Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1468810
35 S P R I N G Q 2 I S S U E F E A T U R E co-creator and executive producer Issa Rae) and Molly (Yvonne Orji), Black wom- en who contend with career challenges, personal problems, and all manner of other crises. The show, which made vivid use of contemporary Los Angeles locations and consistently tackled tough topics, premiered in 2016 and wrapped up last fall after five acclaimed seasons. One viewer has had a particularly close vantage point to the show: Picture editor Mark Sadlek cut the pilot, each season pre- miere, multiple episodes each season, and the series finale. As the supervising editor, Sadlek oversaw a team of talented editors who helped Issa and Molly's journey come to life, including picture editors Nena Erb, ACE, and Daysha Broadway (both featured in the Q3 2020 cover story of CineMontage), but he always retained a strong personal connection to the project. "It was about a part of L.A. that was underrepresented in film and TV, and it had these amazing, three-dimensional, flawed characters that were making mistakes and learning from those mistakes—and it had some great comedy mixed in with that," said Sadlek, whose previous credits include significant tenures on the comedies "Parks and Recreation" and "Mrs. Fletcher." "I was instantly drawn to it," said Sadlek, and so he remained for the run. In a recent interview with CineMontage, Sadlek reflected on his time on "Insecure." CineMontage: How did the show evolve over five seasons? Mark Sadlek: I was fortunate to cut every premiere and every finale and see it all the way through and cut the series finale. I think the biggest challenge initially was the pilot—just these actors finding these characters, and, in the edit, finding the pac- ing, finding the right music. One of the best compliments we got on the series from HBO was that some of their best dramatic scenes of the year came from "Insecure." Then it was just following these storylines and the emotional journeys of the characters and how to pace that journey in the edit—who to give more time to, how they were evolving, how they were growing, which is a theme of the show. Ultimately, we really evolved our L.A. footage, too. We ended up using more and more drone footage to tell this story of this other character in the show, L.A., and these great neighborhoods, like Baldwin Hills and Inglewood. And we loved the music so much that we wanted to use more music, which was great because then we were able to use more L.A. B-roll. CineMontage: Los Angeles is such a char- acter in the show. Are you from Southern California originally? Sadlek: I've been here since '92, but I'm originally from Southern Illinois. CineMontage: You really enjoy showing off the city. Sadlek: Absolutely. Especially those parts of the city that people don't know about. There's this great shot—you see it several times, but especially at the end of Episode 8 in Season 4—where the crane shot dollies up and over these houses. You see this oil field—you see the oil derricks pumping off Fairfax in Baldwin Hills. I don't think a lot of people in L.A. even know that's even there. CineMontage: You mentioned the come- dy-drama balance earlier. How did you switch between tones? Sadlek: It was tough. Because a scene could start out comedically, and then turn into a drama. As I found on "Parks and Recreation" and other comedies, the pacing of the comedy is usually paced up with the payoff, or there's a twist that doesn't really make a complete right turn. It's a nice smooth turn into what will be a dra- matic episode. And then hopefully there's someone like [co-star] Natasha Rothwell, as Kelli, to come in at the end and maybe alleviate Sadlek on cutting the finale: "It was this amazing journey." P H OT O : M A R K E D WA R D S