Emmy Nominated Editors Give Thanks, Part I

One of the things we love most about the post-production industry is the sense of camaraderie — being part of a team, learning from each other, and lifting each other up. 

Get ready for an instant dopamine burst as Emmy-nominated editors from some of your favorite shows (and ours!) wax poetic about their assistant editors, share anecdotes from the season, and discuss why the role of assistant editor is so important to the process. 

The outpouring of love from editors on this post idea was so great we've divided it into two parts! After you’ve read this, make sure to check out Part II, featuring nominees from SNL, Succession, Ted Lasso, What We Do in the Shadows, and The White Lotus. 

Best of luck to all the nominees this January — and thank you to all the assistant editors out there! We see and salute you. 

A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO MAX)

Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming, “My Love Language Is Words Of Defamation”
Supervising editor Stephanie Filo, ACE, on season 4 assistant editors...

Liz Berganza, Payton Halbiesen, and Davone Alexis were fantastic assistant editors on this series. On a project like ABLSS, we essentially edit 45-50 short films over a few months. Scenes can change in tone, style, genre, and improv at any given moment as we try to find the funniest version possible, and our AEs were able to shift at the drop of a hat to help bring our sketches together. They kept us organized to such an incredible extent throughout the season and gave so much helpful feedback from sketch to sketch. Don't even get me started on our cute pets Slack channel and our post team's shared love of memes and Harry Potter. We couldn't have managed without them!

On Fridays (when we weren't too busy), the ABLSS AEs and editors would meet up to have a Zoom happy hour at the end of the week where we would share our favorite sketches that we worked on that week and talk about the show and got to catch up with each other. It helped to really keep us connected as a team (especially since it was a 100% remote project!), and it was a chance to relax together after a busy week of work.

From A Black Lady Sketch Show to the We Are Grown premiere: Assistant editor Davone Alexis and editor Stephanie Filo 

THE BEAR (FX)

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Single-Camera Comedy Series, “System”
Joanna Naugle, ACE, on season 1 and season 2 assistant editors...

I love working on THE BEAR because it’s a show about a group of people bringing out the best in each other in order to achieve their shared goals. I think our post team really feeds off that energy, and we try to mimic the show’s themes of creative collaboration in the edit room. Our assistant editors are essential to the process of bringing the show to life, and I am incredibly grateful for all the hours of skill and dedication they’ve brought to both seasons of THE BEAR. On season 1, my co-editor (Adam Epstein) and I worked with Megan Mancini and Josh Depew. On season 2, our AEs were Megan, Noah Benezra, Oliver Benezra, and Travis Cummings. On both seasons, we received a TON of b-roll, and the AEs were able to impeccably organize and track every shot so we could be sure we were using the absolute best footage for every montage. Each AE brought their specialty to the project as the season went on, whether making assemblies, doing preliminary VFX shots, managing exports and turnovers to vendors, or building out our SFX and music libraries. The show would definitely not have been possible without them. I will be forever grateful that they made my life so easy on this project! 

As Season 2 was coming together, it became clear that I’d need some additional editing support on one episode, and Megan stepped up and helped me out with lots of early assemblies of scenes. She’s been part of THE BEAR since she assisted me on the pilot, so she immediately captured the pace and tone of the show in her first cuts. She ended up taking on more and more of the assembly, and we decided we should co-edit the episode together, which was incredibly rewarding and fun. Our shared episode had a pivotal sequence with a fire suppression test, and the creator of the show (Christopher Storer) asked us to build out flashbacks for each character during the test to heighten the stakes of this moment. Megan took the lead on pulling various moments of the characters from throughout the series, and we found the right balance of flashbacks and present-day footage to make the scene feel like a culmination of all their preparation. I couldn’t have envisioned the sequence without Megan’s insights. It’s one of my favorite emotional beats of the season. 

The best AEs I’ve worked with are all incredibly proactive and motivated — they are constantly thinking ahead to complete tasks that will make my life easier and the workflow even smoother. Whether preemptively pulling SFX for a scene, taking the time to further organize a b-roll project, or creating line-by-line breakdowns for a dialogue-heavy scene, their work is essential to ensuring the project comes together as efficiently as possible. I am consistently impressed by the assistant editors on THE BEAR and their ability to creative problem solve, retain huge amounts of information, and avoid issues by thinking two steps ahead — all while maintaining an enthusiastic and supportive work environment. Thank you, chefs!!

The BEAR, Season 2 wrap dinner: L-R, Noah Benezra (Assistant Editor), Oliver Benezra (Assistant Editor), Joanna Naugle (Editor), Tiffany Brown (Post Production Supervisor), David Woods (Co-Producer), Travis Cummings (Edit Room Assistant), Megan Mancini (Assistant Editor/Editor). Not pictured: Adam Epstein (Editor) and Nia Imani (Editor).

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie, “The Good Boy Box”
Stephanie Filo, ACE, on assistant editor Lyric Ramsey...

"I definitely couldn't have done this project without heavy collaboration with my assistant editor. Lyric Ramsey was a huge part of bringing Dahmer to life. Her dedication to our sound design was monumental in helping elevate and shape our story, and we really went on a deep dive in figuring out ways to tell this story. We watched so many documentaries on this topic, read books, discussed the best ways to convey certain aspects of the story, and also spent a lot of time leaning on each other for emotional support in dealing with such heavy subject matter."

"There's a scene in episode 4 of Dahmer that I knew I wanted to be extremely heavy on some very specific sound design. The day that Lyric spent on sound design for that scene, I was really tickled to learn that she foley'ed herself, crushing her vitamins in her bathroom and pouring liquid into various glasses to match Jeffrey's crushing pills and swirling drinks. The minute I saw the effort she spent on getting it just right, I knew we shared similar sensibilities and that this would be a great journey."

Editor Stephanie Filo and assistant editor Lyric Ramsey 

History of the World, Part II (Hulu) 

Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming
Stephanie Filo, ACE, on the mini-series assistant editors...

Kenneth Rich, Payton Halbiesen, and Daniel Missirlian were such fantastic AEs on this show! Our post team spent time learning fun historical facts, sharing ideas on how to flip moments on their head for peak comedy, and finding every way we could to elevate our cuts, and a lot of that came down to the hard work our AEs put in! This was also a remote project to start and then became hybrid, and the huge amount of tech knowledge our AEs had helped us keep running smoothly. Temp ADR, temp VFX, music, and SFX - our AEs excelled at helping with all those. I also want to shout out to our post-PA Angelyn Rodriguez, who also built a significant amount of temp GFX for us throughout the season!

Every day, our post team would get together over Zoom/Evercast to watch each other's scenes and give feedback, and it felt like a really awesome collaboration between the editors and AEs. Also, Daniel Missirlian got the bump up to editor while working on HOTW Part 2. It was so exciting to see that and watch his progression as well!

Assistant editors are the backbone of the entire TV and Film process, in my opinion. They have to navigate and manage communication between production and post and are fundamental to keeping the ship going once we hit post. From keeping both footage and editors organized, they are also creative collaborators, partners, and sometimes even therapists! Whether or not a project runs smoothly or not lies in our assistant editors' hands, and I know I'm forever grateful for them!

History of the World, Part II (Hulu)

Read Part II of Editors Give Thanks featuring SNL, Succession, Ted Lasso, What We Do in the Shadows, and The White Lotus.

Want to learn more about the nominees and their editing processes? Read or listen to our Art of the Cut series with Steve Hullfish.