Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/990701
36 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2018 Yabe worked with a team of assistant editors who taught her the ins and outs of dealing with the variety of footage types they encountered. Soon, however, after the company merged again to become ITV Entertainment, and everything from television pilots to sizzle reels began to come through, she became an assistant editor and had to learn quickly. Her mentors became the slew of editors who came through ITV, and the different styles of working inspired her own process. Due to her musical background, however, from her first days in post-production, music- related requests were handed to her, as well as pulling sounds from libraries and doing additional Foley editing. Music editing came to be where she would spend the most time, but she felt the limitations of Avid Media Composer's audio suite. "The track counts are limited, we can only see waveforms by frame, and there's not much you can do with plug-ins," she elaborates. "At a certain point, it felt awkward to edit music extensively on the Avid. I could become a picture editor, but my passion was music, and I wanted to put my focus there. I needed to be in a facility where I could actually be in a proper 5.1 surround environment. In most cases, picture edit bays won't be able to provide that kind of situation. I decided to look at a profession that would give me that opportunity." Through networking, Yabe met Ben Holiday, who offered her a job as an assistant music editor to help him on a music-heavy documentary. She seized the opportunity. The project was Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge (2017), and it earned a CAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television – Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Special, as well as an ACE Eddie Award nomination as Best Edited Documentary – Television. Her transition was made; she found her path. Since then, Yabe has completed work as a music editor on other projects, including Boots Riley's film Sorry to Bother You, in which music also has an intense presence. The comic, surreal and politically minded film screened at the Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals earlier this year and is set for a July 6 release through Annapurna Pictures. The story takes place in an alternate present-day Oakland, where black telemarketer Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) develops a calling technique that hurtles him to career success. As