Cutting Close to the Heart — Editing Metallica: Saved My Life

Metallica: Saved my life (2025) - Editor

“You’re not editing a band. You’re editing what that band meant to someone.”

Metallica: Saved My Life isn’t just a music doc.

It’s a story about survival, community, identity — and what music holds when everything else falls apart.

The footage we received wasn’t just interviews and archives. It was personal testimony. Stories that were raw, vulnerable, sometimes rough around the edges. And that’s what made it powerful.

Lesson 1: Let the people lead the pace

Some of the best moments in the film aren’t perfectly shot. They’re imperfect, human. As an editor, I had to constantly choose emotion over polish.

Lesson 2: Know when not to cut

When someone is opening up — about loss, about finding meaning in a lyric, about screaming through trauma at a live show — the best thing you can do as an editor is stay out of the way.

No fancy transitions. No rhythm edits. Just presence.

Lesson 3: The band is the backdrop

Yes, Metallica is the frame. But the heart of the film is the fans.

They’re the narrators. The emotional spine.

The music carries it, but the people make it matter.

Editing this project reminded me why I fell in love with this work in the first place.

It wasn’t about sync. It was about feeling.

And about the stories music holds when words aren’t enough.