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Indie Film Weekly  The Controversial Celluloid Debate & What Filmmakers Ca… (/user/login)

Justin Morrow 

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June 16, 2016

Get Schooled on Cutting

for the Golden Age of TV

by Editors of 'Breaking

Bad' and 'The Wire'

Is TV an "editor's medium"? The industry's top

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cutters think so.

Between the three of them, Kelley Dixon, Kate

Sanford, and Leo Trombetta have cut thousands of 

hours of television and movies. Dixon has worked

on Breaking Bad 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003CH9PTU/nofilmschool- 

20) and Better Call Saul 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00R15JYHW/nofilmschool- 

20), Trombetta on Wayward Pines 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00WJLFVDY/nofilmschool-20),

and Kate Sanford on The Wire 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BSEJR9C/nofilmschool- 

20) and, most recently, Vinyl 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01EGH3BE4/nofilmschool-20). At

the recent Sight, Sound & Story (www.sightsoundandstory.com/) panel, 'TV Is

the New Black: Television's Cinematic Revolution', each discussed their

careers and recent work, and gave tips for those looking to get into the

industry. Here are the three top takeaways we learned from them.

1. Cable is winning the war

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Kate Sanford noted that the number of viewers is the most important metric of 

success on broadcast TV, whereas on cable, it's awards. Therefore, there is

more room for artistic vision in cable than there is in broadcast TV, or even in

the movies, a factor that contributes to an increase in quality of the material

shown. However, with the success of the long-form TV series, and the

increased content of VOD, there is more pressure. "I remember being on the

set of The Wire ," Sanford recalled, "and looking around, thinking, 'where is

everybody?' There were no executives...We had a lot more free reign."

"TV won."

Another reason cited for the growing success of TV was the rise of accessible

home theater technology. A home theater requires both high-quality

equipment now within the financial reach of many more viewers, and a

subscription to cable or a VOD service. Given that the average series runs for

62 hours or so, this gives viewers more bang for their buck than going to the

movies (as well as better job security for editors.) The home theater is one of 

the key reasons behind Hollywood's adoption of a tentpole strategy to draw

viewers out (http://nofilmschool.com/2015/11/6-hollywood-studio-execs-

discuss-state-film-industry) to the multiplex, when they could just as easily stay

home. In summation, referring to the age-old battle between TV and the

movies (http://nofilmschool.com/2016/05/first-run-50-vod-screening-room-

latest-skirmish-long-war), Dixon quipped, "TV won."

2. There's a strong case for TV as an editor'smedium

All three panelists stressed that one of the most important differences

between cutting for TV and cutting for the movies is that the latter is a

director's medium, whereas the former is primarily controlled by the

showrunners and producers. It's almost never the case for a TV series to have

a consistent director, and so the editor has a great deal more control and a

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7/26/2019 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'the Wire'

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stronger role in terms of maintaining a consistent style and tone for the series,

which, as has been noted, almost always stretches much, much longer than

the average feature film job.

'Wayward Pines'

Trombetta recounted an anecdote about the finale of the first season of the

show Wayward Pines; originally, Matt Dillon's character had been supposed to

kill Tobey Jones' villainous town leader, David Pilcher. However, when

reshoots were needed and Jones was not available, Trombetta worked with

the showrunners and writers to figure out a way around their problem.

Eventually, it was decided to bring in Carla Gugino to do reshoots, changing

the storyline slightly while still maintaining a crucial event in the series, (though

the finale was controversial (http://www.indiewire.com/2015/07/how-the-final-

twist-of-wayward-pines-spells-doom-for-broadcast-television-60041/).)

Trombetta's work is seamless, though he gave much credit to Gugino, who

was able to come in and "maintain a perfect eyeline, looking at someone who

wasn't Tobey, feeding her his lines off-camera. It made my job much easier."

hares

7/26/2019 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'the Wire'

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17/6/2016 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Wire'

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Vinyl: Trailer #2 (HBO)

Kate Sanford related the amount of freedom she

has on a show like Vinyl , which has the

heavyweight backing of not only HBO, but

Executive Producers Martin Scorsese and Mick

Jagger. While stressing that usually it's better to cut

"dry", that is, without letting music determine or

override the point of the scene, she added that at

the beginning of the series she was given an

impressive list of songs she could use. These

famous classics and hits were, "songs you would never in a million years think

you could get," because obtaining the rights would be prohibitively

expensive."

