Hollywood Confessional

What Happens in Editing

• Ninth Way Media • Season 3 • Episode 9

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Hello Hollywood Faithful! Welcome back to another episode of the Hollywood Confessional, the podcast where industry professionals share their deepest, darkest, most insane Hollywood stories. 

This week we have a story about an editor getting their first union job, and the boss that made them question whether or not they wanted to spend their time making someone else's dreams come true. 

Balancing a demanding career with a personal life is tough in any industry, but Hollywood presents its own unique challenges. We explore the burnout from long hours and the frustration that comes from witnessing problematic behavior glamorized. Don't miss this candid and inspiring discussion that sheds light on the flexibility and self-discovery inherent in the gig-based nature of editing.

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Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production, produced by Meagan Daine and J.R. Zamora-Thal.

Sound Effects and Music provided by Zapsplat and Pixabay.

Keywords: filmmaking podcast, film podcast, screenwriting podcast, entertainment podcast, Hollywood, filmmaking, writerslife, actorslife, setlife

Speaker 1:

In nomine Cinema e TV Espiritu Streaming. Amen. Hello, Hollywood, faithful, Welcome back to another episode of the Hollywood Confessional. I'm your podcast priest, Jair Zamorathal.

Speaker 3:

And I'm Megan Dane. Thank you guys so much for joining us here on the Confessional where people reveal their deep, dark Hollywood secrets. And, JR, you have a little bit of a secret this week, I believe.

Speaker 1:

I do. I am coming to the end of my current job.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, Finally.

Speaker 1:

I am about to be fun-employed.

Speaker 3:

Fun-employed, that is such a good term. Is that a thing, or did you just like invent that right now?

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's absolutely a thing. I would love to take credit for it, but that is absolutely already a thing, and you know this time it is going to be a little bit fun. I've got a lot of plans, I've got some travel plans, I've got plans of what I want to write. I've got plans of maybe making that short we talked about last time. So you know it will be fun, employed until it isn't.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly, it's so funny. It's like you you, you have a job and it's amazing and you're so excited. And then you know, of course everybody gets tired and and so you get that little window of time right after the job ends where you're chilling and like going on vacation and everything, and then all of a sudden you're like, okay, well, now I might need to start looking for something.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, and I love that feeling right when you get off a job where you're like I'm only going to take something that I am absolutely in love with. Next.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly, you have all these plans right Like it has to, uh, be exactly the kind of show that I want to work on. It has to be a wonderful environment. It has to be like basically walking distance from my place.

Speaker 1:

And as time, goes on all those criteria, just start shedding away and finally it's like I would just like a job. Employment, please. I will trade time for money.

Speaker 3:

And that is how, ladies and gentlemen and friends, you end up with a job like this. In this week's episode of the Hollywood Confessional, we have what happens in editing.

Speaker 1:

Should we step into the booth?

Speaker 3:

Let's do it.

Speaker 4:

Forgive me, Father, for I assisted a man-baby who had no idea how to be a showrunner.

Speaker 1:

Hollywood, where you can start at the top, whether or not you know how to do the job. Could this be part of the problem? I'm betting it's most of the problem. Tell us everything.

Speaker 4:

I've wanted to go to film school since I was like 15, so I've been pursuing a career in entertainment for like half my life. Coming out of film school, you're working with your friends and you're making each other's visions come to life. But when there's money involved, it takes the joy out of things sometimes. The story I'm going to tell you is about my first union job. My title was assistant editor. I had been working on some non-union stuff for a few years, building up my hours, and I was ready to join the union. Luckily I had a friend who was looking for someone and he was like okay, I like you, here's a job, but it's only for three weeks. And I was like I don't care, I'm taking this opportunity.

Speaker 4:

To get into the union as an editor, you have to work at least 100 non-union days. I had worked my 100 days on qualifying projects, stuff that had been in a theater or in one of the bigger festivals. So I just needed my first union job so I could pay my dues and join. Even though the gig was super short, I was happy. I was like cool, I'll get a taste of it and if it's awful I can leave. It's not permanent, I have a funny feeling.

Speaker 3:

You wouldn't be here if it wasn't awful.

Speaker 4:

The job was great, but the star of the show was also the showrunner and he was a nightmare.

Speaker 1:

I mean, does it ever work for the star to also be the showrunner?

Speaker 3:

I mean Phoebe Waller-Bridge, sean Fleabag, bill.

Speaker 4:

Hader on Barry Maya Erskine and Anna Conkle on Pen15.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, I get it. I had a rough night last night. Don't judge me.

