FAQ:

- Is Aaron Wickenden dead? It has come to our attention that ChatGPT4 is convinced that Aaron “passed away on June 29, 2016, at the age of 37, due to complications from pancreatic cancer.” Chat GPT4 goes on to have quite an elaborate and amusing hallucination about this, which is cataloged here. But rest assured that Aaron is still in the land of the living.

- When will Aaron become available next? He is booked throughout 2024. Aaron is always considering new projects so if you're on a longer lead timetable… drop him a line. It's most productive if you include a link to a trailer/demo, and a pitch deck of some sort that includes the synopsis of the film. *Pro-Tip: messages without information about your project that ask for him to call you to learn more will not be answered.

- I need to find an editor ASAP… can you recommend anyone? Yes! Aaron was an advisor on the new BIPOC Doc Editors initiative from ADE. Have you heard about it? Click the link above to learn more, but in brief - the mission is to help expand the documentary community to allow for more inclusion and access to incredible talent that is otherwise being overlooked. As another resource, Aaron was on the selection committee for Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship’s DIVERSITY IN THE EDIT ROOM PROGRAM. This link will take you to their website which is full of talented and accomplished editors and assistant editors in NYC and LA. The website is great because it also gives you the fellows contact information. You can also check out the searchable database of members for the BROWN GIRLS DOC MAFIA. Type in “Editor” under “Professions” and the level of Experience you’re searching for. Easy peasy.

- Where is Aaron based and does he travel for work?  His home base is in Chicago but since 2014 he has worked on features from London (BURDEN), San Francisco (The Bandit), LA's East-Side (Best of Enemies; Won’t you be my Neighbor?; They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead), LA's West-Side (Generation Wealth) and Gowanus (Becoming). He’s also edited films remotely with directors based in Melbourne (TV Event), Glendale (Mickey: The Story of a Mouse) and Brooklyn (2nd Chance). While he remains excited to work with teams from around the world, his desire at the moment is to collaborate on projects where a substantive amount of editorial can take place in Chicago so he can be with his family more often. Here is a link to the American Cinema Editors best practice guide for projects with a work from home (WFH) component.

- When is the best time to bring an editor like Aaron onto my project?  It usually works out best when 70-85% of production is complete and a significant amount of work has already been done with an assistant editor to organize the raw materials. Ideally that would include having all existing footage imported into your edit, having transcriptions/logs and translations completed, and the director having spent the time to highlight their selects on transcripts and having worked with an AE to organize those selects into stringouts.

- What edit system does Aaron use?  His preference (at the moment) is Adobe Premiere but he has recently cut features on all the major platforms. The Bandit and Hail Satan? were both cut in Premiere, BURDEN was FCP7, and both Becoming and Won’t you be my Neighbor? were cut with AVID Media Composer.

- How long is a typical edit for a feature?  It depends on the complexity and goals of the project. The Alliance of Documentary Editors (ADE) recently released a helpful guide for documentary edit scheduling which you can access here. They advise that: For an average documentary, a good rough guideline for scheduling is: 1 month of editing per 10 minutes of finished content. So on average, a 90-minute feature will take
9 months of editing. Documentaries following multiple characters that interweave complex storylines often edit for well over a year. Documentaries that follow one straightforward story or have limited vérité may take less than 9 months. Variations on this schedule depend on:

  • The experience of the director, producer and editor

  • The number of main characters and story lines

  • The amount of vérité footage shot

  • The complexity of the story

  • The number of editors hired

  • The amount of collaboration between director and editor

  • The presence or absence of a dedicated and experienced assistant editor

Aaron is frequently open to working in Co-Editing situations when a project is on a tighter timeline for completion.

- Does he have time to watch my rough cut and give notes?  Typically, no. When he's deep into editing a film it takes a lot of focus and it can be hard to make the time to do much else. There are a few amazing formal programs we know of that allow for feedback on rough cuts: the True/False Rough Cut Retreat, KARTEMQUIN LABS and Rough Cuts.

- I'm just getting started as an editor. Can you suggest some books or other resources for me to checkout?  Absolutely. First off, read these excellent essays with career advice from George Monbiot and Penny Lane. Then, you have to read this book on storytelling by George Saunders that just came out called A Swim in the Pond in the Rain. It’s amazing. Here are a few other books you can read that have been influential: Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit, Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish, Murch’s In the Blink of an Eye, Tweedy’s How to Write One Song, and then… Wired for Story, Stein on Writing, & Long Story Short. There is a new book out focused on documentary editing by Jacob Bricca, ACE called: Documentary Editing: Principles & Practice. Aaron was interviewed for this book along with many other luminaries in the field and it’s a great resource. Lastly, some of Aaron's ramblings on about the craft of editing can be found in this 2016 interview with Eileen Meyer (Crip Camp) for the POV's Documentary Blog, this 2018 interview for the Chicago Tribune, this 2019 article for Creative Cow and also this 2019 interview for Premium Beat.