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n HBO's Industry, five young grad- uates do whatever it takes to make themselves indispensable at the London investment bank Pierpoint & Co. Season 4 recently concluded, with Harper (Myha'la Herrold) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) drawn into a high-stakes, globetrotting game when a splashy fintech darling bursts onto the London scene. Season 4 began airing weekly in early January and right away shook up the setting, with the Pierpoint gone, new characters introduced and more complex financial jargon mentioned. A further surprise comes via a ghost. Kyle Traynor, who edited episodes of Seasons 2 and 3, returned to the show to edit the first and last two episodes, which were directed by the showrunners. He also became an associate producer on the season, as he was trusted to deliv- er a story arc that immersed the audi- ence from the first to the last episode. Here, he shares how he adapted the editing style to the new story chapter this season and some of this season's biggest challenges. What were the differences between Season 3 and Season 4, and how did you adjust your editing approach? "This year felt like a new series in many ways. The Pierpoint trade floor was always the centerpiece of the show, so with it gone and our characters scattered, we had to treat (Episode) 401 almost like a pilot episode. We are introducing several new characters while trying to get everyone up to speed with what has happened in the world of Industry since the end of last season. "My main approach was to take noth- ing for granted. While we definitely don't overexplain things on Industry, we had to do the proper legwork in this episode to ground the audience in the wildly-new set of circumstances our characters find themselves in. I often feel like what happens in a one or two-episode arc of Industry could be an entire season of another series. The episodes are jam- packed, so we needed to make sure we touch each of the storylines long enough that the viewer can acclimate. It took a lot of work to try and find the right bal- ance, but I think it makes for a really fun episode that moves." What was your editing setup and workflow like? "Industry has always been cut on Avid. The show is based in the UK, and I have found most of the crew work on PCs, but I have always preferred a Mac setup, and they kindly obliged. I was based in LA during production, so I would wake up in the morning to a fresh new set of dailies and scene bins prepared for me. The assists were UK-based and would sync the footage to me while I was asleep. When I got in in the morning, we had a few hours before they signed off, so we would always touch base and handle any administrative stuff that was needed. Then I had the rest of the day to manage my time and cut scenes. "Once I had a version of a scene I was happy with, I passed it back to the assists and they did a basic sound cleanup pass and placed any special SFX I had noted. Usually around lunch, I would review the sound work they had given back and ei- ther make changes or kick anything back to them that might need adjusting. Once I was happy with the SFX, it would go into the main assembly sequence, and the episode would slowly start to build out. "Once shooting was complete, I flew to Cardiff and worked out of the BadWolf Studios, where the show is produced and shot. Several of the sets were located right below editorial, so some days we would go down and check out pro- duction. It's a great setup because the showrunners or directors can be on-set and literally just walk up stairs to work with the editorial team. "From Cardiff I would work with the showrunners Mickey (Down) and Konrad (Kay), who also directed the four epi- sodes I cut this season, until everyone was happy with it." Did you use any additional tools or plug-ins? "This isn't a large VFX show, but we would have the occasional screen to comp, cleanup or basic split screens that are needed. Some of those we could do in Avid for our offline, but if it ever need- ed anything additional, we would sub out to After Effects. "I do a fair amount of splits, which can be tricky on a show with such intense camera movement. I had a shot in a boardroom in Episode 7, where we had the camera tracking in different direc- tions, but I desperately wanted to split the performance from two different takes. Our assistant Rose Miller was able to slow down the move on each shot, and you would never know they don't technically match up. "We also used a variety of Izotope audio plug-ins, usually for cleaning up rough production audio." You edited the first and last two episodes, and have an associate producer credit. What was your larger role in post production like and how did you collaborate with the other editors and showrunners? "I have been really fortunate to work with a great team of editors on this series that believes in opening up the edit room to collaboration. I think it's partly because Industry can be very dense and that collaboration is needed to track the story. But I also think it makes for a much better end product. "For Season 4, our other editors — Simon Smith and Ben Mudge — were fantastic about sharing cuts and talking through the dense subplot that of- ten exists in this show. We had scenes bouncing between episodes or needle- drops that we were demo'ing on multiple scenes across blocks. We had to keep the room very fluid, so having great communication and open doors is, in my opinion, the best way to do that. "My role as an AP came about fairly naturally from Season 3, where I also cut the first and last two episodes. When you are across half the season, you are going to be involved in so many important de- HBO'S INDUSTRY EDITOR KYLE TRAYNOR RETURNS IN AN INCREASED ROLE FOR SEASON 4 I EDITING