HBO Max’s dark comedy series Hacks earned an impressive 15 Emmy nominations in its freshman year, including for best comedy series, writing, sound mixing and picture editing. In fact, three of the show’s editors were recognized: Ali Greer,  Susan Vaill, ACE, and Jessica Brunetto.

Editor Jessica Brunetto

We recently reached out to Brunetto, who was nominated for her work on the Hacks’ pilot, “There is No Line.” She was kind enough to walk us through one of her favorite scenes in the episode, where we are first introduced to stand-up comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and young comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder).

Let’s find out more…

Which scene was your favorite to edit in Hacks?
My favorite scene to edit in the Hacks pilot was the car chase, which is at the end of the episode. This was the first car chase I’ve had the opportunity to edit so it will definitely stay with me forever. My approach to the scene was to have the energy of the editing be a mix of fun, dangerous and kinetic. The action sequence concludes with the final confrontation between Deborah and Ava, and I wanted to drop into that moment feeling the highest amount of tension possible.

Can you describe this scene and the significance it has to the rest of the series?
The act of Deborah chasing Ava down tells us a lot about the bigger story of the characters. Deborah drives a royal blue Mercedes Maybach, a luxury car, whose engine growls like a lion and is contrasted by Ava’s pale blue electric Nissan, whose engine is more of a soft whimper. The contrast of their different generations, class and character are depicted so strongly in the images and sounds during this scene and it very clearly sets up their dynamic for the rest of the series.

Episode 1

Which video editing tools or plugins did you use to cut this scene?
I used Avid Media Composer to edit this scene and had all three cameras synced into group clips. This made it very easy to toggle the different angles and ensure the action matched perfectly.

What technical challenges did you encounter while cutting this scene?
There were a surprising number of visual effects that happened both during the car chase and in the final shot of the episode. We had stunt drivers operate the cars during the chase, and for the shots that filmed the cars head-on we needed to composite the real actors into the drivers’ seats. Then there were the shots of Ava’s side-view mirror, which needed to depict Deborah’s Maybach inching closer and closer. In the edit, we did some temp composite work to add the reflection of Deborah’s car approaching in Ava’s side mirror using the animatte tool in Media Composer. This was the only way to see if the timing and spacing felt accurate in the edit room.

Episode 1

Lastly, we added the Las Vegas strip in the distance to the final shot of the pilot where Deborah’s car driving in reverse as the camera cranes up. This was another composite we temped in the Avid that was later refined by our amazing visual effects team.

What was the dialogue like between you and the series’ director or showrunner regarding this scene?
Finding the right musical tone for the car chase involved a lot of conversation and exploration. I searched through scores from various movies, and so did the co-showrunner/director Lucia Aniello. We wanted to stay away from traditional action music and lean into something that felt more in character for Deborah. Then our composer, Carlos Rafael Rivera, did an incredible job translating the feeling we wanted into different instrumentations that felt bold with a fast tempo, but very much fit Deborah’s persona.