If the film editor adds the heart and pulse to a drama, says award-winning editor Tim Woodhouse, in documentaries they bring the brains and structure.

Tim, an ASE member, teaches film and TV editing in Unitec’s Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts (BPSA), and last week he won a New Zealand Screen Award for the documentary Haunting Douglas, a look inside the mind of acclaimed dancer Douglas Wright.

The editing process in a documentary is similar to screenwriting in fictional drama, he says. “In dramas you finesse and interpret what’s already been written, but you write documentaries in the cutting room.”

Tim previously won a New Zealand award for his work on the TV drama “Staunch” and, after going through a period where there were no awards, he says that it was enjoyable having an event again where the industry could celebrate their successes.

“It was a bloody terrific night – the last awards were in 2002 and the Screen Directors’ Guild did a lot of work to make the night something meaningful. It was really nice to get the recognition from my peers.”

Woodhouse moved to New Zealand from Australia in the early 90s after cutting his teeth on current affairs shows while working for  the ABC. At that time, he says, TV was the main forum for non-fiction storytelling.

Now, with many documentaries gaining cinema releases that has changed.

“A documentary should be a revelation of the human spirit. In Haunting Douglas you get to understand how an extraordinary dancer thinks about his work – what he calls ‘the memory of movement’ – I love those revelations.”