J. Christian Jensen on the Nuts and Bolts of Documentary Editing

On this last episode of season one, I talk with professional documentary editor and filmmaker J. Christian Jensen. In 2015, after graduating from the documentary program at Stanford, Christian was nominated for an Academy Award for his film “White Earth." Since then, he has built a distinguished career as a documentary editor working on an array of films for various leading directors. In this episode, Christian gets into the nuts and bolts of editing and what work as an editor looks like today. 

 White Earth website: www.whiteearthmovie.com 

Scenes from the Glittering World: www.www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/scenes-from-the-glittering-world

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“On Documentary” podcast page: www.adamjamessmithfilm.com/on-documentary
Adam James Smith’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/ajsfilm
Contact: ajsfilm@alumni.stanford.edu

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:39 Why Christian decided to become an editor
• 4:38 How Christian made a start in his career
• 8:04 How Christian decides what films to edit
• 11:30 Christian's editing setup
• 15:41 Christian daily and weekly editing routines
• 21:08 Taking breaks from the edit
• 24:04 Editing flow state
• 26:05 How Christian organizes a project
• 32:32 Making a start on an edit
• 35:41 Planning out the edit
• 39:48 Working through various cuts
• 43:25 How to know when to stop editing
• 47:13 Advice for directors from an editor's p.o.v.
• 52:23 Christian's advice for new editors
• 57:04 Christian's favorite editors
• 59:06 Christian's favorite films he has edited
• 1:02:35 Christian may return to directing
• 1:05:22 Links