Having worked on all three series of Offspring what was different about this season?

Working on the first, middle and last blocks of the series made for a full and rounded journey with Nina and the Proudman  family.  It’s a well run ship as you would expect after three series, so there were no big surprises, except all the new, wonderfully mad situations the writers put the characters in.

Describe a normal day in the edit suite from assembly to director’s cut.

It’s pretty much what you would expect from fast turnaround television. Post Supervisor Maryjeanne Watt and Assistant/Assembly Editor Patrick McCabe ensure I have each day’s rushes from the previous day’s shoot to cut during the assembly/shoot. After the shoot I work with the director for three to four days to get to a director’s cut, then a day to address producer’s notes and present to the network.

Nina’s (Asher Keddie) thought bubbles change as it goes from script to edit to mix.  How much does the edit inform the changes?

Every episode is different. It very much depends on how the story and tone are working. Asher records a temporary version from the shooting script for the editors to work with in the cut. Sometimes there are very few changes/ additions/, deletions, and other times a bit more is necessary. The writers always get to refine additional and amended voiceovers. Asher then re-records the voice over whether they are changed or not. This gives her an opportunity to re-interpret once she has seen the locked off episode.

Music is a major element of the series how do you decide what to use where?

There is a huge pool of tracks made available to the directors and editors selected by Jess Moore from Level Two each series. The directors can request certain tracks if there is something very specific they are after, otherwise between us we select whatever we like during the edit to make it work. At the music and sound brief there is the opportunity for Jess, Imogen, the producer and John Lee the composer to have further input and make suggestions. The selection is finalized at the mix.

What is your favourite experience?

The whole thing is a favourite experience!  Great scripts, great directors, great actors, great producers, a wonderful post team. It’s a rare treat.

(July 2012)