Capturing Connections at 76th Emmys Prime/Cuts

When picture editors Maria Gonzales and Aika Miyake joined Shōgun, the FX historical epic set in feudal Japan, they did not know each other. But by the time a work-logged Gonzales asked Miyake to help her edit the tenth and final episode of season one, they'd formed a close friendship — which culminated in a shared Emmy Award in September for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series.

The episode, Gonzalez said, "became a perfect blend of our styles, and we didn't really separate scenes like, 'This is mine; this is yours.' We just respected each other's take on them and were very fluid in how we worked."

Gonzales and Miyake comprised one of three teams who gathered for the Television Academy's 76th Emmys Prime/Cuts panel September 28 to discuss the art and craft of picture editing. Joining them at the 18th such event were Patrick Tuck and Varun Viswanath, ACE, of FX's Reservation Dogs, Emmy nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Single-Camera Comedy Series; and Martin Biehn and Inbal B. Lessner, ACE, of the Netflix docuseries Escaping Twin Flames, Emmy nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program.

The panel was moderated by former Academy Picture Editors peer group governor Michael Ruscio, ACE — a nominee this year for his work editing the Netflix drama series 3 Body Problem — who earlier had discussed his work on the show with Maura Corey, ACE. The Prime/Cuts event was held at the Academy's Saban Media Center in the NoHo Arts District.

Gonzales and Miyake had several challenges on Shōgun, such as capturing the actors' subtle micro-expressions and working with English subtitles for the primarily Japanese dialogue. "[Cocreator-executive producer] Justin [Marks] was adamant that he only wanted to have one line of subtitles, when normally you would have two," Gonzales said. "So there was a lot of work put into not only capturing the meaning of the line, the essence of the line, the sort of poetic nature of the line, but making it [fit the timing] in one line."

Coincidentally, Tuck and Viswanath were also nominated for the tenth and final episode of their series' season, though the Reservation Dogs third-season ender was also the finale of the show, which depicted the struggles and aspirations of four Indigenous teens on an Oklahoma reservation.

The show represented the kind of material he's drawn to, Tuck said: "Projects where the conversations revolve around character and revolve around human beings and connection, because otherwise we're just button pushers. We're just putting puzzles together."

Though Reservation Dogs is a comedy, "It feels real, it feels human, and even when people are big characters, they're not clichéd," Tuck noted. "A lot of that is leaning into takes that allow you to see what they're feeling, and what their POV is, and not just focusing on how to make the joke land. And actually, the joke pays off way more because of that, because you're bringing in the human element that makes it all make sense and feel real in this world."

The three-episode docuseries Escaping Twin Flames was all too real, chronicling the online community Twin Flames Universe, whose founders manipulate their looking-for-love followers financially and romantically. Though she abhors the cult and hopes that the documentary will provide enough evidence to help send the founders to prison, Lessner tries not to let her opinions seep through when working on a project.

"It's not my job to editorialize," said Lessner, who is also a cocreator, executive producer and showrunner in charge of post. "It's more of a channeling. My opinions are really secondary. When you go through footage for the first time, you have opinions on things. You say, 'Well, this person's like this, and that person's like that.' You start to categorize them in your own way, as you do with normal people. But then, [just as when] you get to know people better, you find that these people are much deeper than you thought they were, that there are reasons that they do this. It's a learning process, and you grow with it as you start to understand it and channel it in a deeper, more fundamental way."

Though the panelists enjoy the collaborative aspects of their work, both with fellow editors and with others involved in the production, there are times they stand up for elements they feel are essential. Ruscio described a situation in 3 Body Problem where the VFX team preferred to change the look of a set via visual effects, but he and the director wanted it to look a certain other way.

"I really had to fight for that," he said. "VFX is so intimidating, because there's all this money involved. It's important to realize, as editors and creatives, that you can insist, and you can say, 'No, this is really how I want the story to be told.'"

Prime/Cuts was presented by the Television Academy's Picture Editors Peer Group Executive Committee; Robert M. Malachowski, Jr., ACE and Nena Erb, ACE are the peer group governors. A replay of the event is available here.