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PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, EDITOR

BLAST! (Excerpt)
“What is a Light Year?”

Simplifying complexity is an essential skill for an editor.

Paul produced directed and edited the award-winning BBC documentary BLAST!: 


"The appeal of BLAST!, and what makes it unique, is the incredible adventure this team of scientists is on.


But in order for that to resonate, the audience must understand their motivation. Which means they must understand what the scientists are looking for. Which means they must understand some science. This becomes the challenge of the editor: To simplify complex concepts for a general audience. 


Doing that required not only skillful editing, but the right images to illustrate. We stole animations off the internet as placeholders for the offline edit. I had no idea what we were going to do for the final online, since we cetainly didn't have the budget to re-create original, high-end animations. But it turns out the NASA animations we thought we were "stealing" are funded by the government and are in the public domain. Breakthrough! We already owned them and they stayed in as is. 


The example here illustrates the important concept of a light year. I'm confident it succeeds because after screening the movie, a CBS colleague came up to me, very excited: “I finally know what a light year is!” Of all the great reviews BLAST! received, this one may be the most satisfying."

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