Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1501110
EDITING www.postmagazine.com 14 POST MAY/JUNE 2023 You mentioned that Taylor's in Texas, and I know that the show shoots in Montana. You also had stages in Utah. Where are you in the mix of things? "It depends. Yellowstone, in the early days, we had stages in Utah. Two seasons ago (we) moved to where it's entirely shot in Montana now, but we were in Park City, UT. When I started working there, we had Avids at the soundstage complex. At lunch, I would go to set, or if I had a question for Taylor, I could just walk over to set and ask him. And in-be- tween setups he would come and look at things that [I] or one of the other editors were cutting. When they moved entirely to Montana, I actually spend a lot less time on the Yellowstone set than I used to because it's just not practical. Where they shoot in Montana, logistically, it's difficult to get footage there. They don't have high-speed internet where we're shooting, so there's a lot of physically shuttling drives, taking drives or cards and upload- ing them in whatever the nearest big city is. "I primarily work and live in Los Angeles. That's where I am based. That's where I am right now. Taylor likes to be in-person when we're locking shows, and I think it's completely invaluable. Just the body language you're able to read, (and) feel how it's playing, so we make sure that we're in a room together every week-and-a-half to two- weeks. It's either in Texas, where he is primarily based, or in 1883, for example, there's an Airstream edit trailer that has an Avid in it and a bed. I went on location. I would stay there for a week at a time and he would be shooting during the day and then at night, he would come and watch cuts. That trail- er is always around. I stayed in it two weeks ago because we were in North Texas, and that was the easiest thing. I was editing and staying there." Is Avid your system of choice? "I'm just an Avid editor. I mean, look, I very firmly believe that it doesn't matter — they're just tools, and whatever tool an editor is most comfortable with is what they should use. I have been doing this for about 20 years. When I started, Avid was the thing, and when I was at film school, we had all of their latest gear. So when I started working professionally, I was up to speed immediately on what was primarily being used out in the world. On a project like an episodic television series, with shared users, in my experience, it just happens to be the thing that handles that the best. My first assistant editor lives in Atlanta. I'm here in LA. I'm sometimes in Texas, and we're all accessing the same shows and the same media, so it's just the tool that works the best for us." Do you know what the show is shot on, as far as camera and format? And then, how do you receive it? "No, I don't. I used to know that kind of stuff, and I'm spoiled by some fantastic assistants who make sure that I don't have to worry about that kind of thing." So you've got somebody else who may be receiving dailies and performing transcodes? "A bunch of people who are, or are receiving dailies and who are doing ScriptSync and grouping and all that stuff so that by the time it gets to me, it just comes in a ScriptSync bin, and also scene bins if I want to look at it that way. I primarily use ScriptSync bins and then I start going through the footage. ScriptSync is a tool that's actually really, really helpful in the revisions process. When you're first watching (and) when you're first putting a show together, you watch everything — at least I do. ScriptSync, and being able to jump to a line by line by line, isn't all that important at that stage. When you're revising — you just want to see five takes of Kevin Costner saying one particular line — then that tool is really valuable. So I use it a lot when we're revising cuts or making changes." Yellowstone is obviously a scripted show, but is there room for you to be creative editorially? "Working with Taylor, the creativity is the whole thing. It's everywhere. It's a wonderfully-rewarding environment to be in. Taylor does not circle takes. He never has, and I don't think he ever will. He just says, 'Watch everything. Whatever's the best, use it.' I have a tremendous amount of latitude to put together the best version of the show. "[On] an episodic show, you have to make sure that you don't allow yourself to become stale — that you don't go on autopilot. A show like Yellowstone, where we're five seasons in now, you can see a scene on a ranch and scene with horses and think, 'Okay, I could do it somewhat blindfold- ed, or I could try to do it in a way that I've never done before and challenge myself, and come up with something different, whether it's visually or in the audio track.' "Every editor is different (in) how much time they put into the sound effects and music. I tend to put in a ton. I leave a very specific blueprint to the sound team, the post team, of what I think works best. Sometimes it'll just be like experiment- ing with sound in a different way to tell the story Yellowstone shoots on-location in Montana. Chad Galster, ACE