Editing ‘Archive 81’: An interview with editor Amelia Allwarden

Archivist Dan, spends hours watching footage on a computer, alone, in the dark… if you’re an editor here’s something eerily relatable about the premise of Netflix’s new hit show, Archive 81.

When asked about which character from the series she identified with most, Editor Amelia Allwarden said ‘both Melody and Dan, but if I was in either of their shoes I would get the fuck out!’

Amelia shared some insight into her process on this tension-filled series and working alongside editors Tyler Cook, Michael Scotti, Patrick Smith and Joel Pashby.

Editor Amelia Allwarden

Tell us a little about the dynamic of working alongside multiple editors on a series like Archive 81.

I had previously worked with Tyler, Michael, and Patrick before on other projects, and I met Joel on this series. Since Tyler and I were the first two editors on the project, we spoke at length before production began about which films we were watching to prepare for the series. Tyler and I edited Little Fires Everywhere together in 2019, so we had a previously established relationship where we feel comfortable bouncing ideas off of each other. Some of the films we watched and discussed were: The Conversation, Blow Out, Rosemary’s Baby, The Lodge, and Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In The Lodge, there is great use of editing to establish the main character as a potential unreliable narrator (like Dan, is he really seeing faces or is he going crazy?) The editing In Blow Out, and The Conversation, makes it clear how older tapes and technology work, so I used those scenes as inspiration while editing Dan’s tape restoration sequences - I wanted to find a way to make them feel both informative and interesting. Tyler and I also both read House of Leaves before we started, which is a meta-textual horror book, for inspiration. All of these projects informed our storytelling decisions when editing Archive 81. 

Protagonist Dan, meticulously restores the mysterious video tapes.

The series plays around extensively with time, space, and transitioning between character perspectives. What were some of the challenges you faced and how did you ensure the narrative stayed coherent and also engaging?

We were really conscious of weaving between Melody and Dan’s storyline in a way that felt natural. Picking and choosing when to live in the hi-8 footage that Dina really shot as Melody, vs being fully in “Melody’s world” and cutting with the traditional footage in the 90s. I feel vulnerable when I’m sitting in full-screen hi-8 footage since I’m fully immersed in Melody’s point of view. So I tried to follow that instinct about what felt right to tell the story at any given moment.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in Melody’s story, we forget Dan is watching it all unfold. We were conscious to remind the audience at key moments that Dan is watching, suddenly cutting back to hi-8 footage or Dan reacting in the compound to remind the audience of his perspective. We honed this in with our showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine during the post process. It was a delicate balance - we didn’t want to rip our audience out of Melody’s world in a way that felt jarring. We experimented with changing perspectives at various moments and ultimately landed on the most impactful version.

Melody Pendras captured on hi8 in the 90s

The series protagonist, Dan, is often alone, with conversations happening over the phone or him alone watching tapes. Can you give any insight into the process of editing a character with so much time on their own. 

We tried to provide Mamoudou with as much playback material as our schedule would allow. When possible, we’d film many of Melody’s scenes first, bring the hi-8 footage into editorial, choose the performances, and cut the scenes as if it really exists on the tape. Then we might add a few key sound effects, export them and send them back to set. On set, they would play the footage back on the TV screen you see in the compound for Mamoudou to react to so that he could base his performance off real footage. Because of this, it rarely felt like Dan was alone. Plus, he has Ratty :)

Mamoudou Athie as Daniel Powell watching Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi) and best friend Anabelle Cho (Julia Chan) on hi8.

Atmospheric music plays a big role in the series, how do you work with the composer/ and or select music.

We were lucky to have the incredibly talented Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow score this series. I love cutting temp score. When temp-ing Archive 81, I mostly tried to use Ben and Geoff’s other scores in the same vibe, like Hanna, Devs, Luce, and Annihilation. After I assembled the scenes without music, I always started by scoring the scene myself, because it helped me figure out what’s working or not working in the picture edit. Then I collaborated with our music editor Jason Newman to hone in the temp score as we got closer to picture lock. We had spotting sessions with Ben and Geoff after picture lock to talk through each piece of score and how it could be elevated by them. They did an amazing job - beyond anything I could have ever temp’d.

How long did the edit take from selects to picture lock?

It was seven or eight months depending on the episode, from filming to picture lock. We had a really great schedule on this series, so we had a good amount of time to really play around with the cuts and discover what felt best. 

Since we edited the series in Los Angeles, and we filmed in Pennsylvania and New York, we weren’t on set. We collaborated remotely using Zoom and Evercast while our producers and directors were on location. I usually like the option to be able to walk down to the set if I need to chat with the director, but it just wasn’t an option on Archive 81.

What was your highlight moment in the process of editing Archive 81?

Everything comes full circle in episode 6 (aptly named “The Circle”) when we get to see the events of the tape that Dan watched in the pilot in their entirety. It was a fun challenge for Tyler and I to collaborate on that, since he edited the hi-8 version seen in the pilot, and I edited the “real world” version we saw at the end of episode 6. We had to collaborate and make sure key pieces of these sequences lined up and made sense. That sequence starts in the 90s, transitions to hi-8 footage, transitions to Dan in the compound, then Kalego comes out of the TV screens around Dan. It was a fun challenge to work on a sequence that jumps back and forth between timelines and formats, and incorporates VFX elements - it has it all.

Anything else you’d like to share about working on Archive 81?

I couldn’t have done this show without my friend and assistant editor, Michael Scotti. (He also co-edited the pilot with Tyler). Archive 81 has a lot of moments where the tapes are glitching or acting weird, but that was all created in post. That meant that during our offline edit we needed a lot of visual effects-heavy lifting to sell my ideas. Michael was imperative to that process because of his insane visual effects and sound design skills. He and I have worked together on several projects, so I would basically come up with an idea like “there’s a bunch of static, then the tape acts like it’s stuttering, then Samuel gets flipped upside down, then the tape stops playing, and gets jammed”. I would tell Michael all that, and he’d come back to me and present me exactly what was in my head - visual effects, sound design, and all. It was like a melding of the minds on Archive 81. 

A huge thank you to Amelia for giving us an amazing glimpse into the editing process on Archive 81.

You can read Amelia's career story here.

You can find Amelia on Twitter @AAllwarden and IMDB and her website.