Building Vulnerability — Inside the Edit of Ed Sheeran: Songwriter

Ed Sheeran - 'Songwriter’

“We cut it to feel like memory. Not media.”

When I first sat down to cut Songwriter, I knew it had to feel personal.

Not staged. Not PR.

Just Ed — writing, experimenting, feeling his way through the fog.

It’s one of the rare docs that lets you be inside the process, not just hear about it afterwards.

Process over polish

The footage was raw: Tour buses, hotel rooms, quiet writing sessions, voice notes mid-tour.

We leaned into that.

I didn’t want the cut to feel like an afterthought. I wanted it to feel lived in. Like you were in the room while the songs were being born.

Respect the rhythm of creativity

Editing creativity is weird. It doesn’t follow structure. It loops, repeats, drifts.

So we didn’t force narrative. We chased tone.

Moments of friction. Play. Stuckness. Flow.

That rhythm — the creative rhythm — became the structure.

Don’t narrate the story. Let it unfold.

There’s no VO. No formal sit-downs. Just Ed, living it.

The edit had to support that.

Every decision was about staying close, but never manipulating.

What I love most is that Songwriter feels like a film Ed might’ve made himself.

And that’s the highest compliment for an editor in the room — to disappear into the story.