Refining Serendipity

One of the things I love about editing is the accidental gem that comes up from time to time. I have a side of me that wants to let creativity be. After all, if it was one of those moments, why change it?

I came across this recently in a baseball video I did for my son. I had laid out some clips of batters in motion with space between them just to allow for room to extend or slow them down. Turns out I really liked the "eye blink" feel. But I left it at that. Later, I showed it to a friend of mine. He noticed that in the leading clip, the batter didn't complete his swing like all the other clips. He was correct - it didn't feel right. I went back and fixed it, extending the clip until the swing was complete.

So my point is this: Don't be afraid to go back and refine serendipity (after all, accidents are just that - accidents; they need tweaking to be perfect).