On Saturday afternoon, October 30th, I walked in to an unusually empty Urban Arts office to discover that our crew from high schools across New York City had been divided up into editing rotations by school.  The afternoon block was devoted to the Kurt Hahn editors.  Producer Joshua Davis and Teaching Artist Elizabeth Rodd were already going over the groundwork for editing our Type Cast interview with Senator Eric Adams.  Captured over the summer, the interview focused on the impact of the diabetes epidemic in his Brooklyn district.  Craig Wallace, another Kurt Hahn student, arrived shortly thereafter.  Before the work started, we all enjoyed some food and discussed our strategy for the rough cut ahead.

 

Editing the Senator Eric Adams interview.

 

We began to go through the clips and rotated roles so that we all got a feel for the editing equipment.  As I was playing the "backseat driver" so to speak, contributing ideas while Josh manipulated the footage, I started to think: editors have amazing vision and creativity.  Their skills are crucial to making the project a complete success.  An editor can make someone sound really smart or really dumb.  Of course everyone has a say, but at the end of the day, the editor is the main guy or girl.  They have the project at their fingertips and can decide which way it goes.

 

The Kurt Hahn crew had done editing before but had never gone to this level.  The growing pains were short, which allowed us to put together a solid rough cut. The new skills we acquired really pushed our versatility up another notch.

 

 Editors Joshua Davis and Omar Cyrille.

 

The guidance of our teacher and the chemistry in the room were the x-factors. This was a great opportunity to polish our work.  For me, just knowing that what I was doing was so important to this response piece was a great feeling, and it continues to drive me to learn more.

 

 

Thanks for reading the MediaLab blog.  Check out Craig’s pictures of the session, and keep checking back for more updates on the Type Cast Response Project.