In my early teens, I was heavily into music. It was my ambition in life and I devoted all my spare time to perfecting my craft. It began on the drums. I was an avid drummer. I learned the basics but I didn’t excel, so I shifted over to the guitar and it was there that I found my calling.

I played for hours on end, excelled at my craft and became very good. I based my technique on my hero, Tom Morello, and it was through the guitar that I found an outlet that I desperately needed from the annoyance of school.

What made me so good on the guitar was my history of drumming. The foundation that four-four time put in me was not the ability to play the drums well but it molded in me an internal metronome — so that when this was applied on the guitar, I knew how to keep time without hesitation and I had perfect rhythm.

Later, when I was playing guitar in various bands post-school — I always had a great musical relationship with my drummers because I was always in sync with them.

The same can be said for my videography.

I was an editor for 10 years before I ever picked up a camera.

I began audio editing for radio stations in Sydney — Triple M, and 2day FM. I was the ‘carting boy’ tasked with placing the commercials on air and timing them perfectly according to their allocation (using my internal metronome no less).

When I eventually shifted into video editing, I thought it was going to be my profession for life. I loved the art of crafting something on film — being the last clog in the process — the buck stops with me.

(At the time) I loved working with other people’s vision and it wasn’t until I picked up a camera that I fell in love with crafting my own footage and being responsible for what I was put on screen rather than cleaning up the work that was given to me.

This made me careful.

It made me think like an editor during the production in anticipation of the post. When I was filming, I was in synch with my editing.

My internal ‘editing metronome’ made me more time-efficient on the job.

When I made my feature films, it was my editing that helped in the countless shoots and reshoots of the scenes that were shot and unmarked because as an editor — I knew where to look.

Editing crafted me as a better filmmaker just like playing the drums crafted me as a better Guitarist.

To anyone looking to take up filmmaking or videography as a profession — begin editing first.

Find the principles of what makes for good pacing first and foremost before you even think about picking up a camera.

When looking to craft the perfect film, the perfect pace trumps the perfect shot every time.