceived as a lie or a manipulation, can reveal more real truth than the plain truth by itself, because it forces you to pay attention. This is one of the capabilities that art and symbolism has. One would not look at Dali’s painting of “Geopoliticus Child” and call it a lie. 

Never in the history of man has a dude (or a nation) emerged from an actual egg. For some reason I think we look at all of our digital media with slanted perceptions, photos and videos pass before our eyes so quickly and we don’t take the time to consider the motives and objectives of the creator the way we would a painting. Honest creation is about listening to what the other individual has to say, and really honestly considering the presented perspective, even if you disagree with it, you can still appreciate the creation.

So, the reason why I use extensive masking, color correction, and other techniques isn't because I want my images to lie, it’s because I want to bring out the honest interaction that is seen and perceived, on the daily, in everyday interaction & to help cover up the parts that really DON'T matter. 

​