Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1382552
40 C I N E M O N T A G E C O V E R S T O R Y Q How about your work process on the show? What did you have to do differently on this project compared with others? Did COVID impact things, and if so, how? Catoline: Viewers may not realize how much of the show is visual effects. None of the show's football scenes are shot in a stadium or before a crowd. That is all created in the magic of post-production. McCoy: The only thing I had to do differently on the show was cutting previs of all the football footage. I had never done that process before, but it was really exciting. Th ey we re go i n g to s h o o t a l l t h e football scenes for the series towards the end of production. So to start the previs conversation, I first built the football match using a mix of YouTube clips and stock footage with title cards over the top to basically build the beats. From there, we worked with our post house, Digital Film Tree, to compose the shots with their previs. Then our post producer, Kip Kroeger, literally flew the sequences AJ and I had built for our episodes to London and was there for the shoot. I think having the blueprints of the scenes helped the director feel like he was covering everything we needed and then allowed him to get some amazing shots we never had before in the previs. So when all the footage came back, it was another round of building the scene with the real footage, which sometimes took a different direction than the previs. C OV I D h i t w h e n w e w e re m o s t l y finishing the show, so I had a few Zoom sessions with Jason and Bill to lock the last few episodes, and then reviewing visual effects and music and sound was all at home. Catoline: The editing room is entirely virtual for season 2. In season 1, we spent the first half together and did all the final cuts remotely once the pandemic hit. This has its upsides and downsides. I miss having the large TV monitors in the studio at Warner Brothers. It's important to watch full screen playback, to see the characters' faces. While it's certainly an advantage to dig into the footage coming from Lasso Land in the comfort of my home, I miss the constant connection with my editori- al team. I miss being able to go next door to Mel's room and share our insights on watching dailies. We still try to have meet-ups over Zoom, but I really miss having lunch with my editorial crew: assistant editor Frankie Castro, and my assistant Alex Szabo, and our post supervisor Katelyn Hollenbeck and co- ordinator Robbie Stevenson. When Mel and I were nominated for an ACE Eddie Award for episode 6 — coincidentally ti- tled "Two Aces"— we all popped a bottle of champagne over Zoom. Q Describe the music on the show and how you worked it into the cuts. Catoline: Jason has a real ear for music and he knows if the track is right when he hears it. The music is like anoth- er character in the show, supporting the mood of the story. M c C o y : Ja s o n w o u l d a l w a y s s a y there is no rule for the music, that it is just a feel. Having that freedom from genre or time period was so liberating. Catoline: Sometimes the writers sug- gest specific cues in the script, and other times they jokingly write "Music Cue: Something good." McCoy: In 103 there was a wonderful, scripted Vivaldi classical piece for the montage of Higgins reading the Trent Crimm article to Rebecca. And in 107 I found the modern pop song "Strange" by Celeste that played under the montage of everyone's story at the end of this epic night out after a win on the road. Ted signs divorce papers, Rebecca getting a little of her humanity back, Keeley and Roy coming together — so much was happening in that ending, and the song hit every emotional beat. Catoline: We used all the British rock greats like The Clash, The Kinks, The Sex Pistols, David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" and Queen. When we played "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Brother Bones [the Harlem Globetrotters theme] in episode 10 when the team thinks up trick plays, it really clicked and helped pace the scene to up the comedy. Ted playing A Tribe Called Quest in the locker room to cheer up the guys after a loss was a nod to Lasso's love of 1990s hip hop. Marcus Mumford's rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was perfect for the finale and it carried the theme of the dark days of the pandemic. It felt so right, I laid the track down and cut the picture to the music and we got the chills. The notes from everyone read "totally cried," that's a good place to start in comedy! The finale song for the end of season 1, we played with a few ideas and dis- covered that Edith Piaf 's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" was the perfect Lassoian anthem. In French, the lyrics are "Today, it starts with you." Ted would agree. Q What was it like cutting the per- formances? You have a performer in Jason who's well known for his sketch work and is here playing a very specific character. Likewise Hannah, whose character seems to be one thing to one person, and quite another to someone else. How did you cut to get the best performances? McCoy: I marvel over my dailies every day. I'm always excited to open a bin and see what gems these cast of actors have given me for the day. They are all so good. Catoline: The performances of the cast were stellar - the scowls of Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), the arrogance of Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), the kitman-to-coach Nate (Nick Mohammed) finding his voice, the awkward moments of Higgins (Jere- my Swift) — it was a real ensemble show and there was a lot of overlapping and rapid dialogue. Jason encourages us to take our time with the beats, to give the audience time to laugh at the joke and the