Originally born in England, Oliver Harwood discovered his true calling as a film editor at the age of 17. After spending hours shooting footage on his father’s video camera one summer, Harwood was beside himself when he realized that he could place all of the footage on a timeline and subsequently create a story by organizing the shots. Through editing Harwood found an unexpected escape, and it wasn’t long before the then budding talent embarked on the career that has brought him incredible success today.
When it comes to editing Harwood was headed for greatness from the start, something that was solidified when he was accepted to the prestigious American Film Institute, a conservatory program that only accepts 100 people per year. For a boy from a small town in England to get accepted to a school half way across the world, and what’s more, one that has become synonymous with innovative and award winning filmmaking, is quite the achievement.
While Harwood’s talent was undeniable, being a successful editor in the film industry requires a unique amalgamation of traits, and a strong ego is not one of them. Although AFI did wonders for his career and helped him perfect his craft to the point of making him a sought after film editor for a vast range of films, he still had a lot to learn when it came to the best way to approach the director/editor collaboration when working on a film.
He admits, “After AFI I had somehow got it into my head that I knew what was best when it came to how to cut a movie.”
But once he began working as the editor on the film Mae and Ash that attitude quickly changed. Without paying heed to the director’s vision for the film Harwood went about cutting the film in a way that he thought was best.
He recalls, “The seed of arrogance had stared to sprout thus producing my assumption that my cut was always going to be the best, making any deviation from that as a result of working with the director inferior to what had already been done.”
While the process of realizing his first cut was in fact not the best for the film was unquestionably shocking, the ego-shattering experience was crucial for Harwood’s future success. He soon went from doing only what he thought was best to doing what was best for the film, a choice that helped make Mae and Ash, and all of his future work, hugely successful.
Mae and Ash went on to reach national acclaim in the U.S. winning the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Female Performance at the 2013 NoBudge Awards, the Audience Choice Award and an Honorable Mention at the 2013 WAMM Festival and an Honorable Mention at the 2013 Landlocked Film Festival, in addition to being an Official Selection at countless other film festivals.
Harwood recalls, “Suddenly I felt this huge relief. I realized that the whole ‘I am the best’ mentality had become a defense mechanism constructed to protect myself from the notion that what I was doing might not necessarily be the only way to cut the footage.”
Through his work on the films Apartment Eleven, Contrapelo, Reaver, Solid Ground, Red Rider and others, Harwood has developed a glowing reputation as an editor who can cut films in a way that allows their stories to come across seamlessly.
His biggest lesson for other editors in the film industry is this: “As an editor, you are not here to make the best film you can. You are here to make the best OF a film you can.”