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www.postmagazine.com 22 POST FEBRUARY 2018 REALITY TV the stage, in hopes that a coach will turn their now famous red chair around and pick that contestant to be a part of their team. Once each judge has filled all of the open positions on their teams, sing- ers compete through several stages until finally the remaining vocalists are ready for the live shows. Editor Jason Stewart, who has been cutting the show for the past six-and-a-half years, and who has also worked on other reality television pro- grams, including Masterchef, America's Got Talent and The Amazing Race, says there's a mispercep- tion about the folks who work in reality TV. "I do think it's possible that reality editors sometimes get the short end of the stick," he says. "I think that maybe, because of some of the shows that have come before that were slapped together and had low quality standards, that it's easier for people to take a broad brush and go, 'They don't really have an eye for detail' or 'They don't really know how to craft a story — it's just interviews and footage.' I think there's a misper- ception that someone like myself, or my col- leagues that have been doing this 20-plus years, wouldn't be able to take on a challenge like a feature film or scripted show or commercial. I think time after time, that's proven wrong when people get out there and do really good work on that side of the business. I think yeah, I do feel that editing is editing, it's a cliché, it is storytell- ing, and knowing that your story is working or your audience is responding, you feel you have what it takes to make it as an editor. As an editor for scripted television, you have to have an eye for detail, every detail matters, you don't put anything in the timeline that doesn't absolutely make the show better. But I believe the same is true for an editor working on a reality show, too. It's all the same creative act." According to Stewart, who cuts The Voice on an Avid Media Composer, one of the biggest challenges of editing the show is the enormous amount of footage that's created for each season. The show's format features five stages of compe- tition that begins with Blind Auditions, then the Battle Rounds, Knockouts, Playoffs and, finally, the Live Performance Shows. "I think even if you don't know that that's your problem, that might be your problem," he laughs. "What happens is, someone will go and shoot footage for a home follow up and that seg- ment, their backstory segment, is two and a half minutes long, yet they might shoot seven, eight, 10 hours of footage for you to integrate. The unfortunate reality of that is the more footage that's shot, the more footage just doesn't get looked at. You simply don't have the time. There might be some gold in there, some clips you just never discover because you don't have time in the schedule to look at everything. So, a lot of stuff just may never get seen or used, and that's too bad because I've done some production too where you go out and shoot the stuff and you really have an idea that it's great, and the editor is sitting there looking at 50 clips in the bin and some of them are 15 minutes long, and they're like, 'Oh, I just need a shot of him with his wife,' and boom, 'I'll take that.' That's all you get. "It's kind of a disservice to the producers to get all this great work in the field and then you just really have to grab and go because you don't have time to really know the footage. Some shows are really great at having producers sit down, log and mark their own footage, and prep it for the editors. You really know what's there. And sometimes you're just given the footage and told to cut it. The person leaves the room. There's a great freedom in that, but the downside might be that some of that great stuff might not make it because no one had time to find it." Stewart says that a show like The Voice has a few different styles of editing requirements, sim- ply because of the nature of the format. "At first, there's sort of the super tease that gives you the adrenal boost at the top of the show, The Voice's on-screen talent The show is edited in Avid's Media Composer.