This was a pivotal moment in my career for multiple reasons. It was my first multi-camera sitcom and I was the only editor on the second season of a hit show (except Episode 5, where I share a credit with the talented Russell Griffin). This came with a lot of pressure and growth but also led to my first three Primetime Emmy nominations in 2023: two for The Upshaws and one for History of the World Part II.
The Upshaws: Part 3 | Official Trailer | Netflixyoutu.be
Coming from a background of editing stand-up comedy made my transition to cutting The Upshaws a fluid one. Multi-camera sitcoms are shot on a soundstage with a studio audience and because they have a laugh track, the editorial style is much like stand-up comedy in the sense that the show is cut fat with room for the laughter to play out and time for the characters to take the laughter in. Single Camera comedy, however, is usually edited in a much tighter manner, with jokes layered on top of each other. The editorial style of The Upshaws is a hybrid of the two: we have the element of the studio audience, however, our showrunners prefer that the edits are on the tighter side, which is a different take on this format. I enjoyed the challenge of landing the jokes with the proper takes and reactions while artfully weaving in the laughter.
The other thing that sets the unique format of The Upshaws apart is that the editor is involved in production as well as post. On the pre-shoot day, I will either watch a live feed from my edit bay or go to set and sit with the showrunners, writers, and the director in video village to ensure we get the proper coverage. Then, I have to rush back to edit 7-9 scenes by the next afternoon for playback for the live studio audience, so we can record laughs. This tight turnaround and making sure I’m getting the best content into the cut while landing the jokes are two challenges of editing this show. Just because I have to work fast doesn’t mean I can let the story suffer, as it will be played in front of a live audience which truly tests the effectiveness of the comedy.
History of the World Part 2 | Trailer | Huluyoutu.be
My experience editing The Upshaws led me to my next show, History of the World, Part II. Just as we were wrapping up our season, Wanda asked if I’d be interested in cutting the Mel Brooks sketch comedy series. Of course, I jumped at the chance!
Coming from The Upshaws, where it was generally just me in the edit bay combined with the multi-camera editorial style, was an adjustment as History was quite the opposite. The culture of History of the World was extremely collaborative. We would screen cuts together as an editorial team and debate how to land a joke better, or which scenes would play best in an episode together. Additionally, I had to recalibrate my thinking to the editorial style of single-camera sketch comedy.
On The Upshaws, we almost always stuck to the script and the pace was much slower. However, on History of the World, the actors in the sketches often would deliver a plethora of improv gold, and finding ways to work these moments into the sketches to layer jokes, was not only valued but encouraged.
'History of the Wold, Part II'Credit: Hulu
This mindset also really paved the way for a lot of creative freedom. Oftentimes, we were re-writing jokes in the edit bay which did a lot to elevate the comedy. Also, being that History of the World is sketch comedy, there is a large variety of sketches in each episode about moments in history ranging from The Russian Revolution to Jesus, Sigmund Freud, and Kublai Khan. This created a unique challenge to build episodes that felt well-balanced. We spent many months as a team carefully structuring episodes, trying to position historical subjects, diversity, and types of sketches with longer or shorter sketches.
The most exciting thing for me about working on The Upshaws was that I grew up watching multi-camera sitcoms. They were a household staple for us, and since my family was first-generation Mexican-American on my dad’s side, it was very relatable to see other minority blue-collar families and their struggles told through comedy. Comedy is subjective, so having that relatability really helps me craft the story and punctuate the comedy in the edit bay.
Similarly, I grew up watching everything Mel Brooks and his comedic style has definitely informed my career in the genre. So when Wanda asked me if I was interested in working on History of the World, Part II, it was an extremely humbling moment that I knew would be both incredibly rewarding and challenging. Working on these two projects obviously paid off, as they earned me my first three Primetime Emmy nominations.
My advice to young aspiring filmmakers would be to start creating anything and everything. With the advances in technology, it’s so easy to take your phone or another device and record/edit a story. Once you learn the craft well, enter your work into as many film festivals as possible and network with like-minded individuals.
Get to know others with the same goals and aspirations. Create together and get noticed. Work hard for low pay at first. If you are truly passionate and put the work in, the jobs and money will follow. Most importantly, don’t have an ego! If your supervisor asks you to bring her coffee, ask her how she likes it. She may well bring you on to the next Star Wars movie.
This post was written by Angel Gamboa Bryant.
Angel Gamboa Bryant is a three-time Emmy-nominated television & feature editor with two decades of industry experience. Most recently, she edited the Hulu sketch series History of the World, Part II, starring Mel Brooks, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, and Nick Kroll; as well as the Netflix sitcom The Upshaws. In 2023, she was Emmy-nominated for the first time, scoring three Primetime Emmy nominations, including one Emmy nomination for History of the World Part II for Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming, and two Emmy nominations for The Upshaws for Outstanding Picture Editing for Multi-Camera Comedy Series. Angel also has an impressive resume editing stand-up comedy specials for some of today’s most acclaimed comedians, including the Netflix specials: Wanda Sykes: Not Normal; Tiffany Haddish: Black Mitzvah; Ms. Pat: Y’all Wanna Hear Something Crazy, and Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration, to name just a few.
