Clive Payne is an experienced video editor and producer who is a key member of the digiio creative team. With more than twenty-five years of experience in the sector, he brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to digiio.
Clive, tell us about joining the digiio team?
I’ve been with digiio for just over a year now. It’s been really busy and I haven’t looked back!
What is a typical day like for you?
I start the day by seeing what’s on for the day: am I working on a new or an existing project? If it’s a new project, I’ll review the storyboard and brief. Then I’ll go through all the footage. We can have many hours of footage for just one story.
As I go through the footage, I’ll be picking out the snippets to include in the final edit so I can start telling the story. That is a judgement that comes down to my experience, really. Some of our briefs can be very complex, with a lot of considerations. Deciding what we need to include can get quite complex – but knowing how to tell the story will come down to the storytelling of the individual editor. If you had five different editors, you’d get five different edits.
What do you think influences your own editing process?
Piecing things together is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle really. It’s a thing of beauty. Not every editor will tell the same story; everyone’s interpretation will be slightly different. I think I am good at this because I’m good at problem solving. I think and see in pictures. I can tell stories. And I have a lot of experience; I’m always listening and learning.
Tell us about your experience. How did you get started working in film?
I first got interested in filmmaking at school. I had a big passion for BMX and I used to go racing. Film cameras came to a race one day. They were filming for local news to be shown on TV. The final edit featured the slow-motion of a trick with some music running in the background and I thought, “Wow! That’s cool!”.
It inspired me to film BMXing on VHS for a school English project. The teacher got me some time at the local art college so I could go and edit it and I really enjoyed it.
When I left school, I wanted to get into the local art college. At the time, it was one of the best film schools in the country. I got an interview but didn’t get in. They said, at that age, I didn’t have the experience or emotional intelligence to tell a story.
But you persevered?
I worked as a landscape gardener for six years, but through all that time I continued my passion with film. I did photography in my spare time and experimented with different genres and techniques. I built up quite a portfolio over the years!
I could tell a story well by then so, when I reapplied to art college, I got in. I was one of the top students, but it wasn’t about getting the distinctions. I put my heart and soul into everything I did. The college asked me to stay on and teach. I became expert in a graphics and editing system that was used in big-budget Hollywood movies and helped the college become a centre of excellence in that technology.
Teaching part-time at the art college enabled me to get started. I set up my own freelance editing practice. The connections I made at art college came in useful and led to my first corporate gigs.
Why do you think you were so successful at college?
If you want to be good at what you do, you need to be interested in everything else. How things work. How things are perceived. How you perceive things… You can’t have tunnel vision and you need to think outside the box.
The student environment can feel quite safe. When I left that to work in giant editing suites in Soho, it was a huge learning curve. It felt quite scary – but I gained a lot of knowledge and experience and I learnt an awful lot.
Did you always want to work in the corporate world?
I suppose I missed out on the usual career stage of leaving college, becoming a runner and getting into editing from there. I went straight into editing, built up my corporate profile and it snowballed from there.
The majority of my work was corporate film making. It can be very hard to break into feature films and the work is less stable: big projects with big breaks in between.
I worked on all kinds of projects – documentaries, adverts, games, corporate. To become an all-round editor, you have to take on all kinds of work. I always enjoyed that element of being a freelancer. That’s one of the reasons why I like working at digiio – the work is very varied.
Why did you decide to stop freelancing and join the digiio team instead?
I like the work. And digiio is a growing company. It’s great to know I am on the journey.
I enjoy injecting creativity so that the messaging I'm working on stands out from the crowd. It's an exciting challenge.
I like the people at digiio. The people are all very personable and likeable. I want to work with people who I like because it makes it easier to be creative.
How do you stay creative?
I’m always spotting bits of clever editing and ideas I can try out. I like to keep an open mind and be like a sponge.
I dabble in a lot of things. I still do landscaping – it frees up the mind.
I do a lot of art – I made an animated film in my garage during lockdown. And I like to visit art galleries at the weekend.
I also a bit of an inventor. I’ve been inventing for the last fifteen years. It doesn’t always work, but I have learnt a lot along the way. My most successful product is a multi-purpose gym in a box. W8gym.com has just sold its 10,000th unit!
Exercise is also important. I’ve taught martial arts – a combination of Brazilian jujitsu, Krav Maga and kickboxing. I find if I go to the gym first thing it clears my head for the day. I think I have a little gremlin in my head that won’t let me stay in bed! It says, “Come on! Get up!”. It’s hard, but you do reap the rewards from it. You feel reinvigorated.
Then I can bring that enthusiasm, energy and creativity to my work at digiio.
Can you picture yourself being part of the digiio team?
We’re always on the look out for talented individuals who share our love of all things film, technology and creative marketing. If you've been inspired by Clive's story, please send your CV to: hello@digiio.com
What next?
If you're looking for help with video or digital marketing, please give us a call.
You can reach us on: 020 7902 1190