Stevan Riley - Don't touch that dial

The digital Marlon head was inspired. It was fortuitous that you discovered its existence, and using the tape of Marlon talking about it ("They digitized me today...") as an introduction to a movie about his life made its presence, weird though it was, a natural part of the story. But ...!

Constantly cutting to different angles on the head for no reason was distracting and kind of spoiled the effect - I wanted to focus on the subject, a departed soul speaking to us from beyond the grave, like an electronic ghost - visible but not really there. But it was hard to do when the messy editing kept drawing attention to itself. One shot and - hold.

I would also cut out many of the unnecessary effects that were used throughout the film. Still photos that flickered randomly. Black and white footage given unnecessary tints.
Straight shots which were treated - corners darkened or something like that. Why?

Nowadays, everybody edits their documentaries with Avid or whatever frilly new software got written up in Post magazine. They all come larded with effects, and most of those effects have already worn out their welcome or soon will. Remember, the people who design this stuff are not artists, and what they come up with are just more sophisticated versions of the flaming, rotating logos that web designers stopped using two decades ago.
Beware!