As a first-generation American, Angel’s multicultural background allows her to bring a unique perspective and skillset to the editing room. Throughout her childhood, Angel spent her summers in Mexico, where she saw people living without the luxuries commonplace throughout America. This experience gave Angel a global mindset and understanding of different cultures and languages. As an expert in editing a subjective genre like comedy, having a diverse perspective has been extremely beneficial to Angel’s work in telling the best story and landing all of the jokes while being culturally mindful.
Angel’s diverse editorial background has shaped her into a uniquely skilled editor who can inject a distinct perspective into the films and TV shows that she works on. Her aspirations for the future are to further establish herself as a trusted editor of scripted TV and feature films and expand into editing different genres such as dark comedy, comedic horror, suspense, and drama.
Rap Sh!t Season 2 | Official Trailer | Maxwww.youtube.com
Editor's note: the following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
No Film School: A lot of the first season was obviously the phone shots and perspectives. So how do you go about changing the look from last season to this season?
Eric Branco: Well, I mean, the idea of going from within the phone to more in the world of the characters, I think really actually happened toward the end of last season. We were introduced to the characters kind of through their social media. That's how they first blew up with their first song "Seduce & Scheme" in the first season. But by the end of Season I, there was already kind of less of that social media and phone stuff.
In Season 2, I feel like it was just kind of the natural progression of now that we know these characters really well, being in their lives and in their worlds and less on their screens.
In addition to that kind of social media aspect and getting a little bit further away from that, I think the challenge was maintaining the energy and feel that existed in that stuff and bringing more of that into their world. In Season 2, the camera moves a lot more. I think characters move a lot more. We have more walk-and-talks.
I think it's not just cinematography. I think it's also in the writing and also in the blocking. I think there was a kind of holistic effort to bring a little more energy to the way these characters are presented.
NFS: That might be part of the answer to my next question, which was that you're shooting a lot of handheld. So is that motivated by the energy?
Branco: Definitely. The first season is about them being kind of stuck in their lives and how to break out of those patterns. The cinematography had to reflect that. Season 2, it's really about seeing them actually making a go of it and going on tour and the struggles and the trials and the tribulations and all that stuff.
We shot a lot more handheld really to represent kind of the fact that their footing is not sure. So it's a lot more following them. It's a lot more a little less steady than ... The camera work is a little less steady and a little less sure of itself kind of in the same way that the characters are.
'Rap Sh!t'Credit: Erin Simkin/Max
NFS: One scene I did want to ask about is episode one, the poolside, where it's all these really bright neon purples, pinks, and blues. I'd love to know your thought process behind that scene.
Branco: You know. Always kind of subtle things happening with color. Right? Whenever I'm shooting anything.
So in this case, that tone of pink really pops up whenever Reina [Kat Cunning] and Francois [Jaboukie Young-White] are near. That's kind of like their bat signal. ... We were filming in an existing house, and we knew we had to kind of like "Francois" it up a little bit. Our amazing production designer, Adam Davis, built a wall within this kind of outdoor little, I don't know what it was, like a yoga studio or something, and turned it into a recording studio. But we had to figure out what we were going to do on the outside of that wall and how to bring some kind of Miami flavor to this exterior.
Adam and I, along with my gaffer, Ted Rysz, built in those kinds of neon tubes with pink, and then they worked perfectly for the pool scene because I knew how well that pink would contrast with the kind of cool blue of the water and all that stuff.
We lit up the pool so the water was blue and reflecting on their faces, and then you can see that pink kind of shimmering and reflecting on the surface of the pool. That was definitely a multifaceted way to kind of make it a little more Miami, make it a little more Francois, and also just make it a really kind of like pretty intimate scene sitting poolside.
NFS: Yeah. Now that you mentioned it, I also noticed it on the tour bus, so that makes sense.
Branco: The opening music video that they're shooting is pink, the tour bus is pink, and the studio is pink. When she's on stage, her kind of lighting mode is pink. Reina's lighting mode is pink. So it's kind of sprinkled throughout.
NFS: What's the motivation behind pink specifically?
Branco: I mean, I think we just went with pink specifically because such kind of like first idea no-brainer for this kind of like female rapper, kind of like Barbie-pink vibe. I feel like that's exactly what Reina is, is this like ... You know. Is going to go for like the first idea. Pink felt like the right color for her.
It felt so different from what Shawna and Mia, you know what I mean, from their vibe, that it was definitely a color that was not going to pop up in a lot of places in the rest of the season.
