Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1203636
The editing team of "Survivor." Back row, L-R: Joubin Mortazavi, Mike Greer, Chad Bertalotto, Evan Mediuch, Bob Mathews, Rob Hunt, Jacob Teixeira, Plowden Schumacher, Dean Perme, Razmig Karakashian, Andrew Stefiuk. Middle row, L-R: Joubin Mortazavi, Bill Bowden, Tim Atzinger, Fred Hawthorne, Brian Barefoot, Jim Ciccarello, Cathy Johnson. Front row, L-R: Francisco Santa Maria, Mallory Yarnall, Dave Armstrong, Andy Castor, Tori Rodman. P H O T O : M A R T I N C O H E N 36 C I N E M O N T A G E winning. Combing through the footage has allowed them to come up with a "winner's edit," which theorizes that the winner of the season will often be shown in a more strategically complex and emotionally positive light compared to their competitors. Schumacher: "Winner's Edit" is a fan term. We don't use it. The people who last longer get more screen time and appear to be "highlighted" but that's not some- thing we consciously do. They appear "highlighted" because they are the story. They survived. Matt Van Wagenen (Executive Pro- ducer, 2007-Present): We try and give everyone a "winner's edit". It's not un- common when putting a scene together that we ask, "What would we show if this person won the game?" And that could be for someone who is voted out third. Bob Mathews (Editor, 2001-Present): Character is revealed through adversity. Typically, the winner wins for a reason. If they're nice, they appear nice; if they're not, they don't appear so. Origin Stories Though the core of the game has re- mained the same, "Survivor" looked and felt very different in its initial iterations. The show was focused more on survival than strategy, and the scenes played more like a documentary than a typical reality show. And just as the show was finding its legs, so was its editing team. Barefoot: Oh my gosh, I look back at that first season, and the first thing I think is: Why did I use so many dissolves? We were overwhelmed by the amount of footage. I had never worked with that much footage before. It was hard to wrap your head around it and come up with a game plan to make sense out of it. And the funny thing is, that first season had a lot less footage overall than any season after. At the time, we were just trying to keep up with the deadlines. And we were cutting that season as the episodes were airing and becoming a phenomenon, so that made it quite surreal and fun and exhilarating. We'd literally be working on an episode up until the week before it aired. Fo l e y : S e a s o n 1 w a s a c h a l l e n ge because there was no blueprint. There F E A T U R E