Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1262492
49 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E F E A T U R E players, including Michael Zegen as Midge's ex-husband, Joel Maisel; Marin Hinkle and Tony Shalhoub as Midge's p a r e n t s , R o s e a n d A b e We i s s m a n ; and Alex Borstein as Midge's manager, Susie Myerson. Sanford and Streeto lead an energetic and enthusiastic postproduction team working at the Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. The show was renewed for a fourth season prior to the coronavirus pandemic. "We've always alternated episodes in a typical series fashion, but I think people like to hire us together because we get along well," Streeto said. "We're friends, at this point, for years. We collaborate well. We talk a lot about the show." Sanford appreciates the ability to huddle with a colleague whose opinion she trusts. "I love having Tim in the next room, where I feel I can always ask his opinion and get an honest and nonjudg- mental and critically supportive answer," Sanford said. "We will compare cuts and notes, and it's just easy to collaborate." Coming on the heels of their previous collaborations — the edgy, tough-mind- ed dramas "Boardwalk Empire" and "Vinyl" —"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is something of a departure. When pro- ducer Dhana Gilbert, who had worked with the team on their previous series, approached them about this new show, Streeto recognized that they were en- tering uncharted territory. "This was a different show for us," Streeto said. "It was the first real comedy that either of us had worked on, and it's a comedy in sort of every sense. It's a real classical-style comedy, and the pace of it was a really new experience for both of us." For her part, Sanford had heard of cre- ator Sherman-Palladino's most notable previous show, the WB's "Gilmore Girls," but realized that she wasn't among its target audience. "At the time, I thought, 'Well, "Gilmore Girls" I'm not intimately familiar with,'" Sanford said. "It's not my — I guess — demographic, but I know it's highly respected and it's really inter- esting." With that, Sanford and Streeto agreed to have a look at the pilot of "Mrs. Maisel," which had been edited by Brian A. Kates, ACE. "I understood this was a show that was really unique," Sanford said. "Edi- torially, it looked and sounded beautiful. . . . The rhythm of the music was very carefully coordinated with the rhythm of the dialogue and the rhythm of the camera movement, so I could see this was something that a great deal of editorial love was already put into." A f te r t h e y s i g n e d u p to w o r k o n Season 1 of "The Marvelous Mrs. Mai- sel," Sanford and Streeto fell into a typical editorial workflow, but with one unique element: compared with most series, much more time was allotted to work on, and refine, the producers' cut. Sherman-Palladino and Palladino "give themselves a longer amount of time, probably two months at least per episode to finish," Sanford said, referring to the producers on "Mrs. Maisel." "There's a long time for post-production." Another distinct advantage, the edi- tors say, comes from the cutting rooms being located at Steiner Studios, where the show itself is based. "We're on the same floor with our production office, our art departments, the writers' offices," Streeto said. "People come by. Our pro- duction designer comes by all the time [and] our DP, just to hang out and look at stuff. Amy and Dan are very open about people seeing cuts in progress." Among the most attention-grabbing a tt r i b u te s o f t h e s e r i e s i s i ts l i g h t - ning-fast tempo, but the editors say that it originates at the script stage. "It's written to be spoken quickly," Streeto said. "Then the performers are really performing that way. . . . They put those actors through their paces. They really push, push, push to keep things moving." "When I watch dailies on other shows between seasons, things feel slow," said assistant editor Zana Bochar, the daugh- ter of the show 's supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer Ron Bo- char, CAS (and, on Season 3, a co-editor with Streeto on Episode 7). Tim Streeto (here attending the 2019 ACE Eddie Awards) on "Maisel:" "It's written to be spoken quickly." P H O T O : P E T E R Z A K H A R Y