A Future of Possibilities
VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS | LEAD EDITOR | 6 MINUTES
WHY THIS MATTERED
This film wasn’t supporting a campaign. It was the campaign. It needed to carry the emotional weight of Vertex’s national cystic fibrosis initiative. If this didn’t land, nothing downstream worked.
WHAT WASN’T WORKING
The material was strong—but unfocused. Twelve long-form interviews. Ten hours of vérité. A twenty-minute cut that needed to become six. Too many voices competed for attention. Data overwhelmed humanity. The story existed—but it wasn’t breathing.
WHAT I DID
I reduced before I shaped.
Lines that didn’t move the heart were removed, even if they were “good.”
Twelve voices became one emotional arc.
One early decision reframed everything: I moved a key statement from Vertex’s CEO to the opening. The entire journey realigned around it.
From there, the work was restraint: Space before emotion. Music that guided without pushing. Small timing shifts that let the audience arrive on their own.
WHAT CHANGED
By the second cut, there were no structural notes. The story finally connected. The emotion landed without being forced. The film became the flagship piece of Vertex’s cystic fibrosis campaign.
"Max is my secret weapon in post."
- DINA RUDICK, ANTHEM MULTIMEDIA