Editor Robert A. Martinez received his second Emmy nomination this year for the Amy Poehler-directed documentary Lucy and Desi. This freelance editor is no stranger to awards, receiving an Emmy nod for director Frank Marshall’s 2021 doc The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. Other work includes the Mole Man and Pavarotti documentaries.

Robert A. Martinez

Martinez worked on Lucy and Desi nearly a full year, starting in mid-January 2021 and finishing toward the end of December. We reached out to him with a few questions about how he worked on the doc, which he edited on Avid Media Composer.

What was your process on this one?
One of our guiding principles for the film was to go beyond the two-dimensional images that are so often imposed on Lucy and Desi. Calling them “legends” or “geniuses” can create a distance between them and the audience, so we always wanted to approach them at a human level — as a son, daughter, husband, wife and friend. They were so progressive, and their solutions to overcoming obstacles always came from a human place.

As far as the workflow for the edit, the first major push was to get to the rough cut — or at least to a large enough chunk of the film to get feedback on. That gives everyone a sense of what is or isn’t working as well as the general shape of the film.

After that, we started scheduled editing sessions in LA, which we were lucky enough to have in person. We would have weekly or biweekly cycles when Amy, writer/producer Mark Monroe and I would meet to talk through scenes and review new edits. After the session I would have a list of scenes and notes to work on, and we’d meet up again in a week or so to share progress. This balance of time in the edit bay and time for me to work alone at home was crucial and speaks highly of their skills as collaborators. You need to have that trust to make real progress.

In addition to newly shot interviews, you were working with older film. What were the challenges involved in that? Did anything need restoration?
There was a lot of the standard restoration that occurs when you create an archival-based documentary (photo restoration, sound mixing old audio tapes). But because of the innovative filming techniques Desi created on I Love Lucy, all the footage from the show has been beautifully preserved on film. That was such a gift for us.

What direction/feedback did you get from Amy Poehler?
Amy is a special person and storyteller. She has so many qualities that make her a great documentary director. For one, she is genuinely curious about people and what makes them tick. During our sessions we had a ton of conversations unrelated to the edit… just about Lucy and Desi as people and what they might do in hypothetical situations.

She is also an incredibly agile storyteller. In the making of a documentary, you do as much as you can in pre-production through research and drafting a story outline but once the edit begins you are constantly discovering new story beats, archival and characters that can alter the trajectory of the film.

Amy was very decisive on which of these new discoveries to explore and which we should abandon. That is such a huge help for an editor because without that vision, you often end up with wasted time cutting scenes that eventually get removed because they don’t connect to the overall story.

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to work with her, and hopefully she directs more docs in the future.

Can you give us an example of something that was particularly challenging or that you are most proud of?
I’m most proud of the emotional connection viewers have had to the film. When building scenes, I start by zeroing in on the emotion we want to tap into and the reasons behind the events that occur. Hearing that people were in tears by the end of the film is very gratifying.

What haven’t we asked that you feel is important about your role on this show?
Nothing else for me, but I would like to take a moment to thank my post team: Inaya Yusuf (additional editor/assistant editor), Dan Reed (additional editor) and Mike Smith (post assistant). Thank you for all your talent and friendship!