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Q1 2023

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because of bumbling, pretty much — they couldn't get into the Watergate," Rasch said. "I didn't have a lot of story. I had most- ly this bumbling bunch of Cubans trying to get into the Watergate, and it was very much a pleasure to cut." F e f f e r m a n s a i d that part of the chal- lenge on Episode 3 was making sure the audi- ence could understand the machinations of the break-ins. "In the telling of it, at times it got confusing to us!" Fefferman said. "We often had to ask one another, 'Wait, which attempt was that?' . . . But once the mechan- ics of this consulted timeline was laid out, we could start to hang all the set pieces on there. As confusing as it could be, we needed the audience to be able to clearly track how these guys put them- selves in position to get caught." The editors had no shortage of footage to experiment with during the process: Mandel is known for experimenting on the set and delivering plenty of options — or challenges — to the editing team. "Dave Mandel tries things on the set," N y g a r d s a i d . " H e tries a lot of jokes, complicated angles, a n d c h a l l e n g i n g ideas, and then we figure it out." Man- del and director of photography Steven Meizler often deliv- ered scenes covered with inventive, ag- gressively styled, and over-the-top camera angles. "We've got to find the solution even t h o u g h w e m a y b e don't have the cover- age that we wish we had or Dave wishes he had," Nygard said. "He will work at it until he finds a solution, and it's not easy. But it's really rewarding when you get there." Sometimes, problems were presented by Mandel's preference for one-ers with Harrelson and Theroux, two very different actors who work at different speeds. "Justin is a very precise actor and he comes in very planned with an agenda of his own," Cooper said. "Woody — in a very interesting way, because he comes from comedy but he's become a great dramatic actor — kind of just feels it and goes with his instincts." Consequently, one take might be Harrelson's strongest while another might be Theroux's. "In the editing room, even though Take 7 might have been circled, you realize you need to cut away halfway through because of a flub or a bad pause or something that wasn't apparent on the set," Rasch said. "Now you start doing editorial tricks to try to shorten the scene or get in later." Sometimes rewriting was done via loop lines and ADR. "David Mandel once said to me that edit- ing is like bending metal with your hands," Nygard said. "You can't do it, but you have to do it. You keep squeezing these scenes, and squeezing and shaping, until you get it where you need it to be." Maybe the same analogy applies to the series as a whole: Whether from distant memories of the Watergate TV hearings, or a more recent viewing of "All the President's Men," many viewers will have their minds made up about the scandal. But "White House Plumbers" seeks to explain, not excuse, the psychology of two men central to the scheme, Hunt and Liddy. "The show wasn't trying to elicit sympa- thy for these guys, or try to get you on their side, because their political positions and their ethical perspectives obviously weren't great," Fefferman said. "But we at least wanted to show that there was a human side that influenced how they behaved and the choices that were made." "Antagonists are just as real as protag- onists," Nygard said. "They have families and lives." ■ Peter Tonguette is a freelance writer whose work appears regularly in Wall Street Journal and National Review. 'Editing is like bending metal with your hands. You can't do it, but you have to do it. You keep squeezing and shaping.' 41 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E F E A T U R E Picture editor Steve Rasch. Picture editor Grady Cooper.

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