#481 – Cut/daily Meets... Editor Tad Seaborn
One of the fun things about running Cut/daily is that good editors know other good editors.
So I'm grateful to Editor Chris Donaldson for connecting me with fellow editor Tad Seaborn.
And it was Tad who put me in touch with Supervising Sound Editor David McCallum.
Tad's worked on some highly rated shows including:
- The Institute
- From
- Vikings (18 episodes over Seasons 3-6)
- Vikings: Valhalla (9 episodes over Seasons 1-3)
- Bomb Girls
As well as starting his career as an Assistant Editor on features such as David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises.
My biggest takeaway?
Tad's down to earth perpsective on the diminishing returns of staying at your desk, pounding out an edit when you should really just go home.
Advice worth listening to!
What’s your daily work routine?
For me, the best work happens in the morning. You've had a night to regain some objectivity and for your subconscious editing brain to generate ideas while you sleep.
If I've carefully gone through all the material for a scene, I'm happy to let it float around in my mind overnight without jumping right in.
If I have previous scenes to assemble or recut, I attack them first and then watch new dailies after lunch. I always re-read the scene in the script just before I start assembling.
If I have a lot of stuff coming in, it's complicated, or I am behind, I sketch a scene out and then move on.
I've grown more comfortable with juggling several "unfinished" scenes if I am getting a lot of material at once, rather than "finishing" each one first.
"Finish" in quotes as the scene is never finished until the show is locked.
I might also put in options or do versions to return to. I feel better having multiple scenes/versions laid out, versus untouched new bins piling up.
Obviously, if you are lucky to have material come in at a decent pace, you can watch dailies, assemble those scenes be caught up at the end of day.
But I can't imagine this happening for very long.
In my experience, you are often catching up while managing your days towards the Editor's Cut delivery deadline.