Q&A with Tyler Hurst
How do you stay motivated when the editing process feels like a grind?
Break the monotony! Go for a run, go do something that activates a totally different part of my brain. Or give into every impulse creatively. There's a very methodical way to approach editing and for me that involves rejecting flyaway thoughts to keep on task, but it can be fun to just let myself waste time and explore interesting ideas.
What’s the most memorable feedback you’ve received from a director or client?
I got ripped apart as an assistant for listening to an EP instead of following what the ECD was telling me. That's when I realized that most of the job is egos and making everyone feel heard.
If you weren’t an editor, what would you be doing?
Homesteading.
Growing up in Amish country Pennsylvania, Tyler had to hide his passion for the sinful culture and technology that fueled him. He watched movies like The Witness and Children of the Corn by candlelight, pausing only to be sure the creaking of the farmhouse was only the wind, and not the scornful gaze of God. In order to learn how to edit, he first had to learn how to build his own semiconductors, and assemble the anodes and diodes into a turing machine with sufficient power to run Adobe Premiere CS3. Though the nights ran long and progress was slow, the Mennonite work ethic of his heritage proved evermore useful as he toiled over the database from sundown, to sunup.