Better Call Saul editor, Chris McCaleb ACE has quite a track record with “fan favorite” hour-long dramas; starting with his role as an assistant editor on AMC’s groundbreaking series, Breaking Bad. Since his time on Breaking Bad, Chris has gone on to lead editorial duties on such shows as Halt and Catch Fire, Narcos, Fear The Walking Dead, Lodge 49 and, now in its fifth season, Better Call Saul.
Chris talks to us about how even the best laid plans in storytelling can all be for naught. “I think every editor has had that experience where you have a great script and you have great footage and, for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out the way that everybody had planned or everybody had hoped. Maybe in production they ran out of time or they had to cut half a day because of some scheduling reasons. And so I think you’re always reinventing in the editing room. You’re always trying to find a better way”.
Like every editor, Chris has learned some valuable lessons along the way and shares one of his favorites here on the podcast. “The advice I always give people, which was advice given to me by Kelley Dixon, is that you’ve got to watch all your dailies. Part of my process is to just watch everything. Sometimes the best stuff won’t show up on a script in the Avid. It’ll show up on your monitor as a look that somebody gives or the look that somebody didn’t mean to give because they’re so in the moment…happy accidents…those are the things I look for”.
And that’s just scratching the surface of everything Chris has to say, so make sure to enjoy every minute of this edition of The Rough Cut!
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