Speaker 4:

Sometimes it's amazing, but with not so much. He was on set 12 hour days, Monday through Friday, but then wanted to work on weekends with the editors Not to do his cut. He wanted to sit there during all the cuts and he did it in a way which I later learned kind of goes against how our contracts work. After production on an episode wrap, the editor should have three days to do our editor's cut. Then the director comes in and has two days to do the director's cut and after all that then you work with the producers and the showrunner so I don't know how he was able to like.

Speaker 2:

I'm just gonna sit in here and see what's going on, even though we're still in production on the episode. Who cares about IATSE or DGA rules?

Speaker 4:

At the time I thought this was normal because it was my first scripted show and I was like, okay, I guess this is the life.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that is such a classic line. I can't even tell you. There were so many firsts when I'm just like, oh, this must be normal. And then, two jobs later, I'm like, no, that was not normal.

Speaker 4:

Speaking of things that weren't normal. My main job was to finish up the dailies, which is the raw footage shot on a day of production. I was watching the dailies of trying to direct some improv in the show and there was this one awful scene. It was a three page scene but the footage was like six hours. The other actors would start doing some improv stuff and would stop in the middle of the scene and be like no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2:

Do this, do this, say this.

Speaker 4:

You have to do it this way and just like it's literally not the point of improv not to mention he's stepping all over the director there were so many rules being broken on this show now that I'm thinking about it.

Speaker 4:

The editor I was working with it was his first editing job and it was a lot for him and one of the other editors on the show had cut a lot of stuff so they were just like give it to the golden boy, he can do it, and it wasn't his episode. I don't really think that an editor can jump onto another episode for like a scene. So this was my first impression of which I got from the dailies. I was like this guy's annoying. I have no interest in meeting this person. And then I found out they shifted me to a Tuesday through Saturday schedule so we could have the Saturday session with him.

Speaker 3:

What those weekend stealing bastards?

Speaker 4:

Thankfully, my editor was a really good dude. I had signed up prior for like a race on Saturday. I was like, okay, I have this race at 8am so I can get in at like 10, and he was totally cool but got to the studio super early, even before my editor. It was so weird because he was probably on set until late on Friday night. This was before people were fighting for the turnaround times and stuff that we got in the last contract. I was like does this man not sleep? Anyway, I showed up after my race and I met him Right away. Red flags. There was a couch in the editor's suite and he was like lying on the couch with his laptop on his lap watching the basketball game.

Speaker 1:

Wouldn't that mess with the editor's ability to do his job? When I edit this podcast, I can't have like any music or TV or I'll miss things.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it was super distracting. I was like, why are you here? Like this is a pleasant Saturday for you, you're doing essentially what you would be doing on a Saturday at home, but you're making your team work. Then I introduced myself to him and he got all weirded out. So I'm like come on, it's you, me and the editor, like why be weird, I'm going to be ordering your lunch. But he barely looked up from the basketball game. Since it was already getting close to noon, I chose a place to order lunch from, and this is when I realized what a man baby he was. He wanted a buffalo grilled cheese sandwich, but without the buffalo sauce. And I was like so you want a grilled cheese sandwich?

Speaker 2:

And he was like yeah, and make sure it doesn't have any lettuce or anything, just cheese and bread.

Speaker 4:

I remember calling up the place, I was like, hey, can I get this buffalo grilled cheese without the buffalo sauce? And they were like you can just order the grilled cheese on the kids menu. Honestly, that's just me being petty, but he was also an actual dick. Pretty much the only reason I was there on a Saturday was to be support for my editor, because I'd finished all my daily work. So the editor offered to let me sit in and see how it works to be in the room, but the office was really, really small, so I ended up pulling a chair right next to the sofa, right next to my head.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure the sofa could have sat two people if he wasn't reclining.

Speaker 4:

It could have fit three people. And so I'm sitting in this chair and he's changing his position every once in a while as he's watching basketball and he has this pillow propped up behind him. He shifts and it falls on the floor and it's by my feet, so I pick it up and put it back for him. It happens again and again, keeps happening, and I keep picking up the pillow, and then there's this one time where eventually, it falls again and then he just like does a little crunch, waiting for me to put it behind him.

Speaker 3:

Oh that motherfucker. Please just tell me you let him sit like that until his neck broke it got worse.

Speaker 4:

It got worse, I think, because I had an assistant in my title. He thought I was like a PA or something, so he asked me to leave the room to get him another Spindrift sparkling water. I was there to learn not to be a PA, but then I was like I'm not even learning anything. I'm watching Bleep watch basketball. He wasn't even paying attention. You're trying to watch the scene we just cut and then Bleep is like oh sorry, can we watch it again?

Speaker 2:

I got distracted.

