Every series I have made has died and come back to life in the edit. Shooting is easy to romanticise; editing is where the decisions get made.
The first cut is generous
I start by removing only what is technically broken. Nothing is judged yet. That first pass usually leaves me with a third of what I shot.
The second cut is cruel
This is where I ask a single question of every frame: does it say something no other frame says? If two images agree with each other, one of them goes.
A sequence is an argument. Every picture has to earn its place in it.
The third cut is about rhythm
By now the images are good. The question is whether they move. I print everything at postcard size and lay it on the studio floor, then walk the line like a reader would.
Unheld went from 1,100 frames to 41 this way. It took longer than the shooting did, and it should have.
