By Randi Altman

AMC’s dramedy Lucky Hank follows Hank Devereaux (Bob Odenkirk), an English department chairman at a small Pennsylvania college. Hank, who always seems on the edge of a full-blown meltdown, wrote one novel years ago and has had writer’s block since, contributing to his bad mood. The show follows Hank as he navigates his family and his wacky colleagues while also trying to come to terms with his very successful writer father, who left the family when Hank was a kid.

Richard Schwadel

Lucky Hank was created by Paul Lieberstein (The Office) and Aaron Zelman (The Killing), who called on editors Richard Schwadel (Episodes 1, 2 and 7), Justin Li (Episodes 5 and 6) and Jamie Alain (Episodes 3, 4 and 8) to cut the show.

We reached out to Schwadel to talk about tone, pace and more…

How early did the showrunners get you involved? Prior to the shoot? During? How did that help?
I was hired to cut Episodes 101, 102 and 107 about a month before shooting started. I hadn’t worked with Aaron or Paul before, but I had worked with Peter Farrelly on two seasons of Loudermilk and The Now. He directed Episodes 101 and 102 and is an EP on the show.

You edited the first two episodes, in a sense setting the tone for the editing on the series.
The show’s tone changes over the arc of the series. It begins feeling like a workplace comedy, but as it goes deeper into Hank’s relationship with his wife, Lily, and his colleagues, we learn more of his backstory, and it gets much more dramatic.

In terms of setting the tone, I follow the script’s intent as closely as possible but also rely on my gut. If a parenthetical in the script differs from what I’m seeing in a performance I like, I may go with what I intuit works best. In some cases, I’ll cut an alt of the scene. If I don’t understand a line of dialogue, I’ll reread the script until I do — or I’ll ask someone. It’s so crucial to understand every line of dialogue.

What about the pacing?
For pace, I’m always tweaking it from the very start, and my goal is to present an airable editor’s cut. I only had a few short discussions with Pete before production began, but I know his sense of humor and what he’s trying to accomplish with his actors.

A good example is from Episode 102. There’s a scene where Paul storms into the common room yelling at Gracie, who had his car towed. As he’s screaming at her, all the professors wander out of their offices to watch. Emma is sitting between Paul and Gracie, who are standing. Paul blurts out, “You are a petty, cruel, vindictive woman!”

Pete, being the comic genius he is, had Emma take a bite of a cracker at that moment to punctuate the line and break the tension. Then she looks to Gracie for her reaction. It’s a laugh-out-loud moment that wasn’t scripted. I instinctively knew that cutting to Emma’s close-up was key, and then I just worked on the timing of it. The only note I got from Pete was to make the cracker louder.

Aaron and Paul were still writing and working on-set when I started, so most of our conversations happened later. However, when it came time for the producer’s cut, we got serious about lifting material for length and story, which obviously affects pace, so those trims are always taken into account for the overall flow of the show. That’s why it’s so important to always screen your cuts from top to bottom after you’ve been working deep in the weeds.

Did they let you sort of work on your own and then with them, or were they getting edits regularly?
I’m a proponent of being left alone to present my editor’s cut. I think it’s crucial that editors present their objective view of the material. Of course, I’ll send out cuts of scenes if it’s warranted, but usually, the directors and producers are so involved in the production and re-writing that they don’t see anything until I’m finished with my cut. I also assume that I’m hired based on a level of trust in my experience.

Lucky Hank is a very dialogue-heavy show. Can you talk about tackling all that dialogue?
The pilot’s opening scene is about four pages of dialogue between Hank and one of his students. It opens with a student named Bartow reading his story out loud to the class. Hank’s disengaged, making a shopping list in his head. Before Bartow finishes, Hank interrupts him and asks for comments. Bartow asks Hank to comment on it because he never does. Hank keeps trying to avoid commenting but finally caves, eviscerating the kid’s work.

An opening scene like this needs to evolve in a way that slowly builds toward its climax. You want the audience to be a bit ahead, thinking “Uh-oh. Something bad’s coming.” As the confrontation builds and Hank gets more irritated, the pace increases until finally, he explodes at the kid. Then we crash into the main title. The toughest part of that scene was trying to keep our lifts invisible and the class’s reactions feeling natural.

I don’t have a particular formula for cutting dialogue-intensive scenes. I just need to understand what the scene’s about, what the subtext is (if any) and whether the viewers are ahead of or behind the story.

Having the privilege of editing Bob Odenkirk’s performances was just incredible. His face is so expressive, and he can speak volumes with just a grunt or a look. Mining moments like that was such a joy. Not to mention the vastly talented cast — from Mireille Enos, Diedrich Bader, Suzanne Cryer and newcomer Shannon DeVido. Everyone just kills it.

