Kelly Lyon - Editor
Editor
Experience 10+ years
“Editing is so much more about making your collaborators feel heard than about technical software proficiency. I didn’t understand that aspect of the job when I first began. ”
Describe your job role and the kinds of projects/clients you work with.
I'm a television and commercial editor specializing in comedy. I began my career cutting the pre-taped parodies for Saturday Night Live. I love cutting sketch comedy and was lucky enough to work on shows like Portlandia, That Damn Michael Che, and John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's In LA, which I earned an Emmy nomination for in 2024. I also love cutting stand-up specials, including John Mulaney's specials Baby J, Kid Gorgeous Live at Radio City, and Comeback Kid. I received my 2nd Emmy nomination for cutting Tig Notaro: Hello Again in 2024. I've also cut specials for Amy Schumer, Michelle Wolf, Michael Che, Alex Edelman, Bill Burr, Langston Kerman, and many more.
What does an average day look like in your post production working world?
In post, some days I get in a flow state and the creativity pours out of me, but so many other days I'm banging my head against the wall and can barely accomplish anything at all. When I know I have an "intense thinking day" ahead of me (aka the first day of rough cutting), I try to eat well the night before, exercise if I can fit it in, skip alcohol, and get plenty of rest. While working at SNL (which has an intense 36 hour turnaround time from receiving the first batch of dailies to exporting for live broadcast), there wasn't time to have an off day. I noticed that if I took better care of my body, then my mind stayed focused for longer stretches during the editorial sprint. I still try to set myself up to succeed whenever I have a heavy lift ahead of me, even though I'm rarely under the same time constrains as SNL anymore. Maybe it's just superstition, but I'm convinced it makes a difference.
Before I sit down to edit, I always have my AE organize all of the footage into timeline stringouts. when I watch dailies, I make selects as I go, by moving anything I like up to V02. As a comedy editor, it's so easy to lose track of what feels funny after you've seen a cut so many times. I always put a green marker on any moment that makes me laugh out loud on the first viewing. I'll write **FUNNY** on the marker, so I don't forget my initial reaction to the fresh version of the joke.
I use my selects to try to build a rough assembly as quickly as possible. I hate the rough cut phase. It's so daunting. I had a mentor once tell me a graphic, yet useful piece of advice: "Stop thinking and just shit it out." My first rough cut is always long and rough and essentially for my eyes only, but it helps me get to the "solving editorial problems" phase, which I enjoy. When I can see my very rough version of what the show will be, I can relax a bit and trust that I will make it better on each subsequent pass. That being said, I like to really polish my cut as much as possible, adding music, sound design and even rough graphics before sharing with any collaborators. I almost never do any of those things on the very first assembly, though. I really try to "shit it out."
For stand up specials, I usually start by doing a line cut of the comedian's favorite performance. It's almost always the 2nd performance no matter how many they film. I have my AE do line cuts of the other performances. I'll use the preferred performance as the basis for the edit, but I'll A/B every joke and swap in moments from the other show if they play better, or sometimes just for more camera variety (directors often move the cameras around between performances to give me more options to cut between). If there is a separate intro for the special, I'll always wait and do that last. Sometimes those intros eat up a lot of time. Again, I'll put that task first thing in the morning after a good night's sleep. I'd rather plow through the whole special first so I feel like the majority of the edit is done before tackling anything that could be a "time suck" or a "brain drain."
For multicam editing, I map each camera to one of the number keys on my keyboard shortcuts so I can easily switch between cameras with a single keystroke. I also have Premiere (my preferred software) transcribe all of the performances so it's easy to search for each iteration of the joke.
How did your career in post production begin?
My high school in Farmington Hills, MI had a public access TV station. My senior year, I took an independent study at the station and taught myself to edit on the school's Media 100 editing system (this was at a time when non-linear video software was basically unknown to anyone outside of the professional sphere). I created a senior class video yearbook and completely fell in love with the process. My high school teacher, Mr. Cobb, encouraged me to pursue it. In his words, "There are not enough female editors in Hollywood. You should go out there and give 'em hell!"
What has been your career highlight?
At SNL, I cut a pretape piece called "Adele's Thanksgiving Miracle" where a family fighting around the Thanksgiving table would suddenly unite anytime Adele's "Hello" came on. The cast systematically transformed into Adele. So first they had her nails, then her eyelashes and hair, then her fur coat from the video. It was a beautifully heightened piece, but it was very hard to shoot because there were 8 cast members who needed multiple hair, make up and costume changes. I didn't get the final batch of dailies until 4am on Saturday morning, and the piece needed to be on live TV less than 20 hours later. The writers and producers were worried and freaking out, but I could feel the piece was going to work. During the live show, I went down to the floor of Studio 8H to watch it play for the audience. The reaction was huge. The room was vibrating with laughter. It was such an amazing moment.
Who are your role models in post?
Debbie McMurtrey is the Saturday Night Live editor who not only taught me how to edit comedy, but also taught me how to keep my composure with clients, even under the insane stress and time constraints of a live show like SNL.
What advice do you have for others wanting to start a career in post?
You have to be willing to work your way up, and learn as much as you can from everyone around you. I started by answering phones at a post house in NYC. I was resentful about it, but I still took it seriously and worked as hard as I could. They were cutting the SNL parodies at this post house at the time, so I stayed late and came in on Saturdays just to observe the process and meet all of the clients. It was only a few short years later that I was editing for SNL. On one hand, that is incredibly lucky, but also I would not have gotten that opportunity if I had walked in the door as an editor. I was able to learn so much by observing the post process from a slight distance. Editing is so much more about making your collaborators feel heard than about technical software proficiency. I didn't understand that aspect of the job when I first began.