52 hours, 23 Red Bulls, and 37 cups of coffee. That's approximately how much time and how much caffeine it took me to sift through 63.5 Gb of footage from four different videographers and produce a 17 minute and 42 second documentary. For all of you muggles out there who haven't slaved over a hot GPU with bloodshot eyes, let me clarify that this is a tight 17 minutes and 42 seconds...not some rambling vlog by an aspiring YouTuber who who hasn't yet discovered what b-roll is. Every shot was highly scrutinized with two questions in mind, "Does it advance the story?" and "Does it add aesthetic value?" If we couldn't answer at least one of those questions (or ideally both), it got cut. The first draft was originally just shy of 20 minutes but the final review saw a fair amount of slashing and burning (and I'm glad it did).
Now, don't get me wrong, it's far from perfect and I'm sure I'll look back on this one day and chuckle to myself, or outright laugh, at some parts of the video; however, I can honestly say that this is my finest work to date and I'm very proud of it. I'm even more proud of my intern, Julia Cutajar, who was right there with me in the trenches editing for weeks. She shared all the technical hurdles, the creative challenges, the headaches, and the frustrations but in the end, we shared the unforgettable joy of finishing a project that we're both proud to call our work. I couldn't have done it without her.
Sooo, without further ado, after telling you absolutely nothing of what this video is actually about, I invite you to spend the next 17 minutes and 42 seconds of your life watching a video that is, if nothing else, at least more interesting than some rambling vlog by an aspiring YouTuber ;-)
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: 2019 Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race