Cory Stillman
Sirens editor Catherine Haight, ACE is no stranger to cutting pilots, establishing the pace and tone of your favorite TV shows. In fact, Haight was fortunate enough to kickstart her career by editing the pilot of HBO’s Girls.
“I can safely say this was one of the luckiest phone calls I ever got,” says Haight. “But it also came from many years of hard work.”
The prolific editor leveraged her spot on that now-iconic series into a spot editing on the first season of New Girl. With credits on other hit series like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, Haight already boasted an impressive resume when she was tapped to cut the first episode of Sirens for Netflix. She ultimately helped reinvent the series’ opening, generating particular intrigue around the saga of Devon (Meghann Fahy) and Simone (Milly Alcock) as she and the rest of the creative team looked towards the narrative dominos that would later fall in episode five.
“In the original script, the episode started with Devon getting out of jail in Buffalo,” says Haight. “But very early in the process, it became clear that starting with Michaela releasing Barnaby into the wild was a more mysterious, dynamic way to launch the show.”
Haight craves this kind of early work that goes into refining the direction and voice of a series, and Sirens proved an especially compelling opportunity in this regard. Showrunner Molly Metzler Smith clearly had the pedigree considering the success of Maid on Netflix, and few series in recent memory have so humorously and mysteriously articulated the complexities of womanhood like Sirens.
“As someone who loves being involved in projects that focus on women, both in front of and behind the camera, the project felt like a perfect fit.”
Check out our full conversation with Sirens editor Catherine Haight, ACE below!
Hi Catherine! How did you get your start in editing?
Like most eager film students, I wasn’t sure where I’d end up once I finished college. Right after graduation I got a job as a production assistant on a show for Animal Planet called “The Aquanauts” – it was a world traveling scuba diving show, all done on a low budget (it was as chaotic as it sounds). I, however, did no traveling and instead was picking up lunches and running errands around Los Angeles in my non-air conditioned Toyota Tercel. Needless to say, when the opportunity presented itself to move up to become a logger, I jumped at the chance. We were logging the footage in Avid, so I began to learn the software right away. Over the course of the following several months I became proficient with Avid and became an assistant editor on the show. I proceeded to work as an assistant editor for about 10 years, doing both television and movies.
After years of cutting short films on the weekends and doing my best to cut scenes on the TV shows and movies I was assisting on, I got a call to cut a pilot for HBO. It was called Girls. I can safely say this was one of the luckiest phone calls I ever got, but it also came from many years of hard work. After cutting the Girls pilot I bounced back to assisting for a few months until I landed a spot editing on the first season of New Girl. After that I moved onto my first feature film, Afternoon Delight, which was part of the long and fulfilling collaboration I’ve had with Joey Soloway. My first project with Joey was a short film we did about a year before “Afternoon Delight”, so all those weekends of cutting on my own time paid off.
Since Afternoon Delight, I’ve cut several films and a whole slew of television shows. I’ve been lucky to keep busy most of the time, and I’m incredibly proud of many of the projects I’ve worked on. Sirens is high on my list of achievements that I’m excited for the world to see.
Who are some of your biggest influences?
I’m fairly certain that I’m a filmmaker because of two directors: John Sayles and Hal Hartley. Sayles’ stories about real people sucked me in from an early age, and I’ve always aspired to work on projects that have the kind of heart, impact, and emotional resonance that his films do. Hal Hartley’s films also hit me emotionally, but their independent spirit and humor made filmmaking feel accessible to an outsider.
In terms of editing influence, I believe strongly that every project I work on is different and the footage that I’m given is what informs the cutting style. So with that in mind, it’s tough to say that my work has been specifically influenced by any one editor. But my work ethic has been deeply influenced by my mentors and friends Jon Poll, Alan Baumgarten, and Lisa Lassek, all of whom I was lucky to work alongside and learn from.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned on your career?
It’s been some time since I cut that pilot for Girls, but I think my biggest take away, and one that I come back to often, is to use the unusual take, use the stuff that makes you uncomfortable, use the stuff that might be ugly. Don’t make safe choices. I think what worked best about Girls is that it took big swings, and I always try to do that as an editor. Sometimes you might miss, but more than often you’ll get somewhere deeper and more interesting.
How would you describe your process as an editor?
I once had a friend ask me what my process is and then said “Do you just do what makes sense?”, and yes, that’s the correct answer. I just do what makes sense, which for me translates to trusting my gut and instincts at all cost. I make decisions and I move forward. I don’t get caught up with a scene that isn’t working – if I’m stuck I set it aside and work on something else. I’ll go back to it a day or two later and the answers always reveal themselves – I’ve always found that getting some distance always makes it easier to see the solutions that are needed to fix a problem.
All that being said, here’s how my process, on a day to day level goes: I usually start around 9am, and I don’t procrastinate. I start cutting the day’s dailies right away. I read over the script notes for a scene, re-reading the scene itself at the same time. I then watch the last take of each setup so I know what I’m roughly working with and then I dive in. I continue to ‘watch the dailies’, if you will, as I load things into the timeline. I make angle and performance choices as I go, but will often cut multiple performances into the time line if there are more than one that I like. Once I have a (very) rough cut of the scene and have scoured the dailies I will go back through my sequence to narrow down any multiple line deliveries that I’ve got in the timeline, making tweaks and adjustments to the rest of the scene along the way. I move pretty quickly, and I generally don’t make multiple versions of every scene. I trust that I’m hired because of my point of view and I lean on that point of view pretty strongly.
