Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/990701
45 Q2 2018 / CINEMONTAGE them to be feeling." Once he has the cut with music and sounds bites, he begins filling it in with the competitor footage, photographs and B-roll. "It's like putting a puzzle together, and each story is different, even if it's the same kind of pieces," says Barr, who says he produces several hometown packages per week. "It can be a grind, but you always have a feeling of accomplishment at the end." Co-supervising editor Gagnon, who has worked on the most episodes of ANW (72 through Season 9) going back to 2012, focuses on the runs or live elements of the show. Although the show is taped, the mandate is to make the competitions look and feel like live sporting events. "Most people don't realize the extent of editing that goes into creating that feeling," he explains. "We are truly creating an experience. That means no jump cuts, for example. Every editorial decision has to be calculated. Nothing is used by accident." The result, says Gagnon, is that, in his opinion, the show "is closer to Major League Baseball than to The Voice." The runs are then married with the story packages, and the work to build each episode's 11 acts begins. "Our show is extremely compartmentalized but needs to feel like one seamless live event," he continues. "The stories weave in and out and need to track and flow for two hours." It's no surprise that ANW requires a night shift. Night lead assistant editor Alejandro Hurtado, who has been with the show since Season 6, and three other editors have a variety of tasks. "I never go in with expectations," he contends. "When they're working on the first episode, say, and it goes through a first cut, a fine cut and a locked cut, editors build it by acts. At the end of the day, we string it out together as a show build that gets sent out to the executive producers and the network. We're the final stop that puts it all together." The night crew is also the first to ingest new footage into the system. "We grab the proxies from the XDCAM, and then we start logging the clips," explains Hurtado. "One shift can ingest and Ninja assistant editors, from left, Kenley Kidd, Paul McDade, Craig Eustis, Steven Ty, Matt Parcone, Jamieson McGonigle, Alejandro Hurtado and Don Williams.