Speaker 4:

Eventually I was just like, okay, this isn't benefiting me. So I left the room and just found other work to do. So that was my first interaction with. Then there was another one that made me so angry. When I came on, there was already a lot of footage that had been processed and we needed to do a gag reel for the wrap party. My editor encouraged me to cut it because that's how he ended up getting his editing job. He had cut the gag reel on his last show to put himself in the room. My editor encouraged me to cut it because that's how he ended up getting his editing job. He had cut the gag reel on his last show to put himself in the room with the post producer who then brought him onto this show, so this was potentially a big opportunity.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, at the time it definitely was. I was learning the process cutting, getting notes, incorporating the notes.

Speaker 1:

Was that intimidating?

Speaker 4:

No, I think, because my editor really had my back. I first reviewed my work one-on-one with my editor and he pointed out notes the post-producer probably would have, since he knew the post-producer really well. It was really nice. The first time that the post-producer watched it he was laughing. I was like that feels really good. It was definitely an exciting thing to do, especially because there were three other assistant editors on the show and I was the one cutting it.

Speaker 2:

And so we're at the wrap party and they're getting ready to show the gag reel Steps up to introduce it and he's like and just by the way, I haven't seen this, so if it's not funny, it's not my fault.

Speaker 3:

What the fuck Did he know that you were the?

Speaker 4:

one who cut it. I don't know, but that was such a fucked up thing to say. Regardless the person who cut it. I don't know, but that was such a fucked up thing to say. Regardless. The person who cut it was at the wrap party. I was at the wrap party and it was my work and he was prepping everyone for it to be shitty. Did you ever say anything to him? No, because I know he wouldn't have listened. I don't know. I think if I had been a different person, I would have been like yo, what did you think of the gag reel? And then, if he had said something good about it, it'd be like yeah, well, I cut it.

Speaker 3:

Now that the show is out and it's getting good reviews, what do you think of this guy?

Speaker 4:

God, I hate him and I don't watch the show. I mean, it definitely is not a show made for me, but my sister lived right next to this giant billboard for a while and she sent me pictures. She's like my new view and I was like I hate that. So I'm not even going to watch the show and I just hate it. I think there was a preview that came out. I don't know if it was like a joke, but I also don't think it was a joke because the show was so based on him. But the preview showed him sleeping with so many women and I was like that makes me really uncomfortable. That's just so gross. He's not the worst person in the world, you know. I sometimes tell stories about him and I'm just like, yeah, that happened. It's kind of funny and people are like that's so fucked up and I'm like is it? Is it really Like? Really Like it wasn't like he was doing anything really awful to me, it's just he was an awful person and that's how he treated everyone.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's definitely a sliding scale of shittiness in this industry, Like we give people a lot of credit for not being absolutely fucking horrible and then it takes somebody outside the industry to give us the perspective to be like no, those are assholes.

Speaker 4:

Why do we do this? It starts to make me feel burned out. Maybe it would be different if I worked in features. I think there's more care in all the crafts and features compared to TV. Tv is just constantly churning it out. I work a show and then I'm like okay, I'm not going to work for at least two months. I make enough money to be able to do that. But the part where it gets exhausting is when I'm on a show. A lot of other aspects of my life have been put on hold, like my social life, and I'm being expected to be available until 8 pm every night, and that's a lot. But then there are people on set who have it much worse as an editing team. Eight hour days should be what it is, and it's funny because I know people like are trying to fight for fewer than 40 hour work weeks, and I'm like I'd be so happy with the 40 hour work week. Amen, yeah, the days that I do wrap at six, I feel great.

Speaker 1:

Did you know how many hours it would be when you started down this path?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, but when I started I didn't have that many friends. I was like so career driven, no-transcript. And then I discovered hobbies and developed relationships that I want to maintain and that's difficult to balance with the workload. Then, when you have to deal with assholes like I don't even know if I want to follow this path anymore. I guess it's just like seeing the people who do become editors, especially the younger ones. They care so much about the work and I just don't. The editor I'm working with right now she was working on her editor's cut. She was just so nervous and nitpicky and I was like it's fine, you just follow the script. One of our editors didn't even do temp sound design, didn't do temp ADR. You don't need to put as much work into it. But I guess that's where people get fulfilled. For me it's just a job. The passion of fulfilling someone else's creative vision isn't as high on my priority list anymore.

Speaker 1:

Do you feel any pressure to stay? The passion of fulfilling someone else's creative vision isn't as high on my priority list anymore.

Speaker 4:

Do you feel any pressure to stay in film and TV? Yeah, and I think it's more of a self-pressure than like pressure from other people. I'm like, why not stick it out and see what happens? Yeah, stick it out and become an editor and see how you like it, then decide.

Speaker 1:

What does?

