This week I have asked our editor Patrick, to share his experience working on “It’s Me, Matthew!”

Patrick’s Take: An Editors Angle

For me, the beginning of working on “It’s Me, Matthew!” was very 21st century. Michael found my reel and called me while I was at Trader Joes. I read the script via email. We met for the first time at the Apple store, and I looked at some raw footage online. But the script is not hyper-modern. The script contains a voice that is unique (Michael’s voice) and has a message that is timeless. This raw, unique voice attracted me to the story.

I am a documentarian by trade. I work with all kinds of subject matter, Hezbollah, land mines, Palestinian stand up comedians, Congolese rappers, the last surviving Nazis etc. Often I am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material. I sift through hours of video and pages of transcript to create a story.

Editing narrative stories is a different challenge. In this case, Michael knew the story, it was inspired from his life. My job, as the editor, was to enhance the pace and dramatic tension of a story that has already been created. “It’s Me, Matthew!” was driven by the performances of the cast, there isn’t a lot of action. Michael, Stephaun, and I spent a lot of time trying to find the best combination of performances that did justice to the gravity of the subject matter, and drove the onto the dramatic tensions in the script. I loved this process, it was a refreshing change of pace for me but it was new for Michael. I think it was quite nerve racking for him to have to see the performances over and over again. But Michael is a generous collaborator. He trusted me when I told him we could meet deadlines. He trusted my opinion on helping pick out the right performance that was effective for the project. I trusted that he had the commitment and dedication to finish this project, and he didn’t let me down.

Editing “It’s Me, Matthew!” was fun and challenging for me and I hope to
collaborate again with “In the Cann”.

Patrick Flynn