BURBANK, Calif.—In the Apple TV series “Pluribus,” nearly everyone on Earth becomes a part of a single consciousness, leaving a world without friction. The “joined” are good at everything because they are everyone, thus, they have the knowledge of every human being. They never disagree. The title of the show nods to the Latin “e pluribus unum”—out of many, one.
For “Pluribus” we had three editors—Skip Macdonald, ACE; Joey Liew; and me—each with our own episodes and unique styles and rhythms. Yet we somehow needed to make every episode feel like a part of the same show. Out of many, one—the Avid version.
Collaborative Minds
Collaboration in post isn’t always as easy as the hive mind might make it look. Our Emmy-nominated composer, Dave Porter, says every editor cuts to their own internal beats per minute, and the first thing he does with a scene is find that editor’s metronome. That’s three different metronomes that somehow need to find a singular tempo. And reconciling those tempos is an important part of our job in editorial.
This is where the technology comes in (but with much less drama than you find on our show). We’ve cut every Vince Gilligan series on Avid Media Composer going back to “Breaking Bad.” The media lives on Avid Nexis, and each editor works in shared projects on top of it. Media Composer’s bin locking sorts out who has control. For example, if Skip wanted something from an episode of mine—a music cue or a visual effect he’d like to match—he can simply access my Editor’s Cut bin and take it.
If I was currently working in that bin, the bin “lock” would show “red” in his view, while mine would stay “green” and neither of us would run the risk of wrecking the other’s work or interrupting a session to ask for control.
Our projects are organized with the same mindset—apply a standard architecture to keep it simple, while allowing for individuality to keep the creativity flowing. Every editor has a preference as to how their scene bins are built. Mine are labeled with scene number, a brief description and an indication as to how many minutes of footage are contained.
Dailies are racked in what Joey calls the “reverse Christmas tree”: A and B cameras side by side; group clips below. Any of us can find Scene 14 in another editor’s project in about 10 seconds, because our architecture is the same. The rest is just down to us editors communicating our intentions clearly with one another—a hive mind doesn’t have to, but we do.
Simplified Workflows
As for what I myself reach for day in and day out inside my timeline, I use nothing more often than Trim Mode. It stopped feeling like a tool a long time ago and has rather become an extension of my thoughts, enabling me to work quickly and intuitively.
Another tool that made me faster is Extend Edit, something Kelley made me learn before I moved on from being her assistant. And for a show where the many must move as one, I absolutely depend on Animatte—whether for simple splits to adjust performance timing or to create enormous composite shots, such as one high angle in Episode 103 that used nine to 10 layers, retiming background actors so they moved in lockstep.
In “Pluribus,” the joined never disagree because there is nobody left to disagree with—free will and individuality have been replaced by one common consciousness. Fortunately, Skip, Joey and I have maintained our individuality, found our singular voice in the cutting room by working together in Avid Media Composer, and the season is better for it. Because we never need to hunt for media or wait for someone to finish working in a bin, we can instead focus our efforts and ideas on the story, applying our unique tempos and reconciling them. Out of many, one.
More information is available on Avid’s website.
