Continuing our Sundance coverage in episode 608 of the No Film School podcast, we sat down with editors and sound teams from films premiering at the festival. In addition to unpacking post production — the final and critical phase of filmmaking — we uncovered possibly the biggest work crushes in the film industry. In this conversation, you’ll hear from:

Emmy-winning editor, Taylor Mason - Editor for the psychological horror film Birth/Rebirth which premiered in the Midnight section on say one of Sundance. Mason’s previous work includes the Netflix mini-series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Pose, as well as the variety show A Black Lady Sketch Show, for which Taylor and her team of editors became the first all-Black team to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing.
Jon Philpot - Editor for the mockumentary film Theater Camp. Jon previously worked on beloved comedy series like Hacks, Search Party, Broad City, and Awkwafina is Nora From Queens, and At Home With Amy Sedaris.
Mike James Gallagher and Anthony Vanchure - Part of the sound team on Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman, the pair also recently worked on the biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, as well as Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me and their collaboration on the documentary Lucy and Desi earned the pair an Emmy nomination.

In this episode, we discuss…

Breaking story as an editor
The emotions of door sounds
Temp sound and editors hoping to impress the sound designers and vice-versa
Figuring out the most interesting way to keep people engaged
The great thing about low budget projects
Balancing the tone of a more dramatic story with moments of levity
The great combination of laughter and fear
How sound design can affect people psychologically
Why it's so fun for editors and sound designers to collaborate

Memorable Quotes

“Is this a scene? Is this supposed to be entertaining? What does this have to do with anything?” [16:14]
“I wanna do a great job. I wanna do that on every project I work on. You don’t just want to half ass it.” [21:38]
“The idea of mixing comedy and horror together is phenomenal.” [31:00]
“I love working with editors that take sound seriously.” [41:35]