Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/855478
49 Q3 2017 / CINEMONTAGE THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE In June 2017, Rasula, Hodge and Khatib were deep in post-production in Transparent's fourth season on the Paramount lot. The storyline is under wraps but reportedly will be more political than previous seasons. As with the past three seasons, all 10 episodes will be available for streaming simultaneously. While this makes for some terrific binge watching, editorially speaking, this new model of episodic TV distribution changes everything. The entire season is delivered to Amazon at once, allowing the editorial team additional time to unlock shows, move things around, restructure and tweak things. "Because there is more room in the post schedule, and we are not up against airdates, we have a lot more flexibility in the editing," says Rasula. "It's a wonderful opportunity, story-wise, to move things around." In fact, cutting Transparent is more akin to editing a five-hour film than 10 half-hour-ish episodes (Amazon is accommodating with running times, although generally each episode runs 25- 30 minutes). "Jill always said she thinks of each season of Transparent as a five- hour-long movie," Rasula asserts. Indeed, each season is like "one living, breathing thing that's all interconnected," according to Hodge, who reveals that there are times she might be working on two or three episodes at once. About midway through the editing process, all the editors will sit down with Soloway to watch how things are coming along. "If we discover something in later episodes that can be made more powerful by altering something in an earlier episode, we can go back in and make adjustments earlier on," the editor adds. Despite the freedom to restructure, tweak and move scenes between episodes, editorial does adhere to a post schedule so the sound team can do its work in a scheduled way. "It can get a little tricky because we do have to have an out date, but Amazon has been very supportive in a lot of ways with our process," Hodge explains. This model is becoming more common in the streaming world. Admittedly it can be challenging for editors who are used to working in network TV, where there is a system in place to lock one show and move on to the next one. But there are benefits to this new method, says Khatib, who has worked in episodic television for more than 15 years. "On a show like Transparent, where you don't have 21 episodes to edit, you really get to make each one kind of perfect," she says. "Having the whole season before you and being able to look at it all as one piece — the way the Amazon viewer will watch the show, most likely binging it — you really get the sense of the flow of the entire season before you lock everything." GOLD MINING As effortless as it is to binge-watch Transparent, editorially speaking the show is complicated and demanding. "There are definitely some challenges. It's not an easy show to cut," confides Rasula. "One thing Cate used to say is that Transparent is a show that has a heavy editorial hand; there's quite a bit of flexibility in the Hilda Rasula.