Editor Jamie Boyle about worked on Breaking the News, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. The film follows the journey of The 19th*, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that launched in 2020. It focused on events that helped shape that historic year with a team of women and nonbinary journalists “forging a new path amidst the centuries-old bias of mainstream media,” she says.
Jamie Boyle
Boyle also put on her writing hat, among others for this one.
Let’s find out more…
How did you get involved in this project?
I was contacted by the film’s incredible producer, Diane Quon, when the team was looking for an editor to come onboard for approximately eight months. At the time, I was helping out editors Carla Gutierrez and David Teague as they launched the BIPOC Editor’s Database. Carla was consulting on Breaking the News, and I believe she and David recommended me to Diane. I had worked with David as an associate editor in 2014 on E-Team, and he’s been an invaluable mentor ever since. I had a couple of introductory meetings with the directors and producer on Breaking the News, we all watched each other’s previous work and decided to move forward together.
Do you know what it was shot on?
Sony FS5, Sony FS7, Canon C70, Canon C300.
How did you work with the directors? How often were they looking at cuts?
Breaking the News had three directors — Heather Courtney Princess Hairston and Chelsea Hernandez. I tend to work in a more solitary fashion. I had a weekly meeting with the directors and producer where we talked about how things were going with the edit overall and discussed any new footage coming in.
I sent them an assembly approximately four months into the edit period. The first rough cut was about four months in. After that, I sent cuts on a monthly basis, roughly speaking. During the final month or two of editing, I send cuts much more often, sometimes multiple times a week. I’m usually not sitting with the director(s) in the edit room for more than a few weeks over the course of an edit.
Was there a particular scene or scenes that were most challenging?
There was an embarrassment of riches in the material for this film, and that was one of the biggest challenges. It had four incredible main participants (with a fifth added late in the edit), hundreds of hours of original footage, years of Zoom meeting recordings and decades of archival news footage.
The greatest challenge was interweaving all five storylines while also telling the larger story of The 19th* and its historic disruption of the US news industry. It was one of the biggest challenges of my career, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity and proud of the result.
Did you do more than edit on this film?
Yes, I was given a writing credit as well. Everyone on an independent documentary does much more than their credited role implies, and editors are far from immune to that. I often feel like I’m on equal footing with the directors during the edit process, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with teams who embrace that creative collaboration.
There is so much crossover of these roles. I personally find myself constantly oscillating between editing, writing, producing, directing, assistant editing, post-supervising, even shooting, on nearly every project I’ve been involved with. And I know most members of those film teams feel similarly. Breaking the News was no different. I picked up my camera (Canon C300) more than once to grab a cutaway or b-roll shot we needed.
Can you talk about your editing workflow?
Usually there’s an AE on for at least a month before I start editing. I watch down all of the footage, pull selects and take a ton of notes. If I feel particularly inspired, I might even start crafting scenes in the early weeks. I really let myself go when I’m pulled in early on because I think that’s where a lot of my value lies — in being a fresh set of eyes and following those knee-jerk reactions. It often lays the groundwork for the tone of the entire film. I come back to that early work frequently to remember what was standing out before I became completely consumed with trying to wrestle it all into a narrative.
It’s an almost sacred time when you have the space to simply listen to what the material wants and needs to be. I then create an assembly of around 3-4 hours of the most crucial material with a rough narrative arc. I reach the first rough cut about a month or two later and continue working out the puzzle of the film until about a month before picture lock. I try to leave a month at the very end just for fine-tuning. It takes much longer than anyone ever anticipates, especially with larger teams.
What system did you use to cut and why?
I used my 2015 iMac and Adobe Premiere Pro. I need to upgrade my system but by replacing and maxing out the RAM, I was able to work smoothly throughout this edit. Premiere is my preferred software. I learned how to cut in FCP 7 and worked in it for years, so that transition was pretty seamless. I used Frame.io for uploading all cuts and gathering feedback.
Is there a tool within that system that was particularly helpful?
Yes, many. Premiere’s auto-transcription is fantastic. It allowed us to do many things quickly including translations. Many of the films I’ve had the opportunity to edit over the years have included multiple languages and this tool is a huge time-saver. It’s also incredibly accurate which is critical to getting the scene right and doing the material justice when you don’t speak the language. Frame.io was also an enormous help on this project. We had three directors living in three different time zones so getting accurate and organized feedback was essential. The ability to leave notes at exact timecodes, toggle frame by frame, comment on each other’s feedback, those tools made it possible to finish the film in the time we did.
How did you manage your time?
Setting realistic expectations from the start is the key to any semblance of healthy time management, especially during an edit. The film team is often excited to be wrapping production and ready to sprint to the finish line. When you’re a full-time editor, that means you’re always being asked to sprint. It’s helpful to set the tone that this is just the very beginning of shaping the story, and the patience and space to do that is key to making the strongest film possible.
The directors and producer on Breaking the News were exceptionally respectful of that process and it made all the difference in the world, not only in terms of my own health and wellbeing but in the caliber of the film created.
Did you have an assistant editor on this?
Yes, we had a phenomenal AE named Anna Ramirez. She backed up, logged transcoded and organized footage as soon as it came in throughout the edit process. She also pulled selects, tracked down archival material, and post-supervised throughout the composing, sound mix, color correction and online sessions. We truly would not have been able to finish in the time we did without her.
How do you manage producers’ expectations with reality/what can really be done?
I’ve learned the hard way that it’s so much better to set realistic expectations than to disappoint later on. I often made the mistake of setting timelines based on everything going smoothly and working myself to the bone. Everything will not go smoothly. It never does, especially on a documentary edit. And you’ll quickly burn out and hit many unexpected roadblocks if you overwork yourself. The film will suffer for it as well.
I adhere to the Guide for Documentary Edit Schedules created by The Alliance of Doc Editors. It’s long been the standard timeline in this industry, but I cannot express how helpful it is to have it in formalized guidelines that can be sent along to producers and film teams so everyone understands what they’re embarking on.
How do you take criticism? Do you find yourself defensive or accepting of others’ ideas?
It depends on the criticism. There can be instances where the feedback is not necessarily coming from a place of thinking about what’s best for the film, and it’s important to know that. It can be that the director didn’t like their camerawork, or they had a bad experience with the participant that day. I always want to know the root of any note. Once I do, the creative challenge of crafting or continuing to shape something that everyone can be excited about and moved by is one of the things that I love most about this work.
On Breaking the News, it was a regular occurrence to get four different opinions on one scene or even one shot. All three directors have their own storytelling styles and preferences. Rather than forcing everyone to hash it out and come to a consensus, I took in all of their feedback, gave a lot of consideration to where each was coming from and incorporated all of it into something new. I’m so grateful these four team members entrusted me with that role.
When someone who is starting out asks what they should learn, what do you recommend?
In terms of programs, I recommend they learn both Premiere and Avid Media Composer. For the projects I’m approached about, there’s almost a 50/50 split between teams that prefer Premiere and those that prefer Avid. Premiere seems to be the choice more recently, but I think it’s still helpful to know both. The film team will usually respect the editor’s preference but on occasion you’re picking up where an AE or previous editor left off and they’ll want to keep the project in the same program. Getting experience as a very hands-on AE is absolutely invaluable. You can also make it clear that you hope to gain the experience necessary to move beyond the AE role and hopefully the editor and film team will be supportive in that regard.
