Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dahae Lee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dahae, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was my senior thesis as an editor, editing a short documentary called “Just Jacob.” Just Jacob is a story of a follower born with a rare genetic disorder called Treacher Collins Syndrome, which affects the development of facial bones and tissues, causing a facial deformity.

It’s significant to me because I was impressed and felt embarrassed of myself even though I was being negative and tended to give on easily on my tasks or parts of my life. But with someone who has Treacher Collins syndrome, he was born trying to be positive and live as much as he wants to be successful and be the same as all of us; I am highly impressed with myself. It gives a life message, and you would look back on yourself to improve and go through any burdens.

Also, it was a challenging task to edit, especially since the dialogue Jacob wasn’t clear enough that we had to detect and hear individual lines to have more than 40 hours of footage to create a masterpiece. Due to hardship and the amount of effort our crew spent and put in, we had a chance to win an award from our College’s film festival, Savannah Film Festival, for Best Student Documentary.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi! My name is Dahae Lee, and I’m a young film editor and colorist from Seoul, Korea! My Journey for me to be here was like an adventure. I was born in Korea and lived there until I was 12. However, I spent most of my teenage years in China to meet and experience diverse cultures by meeting friends from different countries. Also achieved my biggest desire to be able to spend lots of time on painting and drawing, where my art love grew from 8.

From when I was a kid and can’t even remember what I drew, I always dreamed of being an artist. I thought having a career and getting a job in painting would be my only interest. When I joined the varsity soccer team at 13, My soccer coach suggested video editing for the season, where my first spark of interest in media grew. Back then, when I was not really interested or talented enough to use software to create cool transitions or reasonable edits, I just loved the way people viewed and enjoyed my toddler work.

My interest in film also grew from my family’s massive interest in cinema. We loved going to the theater to see movies every week to try various film genres. I was a kid who was not growing up watching animation but loved Christopher Nolan’s and Korean dark noir films.

I’m a growing editor and colorist located in Burbank, California. I am editing and coloring narratives and documentaries where I can be creative. My passion for editing grew from being a magician to creating how I put all images and sounds together to create the piece of a story. It’s a very fascinating job that I do and love. My interest in color correcting and grading for film started based on editing. No people were interested in color film when I edited for different short films at College. I did not want to have gray blend raw images of my film in my portfolio, so I decided to learn and practice by taking lots of movies to gain knowledge and have the confidence to be creative with the colors!

I think my background in painting and the side of myself that always wanted to be a painter shifted to color and paint in the film world, which I am always grateful for.

Currently, I’m editing and coloring for feature documentaries and short narrative films. I’m also one of the Gold Alumni from the Gold Rising Program at Academy Motion Pictures to be proud of! I’m still learning and growing to experience the bigger side of the film industry in Hollywood, where I would love to be part of and as a filmmaker.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

From the previous question about my journey, I talked about how I became interested in media arts that bloomed from my painting and drawing background when I was 8. People always ask me how I got interested and why I stopped thinking and dreaming of a career in painting and graphic design. I’ve always believed in myself that I would be a painter or graphic designer until the first semester of my Senior year in high school. However, after I talked with my counselor, I wanted to discuss choosing my major to film instead of fine art. Honestly, I was very nervous and afraid to study film in college. I’ve never thought if I would be able to find a job. Even when I told my parents, they were not happy and told me they wouldn’t be 100% supportive of my decision. However, after I talked with my counselor said to me that college is the place where you will learn and discover your genuine interest, which could lead to your future career. I can try and learn from step by step. I’m so glad that I made this decision to film industry and thank you to all the people who helped and encouraged me to step on a new and little afraid journey. Also, I’m really grateful and thankful to my parents who always believed in me and all the support.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

It’s such an obvious recommendation of a book related to my career, but I still ten out of ten recommend it to the young editor and any editor who is starting to learn like I was; it’s called Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch. I really wish I had known this book when I started to get interested in editing in high school or even freshman year in college. Then, I could have understood better and seen which part of my work was missing that I could improve. My favorite part of the book is the percentage wheel of editing. It shows how much the audience feels, and it’s vital in the film that leads to editing. The best thing is emotions where audience and filmmaker would focus on and be interested in the most. This book always reminded me of my work what I’m missing and where and how can I improve to be a better taste. Then I always rethink the list of importance in editing according to the book which really helps me every time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://haedaling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haedaling/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dahae-lee-a03504239/