Gmail Para Tu Negocio

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17/6/2016 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Wire'

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Having a wide array of soundtrack tunes available was important because a

series uses far more songs than a film does, and the plot of this particular

show requires music in almost every scene—the show revolves around a

fictional New York record label in the decadent 70s, whose offices themselves

are always filled with diegetic music. Sanford described, "During the day, it's

mostly FM hits, and then during the night scenes, you get more mellow, older

stuff, some blues". There are sometimes, she said, multiple iterations of 

scenes, each cut to different songs, complete with behind-the-scenes

debates on which song fits. Fortunately, she had a lot of trust from the

network, since she was responsible for much of the feel of every episode.

With this amount of responsibility, there is also tremendous amount of 

pressure. Editors are not only expected to win awards, but to get fast results, a

point echoed by VFX teams (http://nofilmschool.com/2016/06/vfx-supervisor-

post-iia) during another Sight, Sound & Story panel.

With such a glut of quality content for viewers to

watch at home being produced, the editor for a

quality TV series is in an influential position

3. It's easier to get your foot in the door

Kelley Dixon noted that because of the length of a series, the job security for

an editor can also be greater. Dixon, who got her start as a P.A. on the 1980s

one-hour drama thirtysomething 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002NW3CTY/nofilmschool-20),

started in the cutting room as an assistant, and now, makes sure

that her assistants are as visible as possible whenever executives come

around. "I don't want them to just see [my assistant] as someone in the corner,

I want them to know who that person is, because that's how I got my start."

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7/26/2019 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'the Wire'

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17/6/2016 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Wire'

http://nofilmschool.com/2016/06/wire-breaking-bad-vinyl-editors-cutting-cinematic-tv

Dixon also makes sure that her assistants work with her as much as possible

on cuts that would make it into actual episodes. For a shootout sequence

during the Season 5 episode of Breaking Bad 

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008CCCKE2/nofilmschool-20),

"To'hajiilee," Dixon and her assistant each did cuts of the final shootout, with

the end result being a "Frankenstein" version of each. Of the process, she

recalled, "It was a case of, 'oh, let's take this from yours, this is cool,' and then

parts of mine." The collaboration was so intense that there are cuts that she

can't remember who was responsible for.

Breaking Bad - Best Scene of all time

Dixon related how one part of the sequence had come up for debate: During

the shootout, one cut had featured a shot of Hank (the DEA Agent and Walt's

brother-in-law), taking cover behind a car. However, it was decided that such a

hares

7/26/2019 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'the Wire'

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17/6/2016 Get Schooled on Cutting for the Golden Age of TV by Editors of 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Wire'

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move would have been out of keeping with his character, and that he would

go out, as Dixon put it, "guns blazing."

With such a glut of quality content for viewers to watch at home being

produced, the editor for a quality TV series is in an influential position, as the

panel attested, and there is work available for talented cutters. At the end of 

the day, the job comes down to "making" the show (or movie, or commercial,

or whatever) a second time, after it's already been shot. And because of the

nature of the TV (with directors being itinerant, working for one or two

episodes at a time), there are unprecedented opportunities for editors in this

age of "cinematic TV" to put their skills to the best use.

V O D ( / T A G S / V O D ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S ) T V ( / T A G S / T V ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S )

B R E A K I N G B A D ( / T A G S / B R E A K I N G -BA D ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S ) T H E W I R E ( / T A G S / W I R E ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S )

K E L L E Y D I X O N ( / T A G S / K E L L E Y -DI X O N ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S )

K A T E S A N F O R D ( / T A G S / K A T E -S A N F OR D ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S )

L E O T R O M B E T TA ( / T A G S / L E O -T R O MB E T T A ?T Y P E = A R T I C L E S )

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