Susana Benaim - Editor
Job title - Editor
Experience - 5+ years
“If I can do it, someone who grew up abroad and knew no one in this industry when I moved to Los Angeles, you can do it too. I’m a lifelong learner, and have yet to find one job that hasn’t challenged me to think in a new way or learn a new skill.”
Describe your job role and the kinds of projects/clients you work with.
I edit scripted television series, mostly one-hour dramas and limited series, but I’m currently working on my first feature documentary. I’ve been lucky enough to work for FX, Netflix, 20th Television, OWN, and Hulu. My job is to tell a compelling visual story driven by its characters, and to do so, I cut scenes together from dailies, add sound effects and music, recut, assemble the full episode, recut, collaborate with directors and producers, and, did I mention, recut? I love reworking the material and finding new and better ways to tell a story. We’re artists with ever-changing canvases, the sky's the limit on creativity!
What does an average day look like in your post production working world? (get detailed and technical here please :))
Overall, my days are spent analyzing characters, and thinking about how to bring out their emotion in any given moment of that story. For example, during dailies I like to discuss with my assistant what scenes are coming the next day. This really helps me get into the headspace of what to look for in each character, what emotion I need to clock, and what story points I need to hit. In terms of the technical aspects of my day to day, I change my process from project to project. I recently tried out Scriptsync for the first time and loved it! It made the process of looking through every take of specific lines much faster, and because of that, I got to try many more alts when collaborating with others. I’m constantly learning from other editors and assistants new tricks, and I like to try things out and see what helps me stay in flow.
What has been your career highlight?
I’ve had several highlights in my career so far, and I’ve been very lucky to work with fantastic storytellers of all kinds, so it would be hard to choose just one. My most recent highlight would definitely have to be working on The Dropout. We had the Elizabeth Holmes trial happening at the same time as editorial, so we were all eager to keep up with the story, and we had to adjust the episodes with showrunner Liz Meriwether a few times. It was great to work on something so culturally relevant and that captured the attention of the public.
How did your career in post production begin?
My family and I used to go to the marches against the government in Venezuela, where I grew up, when Hugo Chavez was in power. I started taking the family camcorder to record footage of the people marching, and then discovered a program called MovieShaker on my family’s computer, which I taught myself how to use. I ended up cutting tons of reels of the marches. I loved adding music and manipulating the video to bring out the emotional aspects of those days. That was it, I was a goner! Many years later, when I moved to Los Angeles after college, I got my big break: I was chosen to be an American Cinema Editors (ACE) intern. That program catapulted my career, and I will be forever grateful to the mentors who gave me that initial chance. It was through the ACE Internship that I met Hunter M. Via, who I ended up assisting later on. Hunter was an incredible mentor, and was my greatest champion and advocate to get me in the editing chair.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your career;
A couple of years ago, I got an interview for a dream show, something I never would have thought I’d get an opportunity for. As someone who often suffers with imposter syndrome, it was such a big moment for me to realize that I could reach a little higher, and take pride in what I had accomplished so far. I didn’t get the job, but about a year later I got another interview… this time for The Dropout. If I had gotten that previous job, the timing wouldn’t have panned out for me to work on The Dropout. So you could say it all worked out for the best!
Women in post you admire?
There are so many! From the women who have paved the way like Thelma Schoonmaker, Dede Allen, and Anne V. Coates; to those who have mentored me over the years like Sabrina Plisco, Lori J Coleman, Diana Friedberg, and Cate Haight; to those whose work I’m currently obsessing over like Nena Erb, Dana Glauberman, Susan Vaill, Inbal B. Lessner, Nona Khodai, Rosanne Tan, Jessica Hernandez, Amy Duddleston, JoAnne Yarrow… I can go on and on!
What advice do you have for other women wanting to start a career in post?
If I can do it, someone who grew up abroad and knew no one in this industry when I moved to Los Angeles, you can do it too. I’m a lifelong learner, and have yet to find one job that hasn’t challenged me to think in a new way or learn a new skill. You can learn a lot if you know where to look… read books on editing and the industry like Make the Cut, In the Blink of an Eye, and Don't Miss Out On Any Avocado Milkshakes. Watch scenes you’re inspired by, and break them down shot by shot to understand pattern and pacing. And most importantly, reach out to people whose work you admire and take them to coffee! The majority of people who work in this field are very happy to help and mentor newcomers, myself included.
Stand out scene (or scenes!) you've worked on.
When I was working on David Makes Man, I got to cut the episode “Chaos Is Come Again,” which mostly takes place in a therapist's office (essentially one long scene!). It was incredibly fulfilling to work on such a raw story about mental health, especially for a community where it's still a huge taboo to discuss it openly. The script was beautifully written by producer John J. Strauss, and expertly directed on a really tight schedule by Kiel Adrian Scott. By the time we got to this episode, I had worked with Kiel on two previous episodes, so we were in a great collaborative groove. John had been telling me for weeks how eager he was to work on this, and we had a really wonderful time elevating the material as well. The episode was a labor of right pacing and performances. For the most part, there were no other locations or characters to cut to, nowhere to hide from a clunky edit. The lighter moments came through the magical realism written into the story, but even those mostly took place in that same room. There was a lot riding on the edit, so I’m really proud of my work on the episode!