You make.
You learn.

Jabez Olssen has had a career any editor would be envious of.

He’s an Oscar nominee and one of Peter Jacksons most valued team members. From editing The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies to working on King Kong, The Lovely Bones, The Adventures of Tintin and Star Wars’: Rouge One -  it all started with a one-year production course at Yoobee’s South Seas campus, where Jabez majored in Post Production.

Soon after graduating, Jabez found work at high-end post-production companies, where he relied on the extensive practical edit suite training he had received at South Seas. It wasn’t long before industry people who admired his skill and commitment recommended him to Peter Jackson, who needed another Avid Editor for The Fellowship of the Ring.

Jabez is forever grateful to his initial South Seas training as it gave him the confidence to “try anything”, which was a skill that he used at the 11th hour in one of Star Wars: Rogue One's most memorable scenes, where Darth Vader cuts a swathe through Rebel Alliance troops with his lightsabre! Watch it here https://youtu.be/iDS0pUFaY_k  

This was a tense scene involving one of cinema's greatest villains and it was only there thanks to a brainwave from Jabez. The film's original climax never had Darth Vader on Princess Leia's ship, but Jabez had a feeling that they needed “to get Darth on that ship'. The problem was they were only a few months from release and reshoots would be costly. Jabez pitched the idea to Executive Producer Kathy Kennedy and she loved it. “Suddenly within a week or two were at Pinewood shooting that scene."

"I won't be alone in being in this industry because of the [positive] effect that Star Wars had on me [my career]… if I never get to edit anything ever again, I can still say that I've edited scenes with Gollum in them and I've edited scenes with Darth Vader in them so, I'm good."