Editing ASAHEL: THE CURTIS COLLECTION
The average length for our series episodes at Cascade PBS is between 6.5 to 8.5 minutes. Most of our content is intended to be “interstitial,” snuggled in between the prestige PBS shows like Downton Abbey or Antiques Roadshow. So when I had the chance to edit our first long form documentary in years, I jumped at it.
Asahel: The Curtis Collection is a 30 min. documentary about the Washington State Historical Society’s efforts to digitize over 60,000 glass plate negatives created by legendary local photographer Asahel Curtis during his time working in the Seattle area from the 1890’s to the 1940’s.
Producer Shannen Ortale worked for over a year collecting interviews and digging through thousands of images in an effort to portray the vastness and diversity of the collection. In addition to interviewing the curators at the WSHS, Shannen also tracked down a decedent of a subject of one of Curtis’ most famous photos as well as historians and even a photographer, Daniel Carillo, who shows us how he uses an 8x10 land camera similar to the one Curtis used.
The result is a documentary that strives to move past talking heads and boring Ken Burns-like zooms in an effort to show the physical effort and cultural sensitivity that allowed Curtis to work as a photographer for half a century.
The initial paper edit was over an hour long. Once we pared it down to under 30 min. we started to play with the structure; making sure to weave the different narrative threads together so that no one section became too long. Our secret weapon was our collaboration with our amazing animator, Kalina Torino, who provided us with beautiful templates that made sure the featured photos had a kinetic and hand-made quality.
Besides the structure, I’m most proud of the sound design for this project. Instead of starting with interviews and music, the doc begins with long shots of beautiful exteriors and interiors (shot by our amazing cinematographers Bryce Yukio Adolphson & Amanda Snyder) accompanied by ambiences, showing the quiet, assured role of the archivists who work so hard to bring these images to the public.
Throughout the rest of the doc, I made sure to use music at a minimum and allow the different ambiences of interiors and exteriors to bump up against each other in an effort to make the sound design feel more like a narrative film. The result is a documentary that I’m immensely proud of!