After five weeks of filming in Spain then a few days filming in Mudgee, Australia, we’ve now completed Principal Photography for my Camino film, The Way, My Way – based on my memoir of the same title.

Now the fun starts.

Everything comes down to editing. All the decisions you make as a director on location are based on how it´s all going to cut together in the editing room.

Given the way this film was shot, the editing process will be even more crucial than normal.

As per my style in such films as Kiss or Kill, Malpractice, Tempted, or Backlash – this is a film that has a high degree of improvisation. This was necessary for when we came to shoot with the “actuals” – the actual pilgrims that I met and walked with on my original Camino ten years ago.

They’ve come back to play themselves in the movie.

Their involvement dictated a certain style of performance from the actors, but also it influenced the shooting and hence the editing style. The actuals were real, they were authentic, so the surrounding performances had to match their verisimilitude pitch-perfectly. A more formal, “dramatic” visual style would have been totally out of kilter with the authenticity of the actuals´ performances.

To keep the location crew size down to a minimum, I had no continuity person on set, however I had two cameras on just about everything we shot, so I know I’ve got the coverage to get me out of trouble if needs be,

Rishi Shukla is my editor. He cut the two theatrical feature documentaries I’ve done lately: PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System, and Facing Fear. Editing a dramatic feature film is a whole other ballgame though. The rules are totally different, and this will be Rishi´s first movie as a feature editor. But I’ve seen his choices in the assembly so far and I know he’ll do a mighty fine job, like he’s done with everything else we’ve worked on.

I look forward to the next 12-15 weeks or so in the editing room with him.

Going back some fifty years – yes, fifty years – when I first determined that I wanted to make films, the first book I read was Karel Reisz¨s classic, The Technique of Film Editing, written in 1953.

As a young cadet journalist working for the ABC in Brisbane at the time, I would read this book in the back of the camera car as we went out each day to cover news stories. I also read Film Sense, by Sergei Eisenstein.

I read these two books over and over.

Everyone – cameramen, journos, the editors – they all thought I was a wanker. But instinctively I knew that if I wanted to learn how to make films, I had to learn editing, and both those books were the definitive works. They’re still as relevant today as they were fifty years ago.

Later, I would enroll in a three year acting course so that I could understand performance.

Editing is the key to film production.
And I’m jumping out of my skin to start!