Edit Girls career story - Sarah Taylor - Editor
An interview with documentary editor Sarah Taylor, as part of a collection of career stories for Edit Girls, a platform championing women in post production. 'Meet editor Sarah Taylor. I’m super excited to share Sarah’s story as I’ve also had the pleasure of chatting with her about all things editing on her podcast. Sarah is so passionate about her craft and her approach to projects makes me wish I was a documentary director to be able to work with her! Enjoy Sarah’s career story!'
Tell us about your job role and the kinds of projects you work on;
I’ve been an editor for 19 years now and I primarily work in the documentary realm with independent filmmakers. I particularly like to work on projects that highlight underrepresented voices and tell stories that make audiences reflect on their own lives and impact change. My work has primarily been in Alberta, Canada, and because this is a smaller market, I have been lucky to also work on a variety of scripted content. Thankfully the industry is becoming more open to remote working and I have been able to work on projects in the US, Europe, and beyond.
What does an average day look like in your post-production working world?
My day always starts with COFFEE…lots and lots of COFFEE! I try to do my most creative work in the morning as I find that’s when I have the most energy. I’m the type of editor who likes to work on a variety of projects at once, so every day starts a little differently.
With most of the docs I work on, I have a lot of Verite footage to go through, so when I dig into a new project, I start by watching the footage. Not only does this help me get to know the content, but it’s also when I look for any striking shots, ones that give me an emotional response, or technical issues in the footage. As I’m in a smaller market, there’s not usually a budget for an assistant so I’m also syncing footage as I review. If there’s a problem, then I can see what I’m missing and try to track down the footage through the director or DP. I sometimes start to put things on the timeline that I know I immediately want, or put in a marker or label it a certain colour so I know where that footage will belong in the story.
When I’m already in the middle of the project, I tackle more emotional and complex pieces in the morning as I’m fresher. Based on my own instincts, I will piece together the best sequence to breathe life into the story we’re trying to tell. Working on multiple projects at the same time means if I’m creatively stuck, I can switch to something else to give my brain time to work out the problem in the other piece, or get up and move. Depending on what I am working on, I find myself sitting for hours lost in the editing world (which I love but my body doesn’t) so I try to get out and walk my pups a couple of times a day or ride my spin bike (a COVID purchase).
Once assembly is completed, we move onto the part I love the most -- the back and forth collaboration back with the director. Typically I like to work with directors starting mid-morning so I can go over notes and be prepared and get reoriented, especially as I work on multiple projects. How I work with directors really depends on how they like to work. I’m very flexible. Ideally, I like to have as much information as the director can give, but I know everyone’s process is different. Sometimes I get a paper edit or selects. Other times I just get the footage, we talk through the plan, and I put together a rough cut based on my own instincts. Because it’s doc, the story always evolves in the edit suite.
This past year, the ways my work with directors has changed as well, and now my days also consist of zoom calls with my directors and lots of uploads to Vimeo. This allows us to be more flexible, but it also means I have to be aware of balancing work and life and giving myself downtime as well.
How did your career in post-production begin?
My first editing job was editing replays for a local horse track so horses seem to be a theme in my editing career! I then started working at a local TV station that did magazine-style shows and had a large editing team. I was able to learn from many wonderful editors and made relationships with producers that I have kept throughout my career. The real learning of being an editor happened here, especially when I could watch what I cut that day live on television. This gave me extra pressure, but I learned how to work fast, be as accurate as possible, while also learning from my mistakes. The hardest part to learn was not to take those mistakes too personally.
As the industry started shifting, I was sadly laid off and did a stint of editing in the corporate world. My time there taught me about client relations and collaboration. It didn’t diminish my work as an artist -- I was still able to be creative, hone my skills, and learn how to be a better storyteller.
In 2012, I took the plunge and went freelance! In those first few years, I worked on a couple of comedy series including Caution: May Contain Nuts, Tiny Plastic Men, and Delmar and Marta. Having steady series work really set me up to be comfortable as a freelancer.
