For those of you that don't know I was recently an assistant editor on Spike Lee's latest film, "If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise" that aired on HBO last week. Its amazing the gamut of emotions you go through when you're in post for a film. The initial reaction is excitement. Excitement that you have a job. Excitement that you're about to embark on communicating an important story to the world. Excitement that you are going to grow as a filmmaker and hopefully as a person. The trepidation is going through the process of that growth. When I worked on "When the Levees Broke" I was completely overwhelmed. I had just learned the avid editing software maybe six months prior, I had never been an assistant editor before and I was working on Spike's passion project. All of these elements were essentially working against me at the beginning. I had to learn on the job and I had to perform. I was green behind the ears and had to grow up quickly. It was a grueling learning process as a FILMMAKER that I underwent, but I made out well in the end.
For If God is Willing, the growth was more of a PERSONAL nature than an artistic one. In the time between the two films I camera operated on two features, I was an assistant editor on a few more projects and more importantly, for me, I was enjoying the success of my own work with Osvaldo's. My improvement as a filmmaker was increasing by leaps and bounds and my confidence joined for the ride. So when IGIW came around I knew that artistically I was up for the challenge. What I didn't expect was the increasing sentiment within myself that I'm ready to put my name out there in the world. It's great to work for one of the greatest to ever do it, but I want to be a part of that conversation. I'm looking forward to building my own community and collaborating to tell stories that impact people and have the streets buzzing. I'm not in this for self-indulgence but to give a voice to all kinds of everyday folk. I was reminded of this while working on IGIW. It was a tough road during the making of this film to reach this understanding, but I'm appreciative of it. I'm ready.