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My guest today is Paul Rogers who is an award-winning film editor. His work on Everything, Everywhere All At Once recently won him an Oscar. But the epicenter of our conversation today is the speech he gave backstage after the awards:

"There's a problem in our industry that the more you kill yourself for a movie, the braver you are and that's bullsh*t. We can do our jobs and we can live our lives and the more fully we are able to live our lives and the more humanely we treat ourselves and the people around us the better we can do our jobs."

If you’ve been a long time listener to my podcast, no doubt that you’ll recognize this as something that I’ve been advocating for years already. What’s interesting is that Paul did not plan on saying this in his speech, but instead, it came out of nowhere while trying to refocus from all the awards commotion. My intuition tells me that it’s deeply connected to his values as a film editor, as a human being and how he defines work-life balance.

In this conversation, we talk about boundaries, what type of projects he would do and why, and how winning an Oscar has changed his life.

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Here's What You'll Learn:

How Paul accidentally said a quote that went viral after the Oscars
Paul’s different perspective about work-life balance and why it’s the best one to have
What changed for Paul after his quote went viral
Why Paul and his wife decided to leave their comfortable life and take a risk to make it in Hollywood
How Paul got his start in the entertainment industry
The short film that made Paul realize why he wanted to edit films
Lessons Paul learned from working on the wrong projects
What makes a work more rewarding beyond the money, credit and reputation
What Paul looks for when hiring assistants (it’s not about the credits and past experiences)
Paul’s view about winning awards
What Paul believes separates creatives from AI

Useful Resources Mentioned:

Until the Quiet Comes - short film by Kahlil Joseph

Ep170: How to Avoid Burnout and Live a More ‘Effortless’ Life | with Greg McKeown

PARALLAX

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Guest Bio:

paul-rogers-bio Paul Rogers

Editor Paul Rogers recently won the Academy Award for Best Editing for the film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Paul Rogers began his professional career in 2007 editing documentary films for public television in Alabama, winning 4 Emmy Awards. He made the jump to Los Angeles in 2013 and kicked off a career in music videos with the DANIELS’ directed Turn Down For What and further collaborated with DANIELS on the short films Interesting Ball and Boat Dad as well as one half of the duo, Daniel Scheinert, on the A24 feature film The Death of Dick Long, which premiered at Sundance in 2018. He dipped back into documentaries in 2020 with You Cannot Kill David Arquette, an official SXSW selection and winner of the Adobe Editing Award. His next film is Isaiah Saxon's debut feature The Legend of Ochi.

Along with feature films, he has edited for the Eric Andre Show, Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, Haim, and Thundercat among others.

Paul has also collaborated extensively with director Kahlil Joseph on projects such as ‘Lemonade’ for Beyonce, ‘Process’ for Sampha, and Joseph's most recent work 'BLK NWS.’

Paul is a partner in the editorial company PARALLAX located in Los Angeles.

Show Credits:

This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, and the show notes were prepared by Debby Germino and published by Glen McNiel.

The original music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Joe Trapanese (who is quite possibly one of the most talented composers on the face of the planet).

Ep236: Building An Oscar-Winning Career...Without Sacrificing Your Values | with Paul Rogers

The Zack Arnold Podcast