Philip_Harrison

Yes, the shows are very different in tone. On Glee we used a a very snappy style, cutting dialogue right on the cut. And there's also a different presentational style with the musical elements. Also on Glee we always wanted things to be absolutely clear and in the moment.

It took me time to adjust to working on Mr Robot. Sam asked me to slow down the rhythm and trust the story. On this show, things hang and the story payoffs are a slower burn. I had to learn to trust this more cinematic approach. Sam has created such a fascinating world and the actors/characters are so great that it really works.

Great to talk to another editor!

1. There weren't any giant curveballs. I grew up with these kind of sitcoms that were the inspiration so I understood the tone. Also, while working on Glee, we did a smaller scene in this same sitcom style as an homage to Friends. The main effect we were going for was the contrast between the emotional undertone and content within the sitcom style I tried to play things straight and use the most grounded performances. We didn't want the characters winking at the camera. The humor would come out through the sitcom style and Rami Malek's grounded performance would sell the emotion.

2. I use AVID which I prefer for editing narrative shows. I've also cut documentaries on Final Cut 7 which I felt was best for that.

3. The adderall scene from episode 2 was a favorite. The sitcom and also the emotional scene between Mr Robot and young Elliot at the end of eps2.4_m4ster-s1ave.aes

Any fish with Keith David's voice. For the longest time we had my assistant editor's voice in and then Kor Adana, our tech producer's voice. When we finally got Keith's VO it was magic.

A standard day is 12 hours. Often we'll work longer. I'm a night person. Cranky in the morning!

Well, on this show Sam does a great job of getting a variety of material to work with. He also has a a very strong understanding of how footage functions to tell a story. I think this underlying understanding of how things function is one of the strongest skills you can have as a director. I was amazed at Sam last season directing all the episodes. He had to come up with so many different approaches to keep thing interesting and to sell all the story and character beats. He gives us many incredible options to work with in the cutting room.

Sam is always encouraging us to find creative approaches to the material. A couple examples of creative ideas I came up with in the cutting room are:

In season 1, when Elliot is going through withdrawal; we wanted to increase the intensity of these scenes. I experimented and found that adding a strobe effect with intermittent jump cuts seemed to amplify the experience.

In season 2, during the adderall sequence, Sam had intended a shot Of Elliot walking across the frame to have a streaming effect like you might find on a computer screen saver. I tried a different approach using several different takes of the shot where Rami Malek was giving different performances. By split screening the shots, we now see a spectrum of Elliot's in different moods streaming across. Sam loved the effect and it stayed in the cut.