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creative

Cut yourself out.

The single most important person on any film or commercial shoot isn’t even at the shoot.  He’s your editor. (Or she.)  Don’t go spend hours looking at dailies and all the selects.  Let the editor do his job.  You hired him to leave things out, to edit.  He hasn’t fallen in love with scenes the way you have, so he sees the thing more objectively.  When he has the cut he likes, take a look.

Think about editing like this:  you only have one chance to see the cut fresh.  One chance to see it like a viewer.  After that first look, you grow accustomed to it.  You start to make assumptions.  That’s why at least one member of the creative team (the writer, I suggest) should not look at the cut until the editor is done.  I know.  You won’t get as many free lunches, but you’ll get an objective look that can inform the whole effort.

 

 

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David Fowler created long-running advertising campaigns for Motel 6 ("We'll leave the light on for you"), BP ("Beyond Petroleum"), Fanta ("Wanta Fanta"), Claritin ("Claritin Clear") and many others. His forty-year creative career included twenty years at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, as well as stints at Goodby, Silverstein in San Francisco, Ammirati & Puris in New York and The Richards Group in Dallas.