Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504875
BRILLIANT DISGUISE: "The live element is a major factor in what we do," Greene says. P H OT O : F O X characters in masks, how do you get people emotionally invested in them? Greene: It's kind of funny sometimes. A lot of the heads don't move. We cheat a lot of shots to take advantage of any gesture. Bruguera: And we not only take into consideration the contestants' body lan- guage but also take advantage of any sound ups to help reinforce any moment in the ep- isode, like a chuckle or a simple "thank you." Diamond: We've had a few costumes that were huge and beautiful, they just didn't move very well, and so we had to real- ly dig in to see even the slightest little tilt of a head or something, and use it as much as possible, because that's what makes it feel alive. But the costume department is off- the-chain amazing with what they create for these people. When Kermit the Frog was inside the snail, they made the antennas and eyebrows move. Greene: I try and pay close attention to body language. Sometimes I'll get a note to cover a section with an audience shot but I'll argue that, no, the performer is doing some- thing with their shoulders or their head that's connecting them to the audience. So, it's pacing and always paying attention to how the performer is gesturing and moving, then digging that out throughout the act. I'm working on a performance now where the performer finishes and drops to their knees. When you have moments like that, the body language gives you so much. Snyder: I also think the audience brings an emotional attachment to the music and songs it recognizes, which helps. Timoner: You're telling the at-home audience how to feel when you cut to reac- tion from the panel or studio audience. The network is obsessed with the audience for that very reason. CineMontage: Tell me about cutting the clue packages. Patrick McElroy: The process of making the clue packages is fun and unique. Before shooting the final packages, we actually make a temp package cut together from a drawing of each costume, stock footage, or whatever else we can find to visualize and storyboard the package. Some of those end up really cool even as temp, but their pur- pose is to allow us to see that we are telling compelling stories. Each one is distinct and the creativity that goes into them is a lot of fun. It's a wacky show and I like to think of each package as part of a little behind-the- scenes world where these characters live when they aren't singing on the show. It's easy to get carried away and have fun with them, approaching it this way. I usually don't know who the person is under the mask, and I try my best not to know; by not knowing, sometimes happy weird things can happen while editing. We shoot in a 3D greenscreen environment, which tracks the camera's movement against a background. It gives us a lot of leverage for effects by separating the layers of the shoot when we need to. But the most important thing is that we're a team of people who all like working with each other, and we always want to try to notch things up where we can. There's a lot of opportunities to push what you can do on these packages, and I think as a team we all enjoy it. It reminds us of why we like to edit in the first place. ■ 36 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E