Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1262492
57 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E F E A T U R E "Reading a script for a silent episode and watching a silent episode are two very different things," she explained. "When you're reading, you know the intention of the writer because it's there in print. But everything is left to the viewer's interpretation when there is no dialog to help frame the story. Would the viewers pick up upon what I was trying to convey without that framework? So, Geraud's and Hilda's help was critical when it came to cutting down parts of Melanie Laurent's monologue at the end. It was important to make sure we were losing what wasn't necessary without losing the heart of what she was saying. "The other challenge to this episode was that Siân didn't want to rely on music to help carry the emotion so there was nothing to hide behind," she continued. "It was all up to the choices made in ed- itorial to get the story, the emotion, and the comedic moments across." Editing can be a particularly political position on any show because it sits at a nexus among multiple creative contrib- utors with controlling stakes. While, as in most television shows, the editors had limited time with their directors, all of the producers of Season 1 had varying degrees of involvement with the writing and shooting of different episodes. "Each episode would have notes from all the producers, of course, but then we would also get editing time with specific p ro d u ce rs," s a i d R a s u l a . " Th e t r i c k of that was balancing out the varying interests, opinions, and tastes of each producer. The fun of it, though, was get- ting to work with so many fantastically talented people. Obviously, each immi- grant is the star of their own life story, and it was refreshing to edit scenes that explore what that experience feels like — from huge, momentous life events, down to the most odd, granular little instances, which were the moments that delighted me the most. "This is a show that is less interested in the politics of immigration than it is in the emotional experience of it," Rasula said, "and I think that was a smart approach." ■ Jearnest Corchado in "Little America." Eshan Inamdar and Sherilyn Fenn in "Little America." P H O T O : U N I V E R S A L T E L E V I S I O N P H OTO : U N I V E R S A L T E L E V I S I O N