I was co-editor on Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam 

ie, the #2 guy to lead editor Stephen Stept who did the first heavy lifting before i came on, and then goofed off after (hahaha)

>insert long story about Stephen here, the guy who hired me as an assistant editor but trusted me enuf to promote me to editor – twice! thx bro!!<

A documentary so powerful and truthful that it wowed audiences around the world, including 2 Emmy awards, a Sundance Film Festival Award, a Television Critics Association Award.  It became the first-ever documentary to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and a bunch of other honors.  Quite the hit.

Produced and directed by Bill Couturie for HBO.

I had 3 great mentors in the early years of my career, (each of them named Bill)

Bill Couturie was one of them.

i could go on and on about waht i learned from him, but here are the two biggies that come to mind:

1. Keep editing.

Bill believed in editing.  He believed in getting it right.  He believed in getting it better.  He believed in spending time and money and then more time and more money to do all that.  The big thing i learned was:  be a perfectionist.  Keep editing.  Make it great.  If you seek out the insanely great version of the film, you might find it.  If you are satisfied with good, you will never achieve great.  Raise your standards.  Work hard.  Achieve great things.

2.  take risks

When i came on as 2nd editor, Bill and Stephen had completed a kick ass powerful 25 minutes.  You could see the great one-hour film it could be, but wasn’t yet.  Moreover,  to accomplish this tight, good, amazing 25 minutes, BIll had spend 100% of the budget.  No money left, and the film unfinished.  He took the 25 minutes, went back to HBO and argued – double the budget and we will hire another editor and finish an hour to this quality.  Or … pull the plug.  All the money is gone.  Contract or not,  you are not going to get anything more.

They went for it.  I got hired.  We went to work.

Some hundreds of thousands of dollars of effort and time and materials later; Bill, Stephen and I had a kick ass powerful 45 minutes.  But to accomplish this, Bill had spend 100% of the doubled budget.  No money left, and only half the film done, only half the war covered.  He took the 45 minutes back to HBO and argued:  double the budget and we will finish a feature length movie to this quality.  It’ll play on HBO and in cinemas.  You can double your markets.  The film is gonna be great, you can see that already.  Or … pull the plug.  All the money is gone.  Contract or not,  you are not going to get anything more.

They went for it.

Again.

The balls on that man!

Good call Bill.  Good lesson, Gary.