Sitting….it’s not so bad…
I was always an active kid, constantly dancing and moving around. If someone had looked into the future and told my ten-year-old self that as an adult, I would spend much of my life sitting in front a computer editing, I would have asked for a second opinion or possibly run away screaming.
I have always enjoyed puzzles and editing is like a big puzzle where you have all the pieces but no final picture on a box to refer to. It is the ultimate puzzle challenge. You have to make the pieces fit, be aware of the pacing and tell a story. So I understand why I love editing. But I’m constantly surprised by my ability to concentrate and focus for 10 to 12 hours at a time while sitting (or standing) at my desk.
This just proves that you never know what you will like until you try it. Something may seem to be a job that you would absolutely hate and it turns out to be something you enjoy the most. Conversely, often people will say things like “If you like x, you will definitely love y.” That’s not always true either. And that is okay.
The key to being a well-rounded artist is to just do it. Do all of it. Little by little try all the aspects of the craft you care about. If you are a film director, try being your own DP, try being your own editor, try writing your own scripts, etc. You may not like it all but you will learn so much about the different parts of your craft and come to respect experts in each of those fields more than you may have previously.
I used to produce, direct and choreograph musicals starring tweens and teens. I starting doing this when I was sixteen and I learned so much about being organized, spacial relations, working with actors and leaning on people’s talents to make everything the best it could be. Was I going to go on to produce professional musical theatre? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But I carry what I learned from those experiences into my filmmaking. So when I’ve had to self-produce (as many filmmakers do on and off during their careers), I wasn’t afraid or hindered in any way. I just did it. If I could deal with organizing shows with hundreds of children (no exaggeration), a film would be a cakewalk. Okay, not a cakewalk, but it wasn’t like walking the plank either.