Keya Shirali, Producer & Editor
Editor/Producer
Experience 1+ years
“When it comes to your personal creative pursuits in post (as opposed to a professional assignment), while it is important to be serious about your goals, I would equally emphasize the benefits of approaching it with a sense of “play”, trying to experiment, and having fun. ”
Describe your job role and the kinds of projects/clients you work with.
As the former Producing Intern at Gigantic Pictures—a feature film, documentary, and television production company—my workload consisted of an assortment of tasks which tackled areas of the postproduction process beyond editing. I used Endcrawl to organize the end credits for one of their features, CRUMB CATCHER (2023), which helped me appreciate the intricacy and attention to detail required for this stage of the postproduction process.
I was also tasked with creating a timed dialogue list for the same feature, which meant carefully listening to every piece of audible dialogue, recording it word-for-word, and noting down its duration down to the frame, so that the film can be subtitled accurately. For the same feature, I also developed a clearance report, which is essentially observing the film closely for any instances that might cause breaches related to copyright, name privacy, location, music clearance, and more, so that the legal team can address any concerns—a vital stage of postproduction that allows one to cut or resolve anything that could be disputed. The company also hosted a panel on music scoring, for which I selected clips from their short documentary, IF DREAMS WERE LIGHTNING: RURAL HEALTHCARE CRISIS (2024), to use as samples, as well as time-coded them and made notes for why they combine sound with editing effectively.
All of these skills have come to inform my technical practice as I work on my own short documentary, particularly in prep, and define the kind of work I may want to take on for other clients as an independent contractor.
What does an average day look like in your post production working world?
I am currently editing a short personal documentary for which I am reviving archival footage shot on a Sony Handycam between 2003 to 2009 that spans two countries, multiple cities, and over four spoken languages. What makes it a transcontinental project is not only the fact that the footage was filmed in Nepal and India, but also because my father—who still resides in India—had over 10 hours of this footage digitized there locally, and then he sent them to me one after another (due to their large file sizes) via Gmail and Google Drive folders, and I downloaded them and saved them to my own hard drive here in the United States, halfway around the world.
The technical nature of some of my work with Gigantic Pictures endowed me with a few transferable skills; for instance, had I not carefully time-coded and made notes for every clip I would potentially like to use, I would now be swimming in a flood of footage with no idea where to start during the editing stage. I am now categorizing the clips by themes or chapters and labelling bins in Premiere Pro with them, then creating sequences within the bins where I drop each clip that I will eventually be using, and organizing my work in parts instead of editing on a singular timeline.
I bought the MAYBESTA Professional Wireless Lavalier Lapel Microphone to crisply record voiceovers that I will be scripting in tandem with the video clips, and for other sound, I will be making use of an original score crafted by a friend from graduate school, which will be the next step in my process. I anticipate that once I have a decent cut, I may want to take up the challenge of learning another editing program—DaVinci Resolve—to play with color and the visual atmosphere of the film.
How did your career in post production begin?
In college, one of my majors was Film Studies—which was more research-heavy than production-based—but I did get to take one technical class for which I was required to self-teach Final Cut Pro X. I found the process intuitive and enjoyable, and experienced the same when finally at graduate film school, I was required to use Premiere Pro to edit my film, and used instructional videos online to learn the fundamentals, but primarily my own experimentation to get really comfortable with the software.
One of our exercises in this class, prior to shooting our own film, was to edit pre-existing footage—something I felt I could get immersed in for hours on end, which was an indication that I found the craft of editing to be therapeutic when I had more creative freedom. I like to believe that when shot-listing, I think more with the mind of an editor than a cinematographer, and my first film dealt primarily with the theme of time travel, so I had to learn to become astute to continuity and pacing.
It was my internship in the Production Assistance Program at the non-profit organization, Women Make Movies, that I became initiated into a community for those that love the documentary practice, particularly given the exposure I now had to a range of nonfiction filmmakers, their different subject matters, as well as how distinctive fundraising and/or impact campaigning can be in the postproduction phase rather than in pre-production, which is what I was initially most familiar with. When it comes to editing my own documentary in particular, it began as an end-of-semester project for my internship with Gigantic Pictures, but gradually blossomed into a process of mixed-media experimentation that I hope to keep learning and growing with.
What has been your career highlight?
I was recently granted membership into the BROWN GIRLS DOC MAFIA (BGDM) community, which is a global, multilingual and multiracial network of BIPOC women and nonbinary filmmakers and industry professionals ranging from veterans to emerging professionals.
I’m thinking of this as a highlight because it provides me entry into a space where I’m still so new but eager to learn, and now I have access to a network of creators that I can learn so much from. On the flipside, I also hope to contribute to this organization, as well as others like it, as much as possible. I had to submit the membership application and wait a few weeks before gaining acceptance, and I remember being so anxious to receive it because of how perfectly tailored it seemed to someone like me. I was able to familiarize others in my community with the organization, and also learn that I already knew filmmaker friends that were a part of it.
Over the next few months, as I continue to work on my documentary, I can’t wait to immerse myself more into the BGDM community.
Who are your role models in post?
During my internship with Gigantic Pictures, my supervisor directed me towards a panel held by DOC NYC at the IFC Center called “Editing Day: Scene Analysis”, with a panel of speakers consisting of the editors: David Teague, Ephraim Kirkwood, Nira Burstein, and Francesca Sharper, so I would say all of their works spoke to me deeply in how they have come to inspire my editing approach.
Specifically in relation to my own documentary, I was deeply invested in the process explained by David Teague behind the documentary, FRIDA, in the way that the rough cuts transformed into finer cuts, but also the artistry with which storytelling and editing were combined to create such a beautiful film.
The reason why my supervisor prompted me to attend this panel, besides my own documentary, was because one of the panelists—Nira Burstein—released her cinéma vérité film, CHARM CIRCLE, which has been a thematic inspiration for my own work. I had the chance to speak to the panelists in-person after their talk, and it felt surreal to be able to so enthusiastically speak of post with them.
In another example, like many people, I was also taken by the seventh episode of the first season of THE BEAR, edited by Joanna Naugle, particularly in the way that the archival material, Sufjan Stevens’ demo track of “Chicago”, images, voiceovers, and footage from the scenes were all collaged to create this highly stimulating episode. Stylistically, that is what I would like to explore in my own documentary, especially given all the forms of media I want to work with, so I would now definitely consider Joanna Naugle an exciting role model in post for myself as well.
What advice do you have for others wanting to start a career in post?
I would still consider myself in the “emerging” stage of being a filmmaker, so as someone with that perspective, I would suggest being open and curious. Don’t be afraid to try and learn something new, because it can always lead to the next project or professional connection, and make yourself available for opportunities wherever you can and wherever it is reasonable to do so.
When it comes to your personal creative pursuits in post (as opposed to a professional assignment), while it is important to be serious about your goals, I would equally emphasize the benefits of approaching it with a sense of “play”, trying to experiment, and having fun.
In a more professional context, I have heard that working as an Assistant Editor or any capacity in the postproduction department is the way to go when starting out, but having no experience in that area myself, I would also suggest interning with or shadowing those that are actively pursuing a career in what you want to do.
Sometimes the highly structured nature of the professional film world can make it seem like you’re confined to a very specific career path, but as much as possible, don’t be afraid to expand your world by taking the initiative to learn things outside of your comfort zone. Finally, if you’re considered to be at either extreme of the age spectrum—either “very young” or “too old”, don’t let that dismay you; I think using age as a barrier in the professional world is an outdated concept, and people can learn and grow at any stage.