“Avid is the only post production tool that could deal with the amount of footage and information that needs to go through our systems to create the show.”

The Real Challenge Behind Editing The Voice

How do you put on such a large show? When you first get to The Voice, you're overwhelmed. So many cameras. You think, ‘Wait, how is this organized? We have over 20 cameras and 30 people actively engaging with each other at the same time to create footage which has to get routed through camera and then to post. That much footage technologically is difficult, time-consuming and nerve-wracking.  

When you think of traditional editing, it isn't just one genre on The Voice. A typical segment involves a character pod, live performance, and comments by judges and coaches. Each has its own editorial problems about how to cut those scenes. The character pod describes the history of this person, issues they've had to get to The Voice, the audition, things they've worked through, career, first love. How to integrate that into the story of The Voice? The most difficult part of that editing is the construction of a story. We have an hour of interviews, B-roll, family photos, in-studio shoots. Your real function is more like a writer at this point. How can I construct a narrative that will make sense, be entertaining, introduce the character that's going to sing and create anticipation for that performance? Do I make it funny, dramatic, or a musical montage?

The second part is the performance which requires a different type of editing with multiple cameras that show audience reaction, coaches' reactions, and the power of the performance. It becomes an editor's choice, driven by music.

The last segment is coaches evaluating performances saying, ‘I like your upper range. I like your vibrato.’ But also, ‘Tell me about the time you were a cowboy in Oklahoma.’ The story has to go back to the introduction of that character. You have technical aspects of lighting cues, sound effects. You're building a story for a range of contestants with different backstories to draw people in to vote for them. You have three minutes to tell a story that is cohesive, has an arc, dramatic tension, comedic elements, or musical elements. That performance should feel like it's live. Those comments should feel spontaneous. It's the power of editing. You aren't just a multi-cam editor. You're not just a storyteller. You're all of it.  

Why The Voice Runs on Avid

What's great is, if you're working as we all do on an Avid, you have all elements in front of you, family photos, interviews, everything. You synthesize those elements. We try to make people look good, to elicit the best performance through editing.

Media Composer is the only system that will allow multicam and multiple people. We have segment producers finding archive footage, stills, videos, different media that need to go into the system. It's amazing to cut because you realize, ‘Wow, I'm not alone. It's a massive group activity.’ It could not be done without Avid technology. Avid is the only post production tool that could deal with the amount of footage and information that needs to go through our systems to create the show. 

My favorite tool on the Avid is ScriptSync because when I'm creating story pods, your basic unit of storytelling is the interview. ScriptSync is my go-to tool. It does everything from finding topics to finding words, facilitating easier access to information and footage. If you use Trim Mode, you're trying to create a flow, a tone of visual images. The advantage of Media Composer is it doesn't think of images as static individual blocks. The software lends itself to continuous thinking, to flow. My go-to key on Media Composer is Extend Edit and I use it as much as possible.  

What Makes The Voice Special

Receiving an Emmy nomination makes me feel validated by my peers. This is a show with the highest level of production, shot, edited and produced in a studio. When I'm editing that material, it's a responsibility. The work that all these other people have done is suddenly in my lap. I'm thinking, ‘This is something that I should value and edit well.’ What I love about The Voice is there is a true editor's cut. You're allowed your first shot, to say, "Hey, this is what I think is the best story we can do."

Part of what makes The Voice special is the blinds. No one knows what that person looks like, only what they sound like. When I'm editing the sequences, I do what the coaches do which is listen to them before I see them. It's the fun of the show, right? You don't know what this person looks like, what their mannerisms are, what their presentation is like. You just know the voice. 

From Philosophy to Editing

As an undergraduate bio major, I saw 300 movies in the theater, which should tell anyone you're in the wrong field, but it didn't occur to me. I was in graduate school studying philosophy and history. I remember thinking, ‘I’m so miserable. I’ll do anything but this.’ I came back to LA and found a job as an intern on a television show.  

Avid had a lot to do with me going into post. I took a class called Introduction to Non-Linear Editing. They rolled in this anvil case, set it up and put it on the screen. It was Media Composer 3.0, I think? It was brand new and what blew my mind was the guy hit play and the video moved. He had a mouse, he was moving it on a timeline and we were like, ‘Oh my God, this image is actually moving.’ Then he made an edit. We thought, ‘This is crazy.

My first job as an editor I got by my mentor who lied for me. I was his assistant editor and he was known as one of the best documentary editors in L.A. He calls up this company and goes, "This guy is the best editor in L.A." Up to this point I had not edited at all. He goes, "You really want this guy. This is my mentor. Love him." I get the job, unbelievably, and I do it with fear, trying to learn editing as quickly as I can. Working next to me is Mark Burnett (producer), who is creating his first show. And in that way, I started.

Being an editor is my dream. It was the expression of everything I had done before. You realize you're a creative person. You can actually make something. 

Editing Lessons Learned

You're going to always learn through the jobs you do. I constantly learn from other editors. Watch a lot of good films and great TV and be inspired that way. That will rub off on what you're working on. The more you know about editing, the more you realize that you don't know some things about editing. Eventually you'll come to a point where hopefully the two will meet.

Mentoring is so important to our business. You want to encourage people who are just coming up. You have to articulate what you're doing. Why did you cut from A to B? Why is that sound there? Why is that cue hitting there?  You also have to mentor people emotionally. These kids come in and they're excited about working in television. You look at that and think, “I was that way.” There's a moral responsibility to help these kids out.  

About the Editor

Glen Ebesu, television editor for more than three decades. His first professional editing gig was Eco-Challenge: British Columbia, Mark Burnett’s first television show. Worked on National Geographic, and PBS documentaries, eventually editing reality shows such as The Apprentice, The Masked Singer, America’s Got Talent, The Bachelor, and The Voice, for which he is currently nominated for an Emmy, his 6th nomination. Received an Emmy previously for editing on The Voice.