MTW 012: Michelle Tesoro, ACE - Editing "The Queen's Gambit"

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards are this weekend and we've just posted our interview with one of this year's nominees for Best Picture Editing, Michelle Tesoro. Michelle's the editor of the critically acclaimed series The Queens Gambit, which has been nominated for an impressive 18 Emmy awards. In this talk we do a deep dive into Michelle's working process and her experience on the series. With an exhausting 120 shooting schedule, she explains specific techniques her and her team used like "Checkerboarding," a "Rolling Mix," working remotely, how the Covid pandemic affected the cutting process and a lot more! If your goal is to become a professional editor, the wisdom and know-how Michelle shares with us in this video is like a master class in editing at the highest level. I Hope you enjoy it! Want more inside knowledge from pro editors? Then be sure to SHARE this podcast and SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel. Episode Guide 00:00 Introduction 00:54 How did you get started in editing? 02:26 Tell us about the workflow on Queen's Gambit 05:02 Crossboarding 08:32 How do you keep your stamina up on that kind of schedule? 10:18 Are you a chess player? How were those scenes handled? 13:14 Did you discuss how to make the chess exciting editorially? 16:28 What were some of the other creative challenges besides the chess? 18:12 How were you on time? Did you have to lose a lot of material? 21:45 How did it effect things when the pandemic hit and you were working from home? 23:55 What is a "rolling mix"? 27:38 So working with a rolling mix must have made more work for you? 31:12 What were your technical challenges? 32:54 Do you think remote editing will continue post-pandemic? 35:50 Do have a preference about working in features vs tv? 37:18 What do you most love about editing? 37:56 What's the thing you least like about editing? 38:59 Have you encountered any discrimination working as a woman? 41:15 How technically oriented would you consider yourself? 44:36 Have you worked with software other than Avid? 45:40 Do you think any of the other editing software is making inroads in Hollywood? 47:11 If you were offered a job cutting in Premiere would you take it? 48:02 Could you tell me about your crew on Queen's Gambit? 49:43 Was your crew working remotely also? 50:47 Talk about the dailies process on Queen's Gambit. 52:51 Bringing sound and music editors on early in post. 56:15 What's you're advice for people who aspire to become editors? Check out our other social channels: YouTube Facebook Instagram Twitter