Speaker 4:

it take to jump from assistant editor to editor. Well TV, you really just have to find an editor who's going to let you cut scenes and then make it obvious to the post producer and the producers that you're the one who cut the stuff, and a lot of it is finding a post producer who's willing to give you an editing credit or additional editing credit. At least the way that union rules work is you need to get paid at least one week as an editor, and there are some post producers who won't even do that. The difference in a week's pay of assistant and editor is only like $800 or something, and it's just like you can't find that $800 or so so I can get this credit.

Speaker 1:

I mean, just skip lunch for a day.

Speaker 4:

I know it's just like find the money. You can find the money, but it takes finding a post producer who is willing to do that.

Speaker 3:

Is there any advice you would give to younger editors based on your experience?

Speaker 4:

The most important thing is to ask for what you want. If you want to cut a scene, ask if your editor will let you cut a scene and let it be known when you're finding work that you want to become an editor, because there are some editors who'd rather work with an assistant who's just going to do their thing. They give exactly what is needed, but my editor I'm working with right now is very collaborative and listens to my notes, which is nice.

Speaker 4:

You want someone like that if you're trying to become an editor, and don't be afraid to speak up. Obviously you know, read the room and don't do it when the showrunner is in the room.

Speaker 3:

Especially if they're watching basketball.

Speaker 1:

I mean, in that case, fuck it.

Speaker 4:

But yeah, give your editor your thoughts about what you're doing or what they did. It's a good way to show that you know your stuff and they're probably going to be more willing to give you an opportunity to cut. I also think a benefit to editing is that things are so gig based and you can take time off, like take a month or two off, say you save enough money to take a few months off and step away from it, and if you feel like you have the drive to go back, go back, and if you don't, then use that time to think about what else you would want to do.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for your insights. If you continue down this path, I hope you don't have to work with anymore.

Speaker 3:

Definitely not. Go create in peace.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I really think we got some great advice at the end of that confession.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we really did. I think somebody who's been in this type of situation you know, obviously, god, there's so many of them and they're so awful. But silver lining, you often do come out with a lot of perspective. That is really helpful to people who are just starting in the industry.

Speaker 1:

Truly, I really like when our confessor said that you know, when we get this time off between jobs, it's time to really reflect. We're not just kind of fucking off, you know we can actually.

Speaker 3:

It's not just a funcation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's not actually fun employment all the time oh fun employment.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, I fucked it up. Fun, fun employment. I'm such an idiot.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, it's a good time to reflect and do that sort of mental health cleanup. I think that we all need.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And one thing that I've learned is I actually start every day when I'm on a job with three empowering mantras that I gave myself, and one of them is that my time is mine and I can give it and I can take it away, and I think that's what the confessor was talking about at the end.

Speaker 1:

If you're not having a good time, if you're not enjoying your own life, if you're not enjoying the work of it, then you definitely can step away. There's no shame in that. And, you know, find a career that actually works for you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, wow, that's really interesting.

Speaker 1:

It's way more important to be happy and fulfilled rather than chase some you know bullshit. Dream that 18 year old yourself gave you.

Speaker 3:

That's oddly specific, but, yeah, I totally agree.

Speaker 3:

And then you know, conversely or you know sort of to add to that, not conversely, I guess, yes, and I'm remembering how to talk today, people, the like advice that the confessor gave about how to advocate for yourself so that you are getting the experience that you want.

Speaker 3:

You know, that's also really important and it speaks to me and, I think, to a lot of our listeners as well, this idea of you, know, you, you can have this amazing mantra of my time is mine and I spend it how I want and I can take it away. Amazing, gonna steal that, um. But also there is a way that you can make the time that you have more fulfilling. Or you can make sure that when you are stepping into a situation that you and whoever you're going to be working for know that your time is of value and this is what you want in exchange for your time. And then you know, if it doesn't work out, then hey, at least you've been honest with yourself and with everyone around you and you can choose to move on. But also, maybe you'll end up with a better use of your time in the long run.

Speaker 1:

That is much more eloquently put than I did. I also want to say my bullshit dream at 18 was to create mechanical exoskeletons.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's an amazing dream.

Speaker 1:

I definitely had to pivot when I realized that that was not my calling in life.

Speaker 3:

Well, that's subject matter for another day. Um, an episode on pivoting we should. We should look into that. It's not bad. All right guys, listeners. Um, anybody got a story to tell about pivoting to another, another department or perhaps another career? Let us know at, fess up hollywood. We would love to hear from you and until then, go create in peace.

Speaker 1:

The hollywood confessional is produced by megan dane and jair zamora thal. Joelle garfinkel is our co-producer and aj Thal is our post-production coordinator and editor. Our cast today Shira Gorelick, Mike Mizwicki. Special effects provided by ZapSplat and Pixabay. Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production. Follow us on socials at FessUpHollywood.