In the summer of 2007 while I was a film student at Oklahoma City University, the Moving Image Arts program headed by Fritz Kiersch decided to make a feature length film. The film was helmed by graduate student Lance McDaniel and was written by McDaniel and Oklahoma filmmaker Sean Lynch.
Undergraduates were allowed to sign up for the film as a six hour summer course to fulfill class requirements such as camera, lighting, etc. Because the program was less than two years old, no students had advanced far enough to get to the editing courses. However, I was a transfer student having previously been a student in the Oklahoma City Community College film program, also under Fritz, and had several years of editing experience. I was asked to edit and took the project to fulfill my advanced editing coursework which wouldn't have been available for several more semesters.
Unsolved was my first feature and a daunting project for me because unlike other feature editors, I had not worked my way up as an assistant on other films first. Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect. I encountered P2 workflow for the first time as the film was shot on a HVX-200 with a 35mm lens adapter. We had hoped to have a computer to work on from the start of the production so I could log and ingest each day's footage as we went, but a true workstation did not arrive until fall semester began and we had to rely on an array of temporary solutions to get any editing done.
While the edit spilled into the fall semester and time became precious for me, I enjoyed almost every minute of the experience and I cannot wait for another chance to edit a feature length movie.