Edit Girls career story - Ruth Hegarty - Editor
An interview with documentary editor Ruth Hegarty, as part of a collection of career stories for Edit Girls, a platform championing women in post-production. 'Meet Ruth Hegarty, a commercial editor with some incredible and extremely creative work under her belt. She gives great insight into editing social content and shares with us how she started and what she loves about editing. Enjoy her career story!'
Tell us about your job role and the kinds of projects you work on;
I’m an editor based in London, cutting mainly commercials, fashion films, documentaries, and short films. I love the fact that every job is different, and you learn something new from every project. I’ve cut films for lots of clients like Chanel, Beats, Nike, Calvin Klein and I’ve worked with artists like FKA Twigs, Chase, and Status.
What does an average day look like in your post-production working world?
Every day is pretty different, so it depends on what stage of the project we're in. When I’m in the middle of a job, or if it's early stages in the edit, I usually try to watch the rough cut on my phone first thing that morning. I always think the edit feels so different when you view it on a smaller device, it gives a degree of separation, and is likely how most people will watch the final film. Then I usually make some notes on potential changes and discuss these with the director when we meet in the edit suite. Having the director there is such an essential part of the edit, I think it's key to making sure the process is as collaborative as possible to get a range of views and inputs. I also love seeing the other editors when I’m in the office, we often will share edits with each other to get a second opinion.
How did your career in post-production begin?
I moved to London straight after finishing uni in Dublin and started out as a runner at Prime Focus. From there I got a job as a runner/assistant at The Assembly Rooms. It was a great place for me to learn the craft of editing. I had the opportunity to sit in the suite and watch how the editors interacted with clients and addressed feedback. This was a really good learning process for me. I started cutting 'behind the scenes’ content from commercial shoots for our clients. From there I had the chance to do some client recuts and eventually got my first commercial - for Durex! My mum was so proud!
Tell us about a career highlight;
A few years ago I worked on a campaign for World Wildlife Fund. It was amazing to work on a project that was highlighting such an important cause. The director Anthony Dickinson was filming all over the world and I was sent the footage in stages. I absolutely loved sifting through hours of footage of wild animals. There was over 120 hours of rushes in total, but it was a total joy to select and edit it. Another highlight was when I had to comp the head of a baby onto the body of a male model for an Ecover commercial I was cutting. That was pretty amusing!
What do you love most about editing?
My favourite stage of the editing process is when you’ve finished your selects and you are just starting to assemble. This is before you have become attached to anything and you are just trying stuff out. It's always really fun to see what will work - it's often the things you would not expect. I also really enjoy cutting to music and fine-tuning the final cut. It’s really satisfying when you’ve got a tight edit working at the correct length with a good rhythm.
Which women in post do you admire?
I admire all other women in our industry and I love seeing their work. It can be difficult for a woman to have the confidence to push forward in an industry that has been dominated by men for so long. I know how hard we have to work to get to a certain level. TV drama editors like Úna Ní Dhonghaíle and Jinx Godfrey have been doing great work on amazing drama series, it's very inspiring.
Favourite piece of work?
This is hard because so many of my jobs have provided such brilliant experiences. If I had to choose I’d say my Chanel No5 edit with Jacob Sutton. I remember turning up to the shoot in Paris and the producer was like - 'good luck! there are so many ways you can cut this!' So I was initially pretty intimidated. But it was so much fun just playing around with different moments to create dualities and combinations within the edit. It also helped that we had a deadly music track!
What advice do you have for other women wanting to start a career in post?
My advice would be to try and be as technical and organised as possible as an assistant - this makes life so much easier when you start to edit. Make sure you get some time with editors to chat about their workflow and get any advice you can. It's also important to try not to get pigeonholed into any one area - especially as a woman - mixing it up is the best way to keep your options open! Finally - don't be afraid to take risks with edits! The number of times I’ve played it safe and then tried something a bit mad and it ends up pushing the edit to a way better place (or not, but it's fun to try it).
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