Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1492834
"Well, how come we don't have this?" we just have to be able to say, "Well, we've tried every avenue we can to push the story in this direction, and they just don't want to do it. They don't want to go there." The producers are always very understanding as long as you can justify that you've tried everything. You don't want to be getting the same note every day. CineMontage: What has surprised you most about working on this show? Fogwell: It's funny, because it's a weekly live show, you feel like everybody is just so much more invested. They're up there dancing in front of America, and it's almost like everyone's just waiting for someone to fall or to get egg on their face. The stakes have just been raised so much more than any show that I've ever worked on, and you feel that in the edit bay. I watch the show every Monday with my kids, and so now, they're invested as well. My whole family has their favorites, and we're all waiting on the scores from the judges. That surprised me how much I've really become invested into the journey of these contestants. I think it's a combination of that energy you get from it being a live show that you can't replicate. It's on Disney+ now. I'm sure 'What's important are little nuggets of when the dancers say something. They can only dance for so long.' 25 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E F E A T U R E across everything. As an editor, I'm pretty much working with one other producer directly day-to- day. As the week goes on, the executives get involved a bit more and you're screening for the co-executive producer, Alex Cross. Conrad will come in usually on Fridays to watch. On Saturdays, the Disney executives will watch everything as well. I'm generally juggling two, sometimes three packages for the week. CineMontage: How much footage are you going through to create those? Fogwell: I believe they rehearse every day for two or three hours, so there's a lot of footage. That's where you're really leaning on those story producers, as well. Sometimes, it's a nice thing to do when you start off the day where you just make your coffee and see what the producers have given you overnight, and then go back to the raw footage. You get the vibe. I'm just interested in when they talk. The visuals of them dancing, I know I'll have so much of that footage. I'll grab that when I need it. But what's more important are those little nuggets of when they actually say something. They can only dance for so long. They just get so exhausted, whereas I did a show for CBS called "Tough As Nails," and I think my first challenge I had with them was a 12-hour challenge involving 10 teams of two building a concrete slab in the middle of the desert. That's a heck of a lot of footage to watch. CineMontage: Do the celebrity contestants get to have any oversight on what's shown? Fogwell: Not really. They're not watch- ing anything, that's for sure. But I think they would gather what's going on in their pack- age by what the producers are asking them each day. And at the end of the day, it's up to them. They either do or don't talk about it. And obviously, there are always some touchy subjects. [Actress and "DWTS" con- testant] Selma Blair, for example, she's got a medical condition, and she'll only talk about as much of that as she's comfortable with. As an editor, I only have what I have, and if I have an executive in my room saying, they could have easily just said, "Okay. We'll tape it and maybe it goes out the next day and we can fix up the mistakes and what- not," but they've kept it the same. And now that I'm in the throes of it, I can understand why, because it just has that energy that filters down through every department. And when I'm on set editing on the weekend, getting the show ready, I'm there. I'm lining up for coffee with the dancers, I'm with the makeup artists, my edit bay is next to the spray tan office. You park your car, and you walk past the art department, and you see these incredible props and you're like, "Oh, I wonder what that's for," and I'm taking a photo for my daughter of this huge pink unicorn. And then, we're watching the show and it's like, "Oh, there it is. There's the unicorn." It's nice to have that immediacy of the full production, which is rare in the post-production in this world. We just sit in our little dark room and make it happen. And I'm a people person. I love that energy. I guess that's the biggest surprise for me. CineMontage: It's a very addicting show in a mesmerizing way. Fogwell: Absolutely. I had watched it in the past, maybe I would dip in and out of a season. But now I have that insight, and I'm watching the rehearsal footage, and you see how much it means to them. There's a great example last week: [contestant] Vinny from the "Jersey Shore" was really hurt after week one, and you could tell that it really af- fected him. He didn't have a great week one, and he wanted to prove himself. You could see it in the footage — they're sweating, they're exhausted. He's like, "Push me, push me, push me. Keep pushing me every day." And then when he goes and does his dance, it was great. You could tell the work paid off, and the judges responded accordingly — and we're all clapping and shouting for him. I never thought I'd be rooting for Vinny of "Jersey Shore." ■ Kristin Marguertie Doidge is a freelance writer whose work frequently appears in CineMontage.