'Rap Sh!t'Credit: Max
NFS: I read that you moved more toward those LEDs as they were getting farther from home, away from tungsten. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Branco: So the idea was that in there... this is just something that I think kind of is pervasive in my work in general, but to me, kind of like warm tungsten just feels like a nice blanket. It feels like you want to just wrap up. It's so cozy. You know what I mean? All that stuff.
That was also a purposeful way for Maurice's house with Shawna is like very warm tungsten, and Mia's house with her daughter is very warm tungsten. And then they go on tour and the bus is all kind of like LEDs. The backstage in the second episode is all this kind of like garish, greenish fluorescent.
It was definitely for me about, not only with the camera work and the handheld of it all but also in lighting, showing their progression into a less comfortable zone. That's a great question.
NFS: What's been the most challenging sequence to shoot?
Branco: I think of the first two, it was probably the big performance scene in [episode] two. Just anytime you're dealing with that number of extras, choreography... I think we had four or five cameras that day trying to maintain the energy in the room. By the time it's the 20th time that the audience has heard that song, like, keeping them hyped into it. You know what I mean? And really trying to get kind of a variation of shots in a short amount of time and really make that stuff kind of pop and feel big, and be strategic in where you're placing your extras because even if you have, I think we have 500 extras and it's still not enough to fill that space.
It's about kind of knowing very clearly where you're going to see people and planning those shots. Any kind of big performance scene like that is very much like you plan and plan and plan, and then kind of take the brakes off and the train is going and you need to hope you planned well enough that it stays on the rails.
NFS: Do you have any advice for making those small crowds feel big?
Branco: In the size of things that I'm working on, crowd multiplication and replacement and duplication is a big [thing] ... Every time I think you've ever seen a crowd in something that I've shot or like the big wide, it's been duplication. There are ways to get around that.
In the shot from behind the three of them on stage looking out, the venue that we chose had like a big floor space and a mezzanine. I intentionally put a bunch of open-face tungsten units on the railing of the second-floor mezzanine so that ... the blooms and the flares from those lights really helped to obscure how many people were up in that mezzanine.
Strategically use units and flares to hide. I think we ended up having like half of the people upstairs that we would've needed to have upstairs if I hadn't hidden them within lights.
That was a trick for specifically that location. I learned that trick in the movie The Forty-Year-Old Version that I did. Same thing. There was a mezzanine in our location and I was like, "Well, if I just blow out the top, you won't see anybody up there."
NFS: That's amazing.
Branco: And it works pretty well.
'Rap Sh!tCredit :Alicia Vera/Max
NFS: What are common mistakes that you see beginning DPs make that they should avoid?
NFS: What advice would you give to someone just starting as a DP? What should they learn first?
Branco: I think being a DP, there's no set path. Right? So everyone kind of needs to find their own journey. I think it's about shooting as much as you can. There are things you can read about, and there are things you can learn in theory, but then really you need to take those things and put them into practice as soon as you can.
For me, for my path, I started as a gaffer. So for me, I was on set with really talented DPs, always watching what they were doing, always learning what they were doing, and then taking those to the student films and no-budget shorts that I was shooting on the weekends or when I wasn't working and kind of applying what I was seeing these much bigger DP doing. A lot of it worked, a lot of it didn't work, but it definitely helped me find my own style and find what works best for me. So I think that's just really, honestly, being on set as much as you can and shooting as much as you can is the way to do it.
NFS: What are common mistakes that you see beginning DPs make that they should avoid?
Branco: One thing that will derail you faster than anything else is comparing yourself to where other people are. I think it's very common, especially in kind of the social media Instagram world we live in that you constantly see other people working, especially coming out of the strike we were just in, it can be super disheartening to not have the phone ring for a month and be looking at your phone and you're like, "Everyone is working but me." That kind of thing is like a path to resentment and not enjoying your own work because you're always comparing it to, "It doesn't look as cool as this or looking cool as that."
I think, for me, I definitely suffered from that. I had to get over that in the fact that I shoot mainly features and TV and long-form things. And so there have been times where I've shot something ... I shot a feature once in February. It premiered at Sundance the following January and then came out in theaters the December after that.
That's two years of where I can't really show anything from that project. Meanwhile, other people are like, "Check out this commercial and this short and this music video." And there's just the quantity of work coming out is so much greater than someone ... than the quantity of work that a narrative DP can put out into the world.
I think it's important to put the blinders on and stay on your path while also kind of being encouraging to the people who are constantly working.
NFS: I feel like people also fall into that trap with the cameras that we don't have access to, and we think that if we can get that camera, it will look this or that way.
Branco: Yeah. I mean, it's like I have this camera, I have this lens. Am I going to ... What's better? A movie that is not shot on the latest and greatest camera or no movie? Do you know what I mean?
You just need to make a choice at some point to be like, "Am I going to work with the tools that I have or am I going to continue this path of like would've, could've, should've?"
NFS: Yeah.
Branco: They all look so good. It doesn't matter. Any camera you shoot on is going to look amazing. It's not the camera. It's you.
