In the past 2 years, I have realize that I am a lazy editor and I am not alone. Everybody is a lazy I have realized. Notice that your kid's teacher is lazy, your co-worker is lazy, even the garbage person is lazy. I see it on a daily basis at work, people striving to not do something. They actually put a lot of effort, ironically, in trying not to do something. I realized that I am even lazy when it come to doing something I love to do, editing.

In my very unscientific observations, I have broken it down to 2 very broad versions of lazy. The unproductive version which is the more popular version of the word. The version that one would associate with Homer Simpson. We are all very familiar with that type.

However, the other version of lazy is productive lazy, which is often misinterpreted. I like to think that I am the productive lazy person when it comes to editing. People might confuse the notion of lazy with lack of work ethic but this type of lazy is all about work efficiency. If your this brand of lazy, people might give you compliments like "your pretty quick" at sometimes when they look at the way you working a keyboard. Or maybe these phrases come up frequently "your done?!", "That was fast". At other times they might comment "wow that guy has a lot of downtime" when they walk by your suite or they have that perplexed look of "He never looks busy". Well that is the result of the productive lazy.

I use to be one of those people that thought the hours logged on project directly correlates with the quality of the work. "Sweat equity" is common knowledge concept and I realize that it's wrong, dead wrong as a concept.

When I use to work on film, set you would see this all the time. The young folks would scramble around fast and furious; the older people wouldn't even break a sweat. The young can outrun the old but like a fairy tale the older hare usually gets there more efficiently and often quicker. In my younger days, I would alway wonder how the old guy got it done faster than me. I slowly notice why they didn't have to race around. Productive use of their energy.

So back to my laziness, the efficient kind. In editing you should strive to be this type of lazy. What it entails is that you need to make everything as simple as possible and this does involve elbow grease but you reap what you sow.
It does require you to master some tech/software skills to create workflows that make things the fewest click process. Organizing your media to retrieve a clip easily when you have an idea about a cut sequence. You want to strive to be a Lebowski lazy Urban achiever.

If your Lebowski lazy, you have time to make a white Russian, you have time to meditate about your bowling round and you have time to meticulously shop for cream because you did all the heavy lifting, your set up is built to go fast, you know your software and hardware inside out (e.i. Keyboard shortcuts link to old post) Your basically have time to lean back relaxe and pounder your cuts, your back isn't against the wall because of the way you work (it might be because of all the other moving parts of film but its not your doing, that's the point.

It is the beginning of the year and a time to make resolutions. I don't really believe in making 2 week promisses to myself that I am bound to break because they aren't habit forming (back to work podcast) But I will make a realistic goal that is easy to improve on because it will help me be more lazy. Tweak my workflow even more, so I can reach my true inner Leboski.