I’ll stop editing a video when you rip it from my cold, dead hands. Not really. But that’s how it feels a lot of the time.

I can be a perfectionist. Yes, I admit it. I’m trying desperately to quit that. But, shhhhhh, don’t spread that around. We don’t want the entire world knowing, mk?

Seriously, though. When it comes to editing video, you have to know when to find the right stopping point. There’s never going to be the perfect cut. You have to get comfortable with that.

Films are ever-evolving creatures, which is one of the things I love about them. They can change drastically in the editing room. That’s why you have alternate endings available as DVD extras.

The key, my friends, is knowing when to quit. It’s knowing when — as an artist / craftsman — to say, “OK, this is the very best I can do with this right now. I’m satisfied. I will quit tweaking it and start sharing it with the world.”

It’s a tough thing to do. It’s scary. It’s risky.

But if you can get comfortable with the quitting and the imperfections and the unfinished feeling you get when you look at your work — you can actually move on. And you can free yourself up to make more art. And improve with each piece you make.

Then, when you’re a better artist, you can return to some of those earlier themes and subjects. You can approach them with new skills. See them from a new angle. Show the world something slightly different.

It’s a fascinating, beautiful process. On other days, a blog post like this can feel like the biggest pile of manure you’ve ever read. See what I mean? 🙂