Command Edit Podcast interview with Erik Swanson editor of Rise of the Sufferfests documentary on OCR

We welcome editor Erik Swanson on the show, who recently completed work on his first feature length credit: Rise of the Sufferfests, a documentary that explores the rising trend of OCR (Obstacle Course Racing).

You may have heard me talk about OCR occasionally as it's become an obsession of mine in the past year. If you've heard of Tough Mudder, Spartan races or anything similar then you've probably thought one of two things: 1) "That sounds like fun!" or 2) "Why do people actually do this??"

Rise of the Sufferfests sets out to answer that latter question, as director Scott Keneally investigates the world of OCR using himself as a guinea pig and interviews with multiple racers.

Erik Swanson got started in filmmaking working mostly with sports editorial footage for 11 years before jumping into the world of freelancing and becoming attached to RotS with Scott and his group.

Documentary filmmaking is not for the faint of heart. It can involve insanely large amounts of dedicated time, endless hours of footage to sift through and a story to find. It's not like scripted content where you always start the timeline with some semblance of a story prepared. The editor has a lot of creative control when it comes to crafting the story of a doc, but it's also a huge responsibility.