ALAN MILLER BFE
FREELANCE
Film Editor | Writer | Director
How I can help you...
I’ve had almost 40 years’ experience as a film editor. Films I’ve edited, written, directed and sometimes performed the commentary for, are listed on my CV below. Please take a look at some short clips of my work and below those, a few testimonials.
Editor
On paper, the editor’s job is to fashion the film according to the director’s vision. Along the way, colleagues can become great friends, valued creative collaborators and on some documentaries, co-authors. But editing all boils down to eliciting an emotional response from an audience using pictures and sound.
Writer
On a similar mission is the writer. Commentary writing is answering the audience’s question just before they ask it. A well-timed turn of phrase can highlight a narrative beat pushing the story forward. And whatever you do, avoid clichés like the… You know the rest.
Director
Directors are the principal visual storytellers. They call the shots, guide performances, choose the angles and then in the cutting room, they sometimes have an initial crisis of confidence. “How is all this going to actually go together?” they cry. That’s where the editor comes in.
Some of what I do...
Named for the emotions they invoke, here are several clips from my wide-ranging and cross-genre body of work. Editors are storytellers regardless of genre.
Extraordinary
Vanishing Kings (2015)
Editing, co-writer 2' 07" (Recut Sequence used for BBC's Planet Earth II)
Click / tap on any project for more details.
More Clips
Don't just take my word for it...
Filmmaking is nothing if not an intensely collaborative medium. I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with so many talented filmmakers. Three of them have pitched in to give me a few words of support. Thanks, guys.
Alan is far beyond your normal Editor. His passion for Feature films adds an extraordinary element to his editing skills, and with so many years of experience in the wildlife film industry, Alan knows exactly what a wildlife film needs to bring the story to its full potential. With his remarkable, and at times admirable daring cuts, as well as his astonishing poetic writing skills, Alan has been invaluable to us, and he has brought our wildlife films to another level. We wouldn’t want to make another film without him..!
My very first edit with Alan (“Amur – Asia’s Amazon”, an international blue-chip series commissioned by Terramater Factual Studios Vienna) proved to be a personal in-service training of sorts, even though I already had two decades of documentary film-making and dozens of international awards behind me at the time. Tapping Alan’s vast cross-genre experience, his depth of understanding and his skilled routine have equipped me with new creative tools which have served me ever since. Nor has it stopped there. Watching him raise the production values of various other projects has been a continuing source of professional inspiration.
In 2010 I met Alan for the first time. I was a student on a course, with the ambition to make wildlife films. Alan was one of the tutors. I asked him to draft a trailer for the project I tried to get off the ground and that was enough to get my new career going. Since then we have made 6 films together, broadcast in dozens of countries across the globe, reaching millions of people and winning awards at festivals. I feel safe to say that that would not have happened if I had not joined up with Alan. He is not just an editor. He is a partner in keeping grips on the whole process of making a film. He is a master of the art of turning footage into stories and a true companion in the creation of wonderful films.