“There's a ton of craft and brilliant editing going on but if you really want to craft a story from the ground up, unscripted is the way to go.”

Juggling 12 Storylines at Once 

 

The most challenging episodes to cut are early in the season when there's still a ton of contestants.  

 

From the second Phil drops his hand, you have 12 teams scattered in different directions. They have their own strategies of what it's going to take to get to that finish line. So you are cutting 12 storylines at once and having to make it all make sense. That plays into how the unique style of the show evolved.  

 

The biggest challenges are tracking contestants, making sure you get to know everyone, following relationships that are developing, while at the same time having time to see these elaborate challenges they've set up in exotic locations. You always are having this balance of showcasing the country they're in, highlighting the personalities, seeing exotic challenges the team has designed, and having it fit into an hour or a 90-minute episode. It can be a challenge no matter how many contestants there are.  

 

 

Finding the Story in the Footage

 

Our assistant editing team does an amazing job of organizing the volume of material we get. It is a complicated show just in terms of the different locations, the amount of contestants, crews and audio tracks. It's incredibly well organized and everything is there at your fingertips in Media Composer. It's such a gift for us to be able to navigate all those different elements, to be able to string them out in an efficient cut so we can see what the heck we have. Laying it all out, then taking a step back to see what really is the story here. What are the important things to focus on? What can we leave on the cutting room floor? If that's not well organized from the beginning, then we don't stand a chance. 

 

Using ScriptSync has been a real gift. If I need an ‘and’ or a ‘but’ to connect two interview bites together it's easy to search that myself, much more efficient and lets me keep my workflow without having to wait for somebody else to find something for me. I am a big fan of digging into AudioSuite if I have a sound effect that isn’t quite right maybe I can make it work if I pitch shift it or add a little reverb. With Extend Edit as you're getting into those last moments where you're finding just the right frame to land exactly where you want it's quicker to find that point in my timeline, drag everything that way or drag just the video track to extend this audio and cut it under this picture.

 

With a large team like we have on Race we're doing a lot of sharing of bins, sharing different cuts for somebody to take a look at real quick. We're sharing the same music so it's constantly digging into bins that somebody can flag something, share it, subclip something out. It's easy when we're all on the same network and you can just drop it into a bin. 

 

I'm lucky to be a finishing editor on Race. When I take in everybody else's work, I have to take a moment and conform it to the way I do things and it's not that they're doing it wrong but everyone has their own way they lay things out. That's one of the great things about having those personalized settings in Media Composer. You can do it your way and you know the quick shortcuts you get used to but then you have to adjust to somebody else's way. That's the joy of working on a team. You can steal somebody else's great idea or shortcut. 

 

 

An Epic Editorial Task 

 

I think the big reason Amazing Race keeps getting nominated year after year is people recognize the incredible task we have in front of us. This mountain of footage and disparate elements going on at the same time can be difficult. It's amazing when it works and incredibly gratifying that it keeps getting recognized. I don't know whoever approved this show but they literally go around the world. It's nuts and to do it this many times. A couple of seasons ago they crossed over the million mile mark so with that many contestants with that many separate crews running around getting their own footage oftentimes hours and miles apart from each other, is a lot to juggle, organize into a coherent story, and keep track of characters. 

 

Being nominated for an Emmy and to be recognized by your peers is an honor. Anyone who works in post knows it's not the most visually glamorous of Hollywood jobs. But I've gotten to take my wife and kids to the Emmy ceremony. When you get to dress up in a tuxedo and go to the Emmys and there's a red carpet and my family says, ‘Oh yeah, Dad works in Hollywood,’ I take a lot of professional gratification, but I take more from the personal side. 

 

 

Finding Purpose in Post 

 

I got the bug to do something in the film and TV world early on in high school. I was a theater kid. Then I went to film school. My peers and I were directing, shooting, camera operating, getting a taste of the different disciplines. Senior year a friend said, ‘Can you help me? I don’t know what I’m doing.’ I ended up producing with him. We cut his film together. It was such a student film, black and white and ponderously long. Our first cut  was 44 minutes. He recognized that it was slow and a little dull. I said, ‘You’re too close to it. Give me the weekend.’ He came back on Monday. The film was now 22 minutes long. He watched it and I will never forget he got to the end, it faded out, he turned to me and said, ‘Oh, it's better,’ and I knew I was an editor right there. 

 

I started in scripted work and have been fortunate to get to work in the unscripted world which is an editor's medium, the scripted world is a director's medium, no two ways about it. There's a ton of craft and brilliant editing going on but if you really want to craft a story from the ground up, unscripted is the way to go. 

 

I've been cutting on Media Composer my entire career. It's the only program I've ever used, so I cut with ease and quickness. I’m known as the fast guy. I would love to be known as a good editor but being fast does get you a lot of jobs. It's the ease of the tools and shortcuts I've built, the ways that I use that timeline, use my keyboard shortcuts in an efficient manner having done it time and time again. It makes all the difference in how quickly I can get a cut out, how quickly I can react to notes. 

 

 

The Editor’s Mindset 

 

Being an editor is instinctual. You either have a head for it or you don't. You have to love repetition and be okay with being alone in a room for a long time. Growing up, did you love to do jigsaw puzzles? Then you might be an editor. When you find the rhythm and pace of whatever show you're making and you hit that spot where you go, ‘Oh yeah, that's working. I'm getting the information I need. It's launching me into the next scene.’ Those moments, still 30 years into my career, are still exciting. It gives you goosebumps to know, ‘Yep that's working,’ and you feel it. 

 

The assistant editor job has changed. Now it's media management. It's harder to make that jump, to get the opportunity to cut shorter scenes. You have to be more proactive, to really be on your editors and say, ‘Hey, can you take a look at what I've done?’ Cut something on your own, show it to a professional and they'll give you feedback. The only way to get better is by doing what you like.

 

 

About the Editor

 

Eric Beetner has edited hit prime time shows, documentary features, scripted shows for kids, Sundance shorts, music videos, DVD extra content, and more, over a nearly 30-year career. A specialist in competition reality, he's cut The Amazing Race, Fear Factor, Wipeout and a half dozen clones of those shows. Earned multiple Emmy nominations, cut award-winning films and worked for every major network and streamer. He's worked as a Post Coordinator, VFX Supervisor, Story Producer, Writer and CO-EP all while editing on those same shows. He's written more than 30 novels and writes screenplays.

Avid Media Composer timeline from The Amazing Race