Once I’ve got cuts of sequential scenes I string them together as soon as I can so that I’m building chunks of the episode or film. I work on transitions as early in the game as I can since they’re such a huge part of overall pacing and shape. My assistant editor does a sound pass on everything as soon as I have a version of a scene, so I get a fuller picture of the whole thing as quickly as I can. I tend to track my own temp score and music into things, although of course I love to collaborate with my assistant if they’ve got ideas for music.
After my editor’s cut is turned in I love the collaborative process of working with a director and/or a show runner – it’s always fun to see an episode or movie take shape and slowly improve over the whole editorial process. The change can be incremental, but you hope that all the small changes add up to something bigger. As Jon Poll likes to say: “every day it sucks a little less”.
What have been some career highlights in your editing career?
It’s pretty easy to point to Transparent as my career highlight up until now. It was an incredible show to be involved in, and all of us who were part of it are very proud of what the show accomplished. Most projects that I get interviews for now are interested in working with me because of Transparent. Given how much ownership I was given over the cuts on that show, I’m truly touched by how the show has impacted so many people. I got to work with so many wonderful people and made what I hope is an important, emotional, funny show – there’s not much more one can hope for in this line of work.
When did you first hear about Sirens? How did you become attached to the project?
I first heard about Sirens from my agents who sent me the pilot script. I loved it immediately. I really appreciated the combination of humor, drama, and mystery that the pilot set up. The script also introduced us to such complex interesting women who make mistakes and don’t always do what’s expected, which was refreshing. I also was a big fan of Maid, Molly Smith Metzler’s previous show, so knowing her pedigree drew me to it. Lastly, I learned pretty quickly that Nicole Kassel was directing the first two episodes and that sealed the deal for me, interest-wise. As someone who loves being involved in projects that focus on women, both in front of and behind the camera, the project felt like a perfect fit.
I was very enthusiastic in my interviews about my admiration for the script, the talent involved, and my desire to work on it – I didn’t play it cool at all. We talked about my process a bit, but like most interviews for editing jobs it was more about feeling out how I’d get along with Molly & Nicky, and I think we all clicked pretty quickly. They were also admirers of a good amount of my previous work, so that helped too, of course. At any rate, my enthusiasm seemingly paid off because I was hired to edit the pilot and episode 4.
Can you walk us through editing this project?
Cutting Sirens was truly a dream job. I got somehow convinced Lilly Wild (a brilliant editor in her own right) to be my assistant editor, and was so lucky to work alongside series editors Laura Zempel and Isaac Hagy.
We went through the usual process of directors cut, producers cut, and then studio notes – all of which kept the show evolving and moving forward. Like most shows, we had our ups and downs and peaks and valleys, but Molly, Nicky, and the whole editorial team were always working on improving the show bit by bit, day by day. Molly guided us all with her strong and specific vision of the show, which we were always trying to move towards.
To that end, we did a good amount of restructuring during the edit. In the original script, the episode started with Devon getting out of jail in Buffalo. But very early in the process, it became clear that starting with Michaela releasing Barnaby into the wild was a more mysterious, dynamic way to launch the show.
We also restructured Devon walking to the house, Simone getting dressed and then checking in on the staff. Originally these were two separate sequences, but as we worked on the episode, it became clear the best way to feel the impending collision the sisters were heading towards was to intercut. This gave the episode a propulsive drive towards the first fight that takes place between them.
We also spent a lot of time crafting our three main sirens and their ever shifting triangle of loyalty and trust. We also always wanted to make our characters multi-faceted and complex, and having such spectacular actors made that possible. Devon was an especially delicate character to shape, and Meghann Fahy gave us so many choices to work with. She would deliver a line with her eyes brimming with tears in one take and then shoot daggers with the same line in the next. Having so many options made the task of finding the ‘likeability’ balance of her character possible. Devon isn’t a person who always makes amazing choices, but her vulnerability makes you love her so much – and that is all thanks to Fahy’s ability to deliver a character who has a hardened shell but is exceedingly fragile on the inside.
What was the biggest challenge editing this project?
The biggest challenge of cutting the pilot of Sirens was finding the balance between what we set up in the first episode and what the show pays off. We were constantly asking ourselves “is this too weird?” or “is this not weird enough?” As Devon shepherds us into the world of Port Haven we need to be feeling what she’s feeling – namely that this is a weird place where weird stuff happens. But how weird is it, really? Is what she is experiencing true? Is it real? And also: how much power do each of these women have? Is it real? Does that power shift? There are so many questions that we set up that don’t get answered until episode 5, so we always wanted to keep you guessing, but constantly being careful not to tip things into any kind of expected territory.
What do you hope audiences take away from this project?
I really hope that audiences are left with interesting questions and spend some time talking about the show after they watch it. Ultimately I think the show is about the lengths we will go to outrun our pasts and our trauma, and I hope that resonates with people.
Our sirens don’t always make choices that line up with our traditional ideas of what makes a villain or a protagonist. I hope people will see that the choices people, and especially women, make don’t always fit neatly into boxes. Life is full of complex, complicated situations and we often live in the gray areas between “right” and “wrong”. I hope that the show has managed to capture that in an entertaining, thought provoking way.
What’s next for you?
I’m not sure what’s next for me – I’m currently searching for my next job. I’m always hoping to work on stories about real people, especially women, that make me feel something honest. I look forward to finding out what the next story that I get to help bring to life will be.
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