The first two episodes were directed by Peter Farrelly, known for his quirky comedies (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) but also the drama Green Book. How was it working with him while simultaneously working with Nicole Holofcener on Episode 7, which is definitely more emotional in tone?
I really enjoy working with Pete. He knows the scripts inside and out. He’s not precious about cutting anything that doesn’t serve the story. His comedy lands so well that I still laugh at scenes I’ve seen dozens of times.

Juggling 101, 102 and 107 was both a challenge and a breeze. The challenging part was I’d be in the middle of screening dailies for 107 and get a text that the producers have an hour right now to jump onto 102. So I’d have a plan for the dailies mapped out in my head, then I’d have to stop and jump onto a different episode. Nothing I haven’t done before, but it’s always a difficult adjustment to switch gears so quickly.

The breezy part was that Nicole Holofcener shot 107 so well — everything just fit together very naturally. I really enjoyed the different tone of that episode. Between Hank trying to confront his dementia-ridden father over walking out on his family and Lily starting her new career in NYC, it almost feels like a different show. I’ve also cut a lot of dramas, so it came very easily to me.

In terms of 107 being a more emotional episode, my favorite scene is the ending. Hank tries to make peace with his daughter Julie. There are two lines of dialogue at the top of the scene, and then the rest of the scene— about a minute and a half — is silent as Michael Nau’s wonderful song “While You Stand” begins. It’s a tear-jerker moment as a father reconnects with his daughter by just being present.

Hank isn’t very warm and fuzzy in the first two episodes. He’s almost hard to like. How did you walk that line with making him feel human but also not having the audience turn off to him or some of the other more difficult characters that make up the faculty?
That’s a great point. The show is loosely based on Richard Russo’s novel, “Straight Man.” In the book, Hank’s an unlikeable character who verbally destroys pretty much everyone he interacts with, except for his wife. Making him likable as the lead of a series was no easy task, but I think Paul and Aaron pulled it off really well.

By the end of Episode 2, we’ve learned that Hank’s living under the shadow of his famous father, an academic literary critic, and that his dad also walked out on his family when Hank was in his teens. So as unlikeable as Hank may be, there’s now a backstory, so the audience can sympathize with this damaged guy.

There’s a scene in the pilot where Hank apologizes for yelling at Bartow. Originally, his apology came about two-thirds into the episode. However, Paul and Aaron moved that scene into the first act so we understand Hank actually cares about his students and has some humanity in him. It was a smart move.

And how did you balance that with the more likable characters, his wife and the dean?
That’s all in the writing and performances. True, I get to choose which performances to use, but “if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.”

Any other scenes that stick out to you as challenging or that you are especially proud of?
There’s a scene in Episode 102 where Hank and Lily are in a restaurant waiting to meet their daughter Julie and her husband, Russell, for dinner. They think Julie’s pregnant and is about to break the news, so they’re very excited. Julie and Russell arrive, they have small talk, everyone sits, and Julie says she bets they’re wondering what the news is about, but first, Russell wants to tell them something.

Russell launches into a nervous spiel about their property, how an old roommate installs pools, and how they’ve had plans drawn up to build a new pool (which they definitely cannot afford). Hank’s excitement is clearly waning through this, which Lily can see. Well, it turns out that was the big news. No baby, just a new pool. Bob’s expression when they tell him this is priceless.

The challenge here was to keep Hank and Lily’s excitement of the pending announcement through the first part of the scene, then shift the tone to slight confusion, then end on their utter shock and disappointment — all while keeping it funny because it’s a hilarious scene.

Peter had shot it pretty conventionally, with a master four-shot and two cross-twos. But he also put the camera close to the actors for tight two shots. I wanted to save this setup for the perfect moment because with an angle like this, you need the right motivation to cut to it.

I waited for Julie and Russell to tell them their big news: “We’re building a pool!” Then I cut to the POV angle of Hank and Lily’s priceless reaction and played out the rest of the scene in those tight two shots.  It’s so much fun and a delight to watch that I still laugh when I see it.

What did you edit on? Any tool within that system that came in handy?
We cut the show on Avid Media Composer. I used ScriptSync for the first block of two episodes. I knew from experience that Pete liked having ScriptSync for quickly auditioning alts. I wish more shows were budgeted for it because it’s an amazing, time-saving tool. The issue is that it takes time to set up, and when you have three-plus hours of dailies and only one first assistant, it puts too much pressure on them.

Who was your assistant?
Jason Chu was my first assistant. He did a wonderful job keeping everything organized and up to date. This was our first show together, but I’d hire him again in a heartbeat.

I’ve worked with a number of firsts over the years and have even trained a handful who’ve gone on to become editors. It’s very fulfilling for me to watch people I’ve mentored move up – but it’s also bittersweet because I feel like I’ve lost a team member. However, there’s always the possibility we’ll work together again as equals on a project somewhere down the road!

Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 25 years.