I now primarily work on doc-series and documentaries for TV. In 2016 I joined the board of the Canadian Cinema Editors to help elevate the craft of picture editing and it has been a very rewarding experience. Being able to talk to editors across Canada and the US showed me that our struggles are the same, and it made me feel less alone. I am now the host of the CCE podcast The Editor’s Cut where I get to interview so many talented editors. I learn something new from each person I connect with and I feel like the knowledge I gain from them is invaluable. Susan Shipton made me realize that there is no ‘right way’ to edit. Sometimes she just starts cutting and doesn’t look at every piece of footage. At times I’ve worked that way but always felt guilty that by not analyzing every piece of footage, I was doing it wrong. Susan mentioned that in the end you will always end up seeing everything, so it made me understand that it’s OK to try different approaches. Ricardo Acosta, CCE showed me that being attuned to our emotions and ‘sensitivity’ makes us great editors. We feel what our subjects feel so we can tell their stories better. I’ve also done episodes on Mental Health and it has opened my eyes to ways to protect myself from residual trauma. All in all, talking to other editors and hearing their stories and processes has made me a better editor and human being!
Tell us about a career highlight;
So far my career highlight was working on the short doc, FAST HORSE, about Cody BigTobacco, a new jockey in North America’s original extreme sport: Indian Relay — where jockeys ride horses bareback and jump from one horse to another in the middle of the race. It had an amazing festival run and we were fortunate to get into Sundance in 2019. Our lovely director Alex Lazarowich took home the Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing. We premiered on opening night and that was the first time I watched it with an audience. I was so nervous - Alex and I held hands until it started and we knew that there were no technical issues. Once that stress lifted, I was able to soak in the audience’s reactions! They laughed and gasped in all the right places! It was amazing to be a part of.
Which women in post do you admire?
There are so many amazing women in post and I keep discovering more! One person that stands out is Cathy Gulkin, CCE. She is a Canadian doc editor that I absolutely adore. Some of her past work includes Guantanamo's Child: Omar Khadr, In the Name of Your Daughter, and Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power. I love her approach to storytelling -- she is always looking out for what’s best for the subjects in her documentaries and wants to represent them fairly. This attitude spills over to how she treats all the people she works with, and she believes in giving new people a chance. That is something I strive to do as well. In an award acceptance speech, Cathy said “Hire assistants that don’t look like you.” I feel like this is how we can contribute to making our industry more equitable. She truly is helping change the world!
Favourite piece of work?
It’s really hard to pick one but I have to say FAST HORSE has been my favourite so far. It wasn’t just an amazing experience as an editor, but it helped me recognize what kind of work I wanted to dedicate my craft towards. Alex was a true collaborator. As we worked on FAST HORSE together, she asked me what I thought and she was open to getting my opinion throughout. This gave me ownership of the story, too, and it made me feel like my opinion mattered, and that we were truly a team! This pushed me to keep pushing further to see where we could take the story.
The making of it was also a documentary journey in itself. The team was filming for over a year as they followed a new horse being trained to do Indian Relay at the Calgary Stampede. Right before the big race, the horse was injured so we needed to reshape the story and fast! We thought we could shift the story, and show an underdog team who finally got to the big show and won. At the race, the relay team lost and at first, we thought it was an epic fall. Again the story had to shift.
In the end, I feel like the film tells a bigger story about strength, perseverance, and courage, It was about the journey instead of the result which is what a lot of sports films focus on. The approach highlighting the comradery and lessons these young men learned through such an intense sport, really resonated with audiences around the world. It was amazing to be able to create a film that showed the positive side of indigenous culture that is not often represented on screen.
What advice do you have for other women wanting to start a career in post?
Something that took me a while to learn is that when you receive notes on a cut, don’t take things personally. You are not terrible at what you do if there are things that need to be changed. This is part of the process, and you are there to help create the vision of the director. The ultimate goal is creating the best story you can so try and take your ego out of it and let the collaboration begin!
It’s also important to learn to set healthy boundaries. You don’t need to email back your director/producer at midnight. Determine when your work hours are, and set time aside to actually live life. The more we live, the more insight we can bring to the edit suite. Always be open to learning across the board whether it’s new software and new techniques or new ways of thinking.
Another lesson I had to learn early on, was the importance of elevating other voices in editing. Don’t let anyone make you feel in competition with other creatives based on how you identify. At the beginning of my career, I was always the only female editor and it became a part of my identity. I was often praised for being the only woman as I could “do all the touchy, feely stories.” This is how I based my worth as an editor -- and was encouraged to think that way. I would feel threatened if there was another woman on a project, and it took me a while to not feel that way. I had to reevaluate how this myth of “there can be only one” in terms of representation impacted me and my work and it helped me turn my focus to lifting other women up, instead of competing with them. That’s part of the reason I joined the CCE, and now mentor girls as part of the Girls in Film and Television (GIFT) program. I now find that I mostly work with women, including my assistants, and we’re all helping each other make more space for us and other marginalized groups.
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