Is Emotion Needed?

Flying House Media | Steve Cheak | The Experience Vault

The fastest way to disrespect a patient’s story is to add emotion to it.

Editors are trained in linear storytelling. Setup, rising action, peak, resolution.  It works for most things.  It doesn’t always work for a patient’s story.

Most rare disease patients spend years without a diagnosis. 

Doctors who can’t name what’s wrong.

Nights where the unknown is louder than anything else.

By the time we’re filming, the emotional weight is already there. 

In the pauses.

In the way someone looks at their partner before answering.

In what they don’t say.

So the most important edit in a rare disease story is usually the one I decide NOT to make.

Sure, the temptation is always there to hit it harder.

A music swell.

A tighter cut.

A closer push-in.

But forcing emotion onto a patient who is already carrying it tells the audience how to feel instead of trusting them to feel it.

At the peak of a story, I cut later. 

Hold longer.

Choose the take where the silence does the work.

The patient’s story isn’t a structure to hit.

It’s something to listen to.

It’s something to reveal.

As an editor I have a big responsibility of handling rare patient stories and the complex emotional journey of their support team. Making sure I honor their story while still providing the best technical video for our clients is a balancing act.

I have to take in to consideration what is being said, how it’s being said, the goals of the client, and how we want the audience to feel while watching the final outcome.

As an editor, I’ve always found that to be a cool part of the gig. By picking when to cut on a key word or selecting the right kind of music hit for that oh-so-perfect sound bite, that’s very satisfying.

The most common way to achieve this balance is through linear storytelling, which is tried and true. However, in rare disease patient stories, that doesn’t always lead to the true culmination of their journey.

Most rare disease patients go years with an unnamed diagnosis. Multiple doctors’ visits. Sleepless nights because of the stress of the unknown.

If many patient stories are linear, how do you still connect with the audience? How do you make the story about the patient; not about hitting your story milestones? It’s often about what you choose to leave out.

At the emotional peak of a story I approach it with more care and intention behind each decision. This is because the weight of the patient story and their struggle deserves to be highlighted without being overdramatized. I would be doing a disservice to the patient by forcing unneeded emotion when the emotion is already there.

Less is more.