Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546034
25 F A L L Q 3 I S S U E F E A T U R E workflow. It took some doing to meld the perspectives. Jon Emerson: To add to that, the scale was unbelievable, and we were structuring workf low organization in real-time so that we could get the story structured as efficiently as possible. Simultaneously tran- sitioning from Avid to Premiere, both teams (Hollywood and "Beast") adapted quickly to establish a seamless workflow. CineMontage: What kind of new workflows were created to help manage the footage for this show? Don Fisco: As assistant editors, Kenny Kiesecker, Michael Wolfson, and I came on first, and we had to come up with plans for how to organize the crazy amount of footage. When we received the first season, we didn't get much direction about how the set was laid out. The "MrBeast" team said, "We're in the thick of production. We don't really have time to send you anything." We had one map of the original hangar for the first episode, but no layout of where the cameras were. So we assistant editors, who each had footage from a bunch of the cameras, would have to figure out through triangulation: this camera is in this part of the room, this camera's in this part of the room, and so on. Then we filled in the map, and with the 200 or so cameras that weren't GoPros, we were able to figure out where they were apparently positioned in the room for that first episode. Erica Terry: Troubleshooting on this show was such a big part of our job. And in terms of the online process, especially for Season 2, James Honiball, the lead assistant editor, created and maintained crucial spreadsheets. They were highly detailed, specific, and well-managed, conveying a lot of information in a very organized way. During the online reviews, since Don was on the other side of the country, I was the boots on the ground in NYC, making sure that every single visual effects layer made it into the final product. Some comps were 20 layers deep! We would organize the layers, identifying each within a composite with letters from A to Z. One of the composites reached letter V, so in terms of coming up with new workflows, we had to figure out what we could squash together onto one track. It was a fun experience. After a few sessions, Amazon, too, started noting indi- vidual comp layers and was working with us to keep everything consistent in terms of look and color. As an AE, I can say that sort of collaboration with the network is almost unheard of. It was very much a group effort. CineMontage: What were some of the challenges you faced? Fisco: We had to devise a plan for pre- senting the footage to the editors. We came up with what we called quads, even though there were eight of them — eight multi- cams where all the stationary cameras would cover one section of that giant han- gar. And then the mobile talent cameras, which would follow Jimmy and his friends or walk between the contestants, would also appear in each of the multi-cams. Fi- nally, they'd be stacked on top of each other on the timeline. Budd Diaz: My favorite part was getting an audio dump, and they'd say, "Hey, y'all, we recorded this, but we need you to figure out where it goes." That was also a big fun part because there's no visual reference. It required a lot of listening to Jimmy speaking over the intercom to figure out where it would go. The sheer amount of it was just so huge that there would be the occasional stragglers where it's like, "You might not need this, but we found this," or "Here this is." We'd a l l b e g re a t c y b e r- d e te c t i v e s Pi Ware. Budd Diaz. Erica Terry.