Creating Visual Alchemy & Continuity Through VFX Editorial

VFX editor and DC native, Anedra Edwards sits down with host Candice Bloch to give us a peek behind the curtain of visual effects magic. Anedra shares her knowledge from over 15 years of experience in VFX and picture editing for film and TV, working with world’s biggest entertainment companies including Marvel, Netflix, HBO, BET, Discovery, NatGeo, NBC, Disney, ABC, and beyond. You’ll learn what a VFX editor does (which is different from a VFX artist!) and the importance of coordinating and ensuring visual continuity throughout all stages of a project. Their conversation touches on the differences between roles within the VFX department, invisible effects and compositing, fun and interesting anecdotes from projects such as Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, practical advice, and more!

Check out more of Anedra’s credits here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6205530/

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Transcript

00:10 - VO (Host)
Welcome to Media Maker's Spotlight from Women in Film and Video in Washington DC. We bring you conversations with industry professionals for behind-the-screens insight and inspiration. 

00:22 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Thanks for joining us. I'm your host, Candice Block, Today. I'm thrilled to welcome visual effects editor Anidra Edwards to the show. While based in LA, Anidra originally hails from right here in Washington DC and she got her MFA in film and electronic media at American University. She has more than 15 years of experience in VFX and picture editing for film and TV, working with the world's biggest entertainment companies, including Marvel, Netflix, HBO, BET, Discovery, Nat Geo, NBC, Disney, ABC, and the list goes on. She was a visual effects editor on such projects as the DC Comics television series, Black Lightning, the Marvel Studios series, WandaVision and their feature, Black Panther, Wakanda, Forever and Paramount Pictures' Transformers Rise of the Beasts. Anidra is currently the VFX editor for an Apple TV scripted comedy series that is set to release in late 2025. 

01:15
Welcome to the show, Anidra Hi, so we actually spoke with a VFX producer in a recent episode, so I'm excited to have our listeners now hear from an editor and, as a video editor myself, I'm especially excited to dive into the topic. So, kicking things off, did you always want to be working with visual effects or did you begin with editing in more like a general sense and like, basically, what was your journey to settle into VFX? 

01:43 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Well, I originally started in picture editorial. 

01:45
I was an assistant editor and if I go even further back, I started in news. 

01:49
I used to work for NBC4 in Washington DC and that's really where I got like my first editing you know position, and prior to that I used to be a production assistant and that's where I got introduced to BET and that was when I was 20 years old, and so working in news that's where I got like learned kind of the bare bones of editing, you know, for broadcast, and I used to work on promotions and advertising you know 30 to 15 to 30 second spots highlighting five and 11 o'clock news, and so from there, once I was in news, I stayed there for a year and a half but realized I wanted to do more and that, you know, maybe being in news wasn't like necessarily like where I saw my career only being, and so that's when I went to graduate school. 

02:32
And while I was in grad school at American University, it was when I took on more assistant editor positions, and so American University had a lot of alumni within documentary and reality TV space, and so that's how I kind of got working in more of the Avid workflow as an assistant editor and I worked in Discovery, which was at the time I worked in one of the locations in Silver Spring, maryland, and that's how I got introduced into the Avid workflow for episodic broadcasts and shows and working on shows like the Puppy Bowl, which we still well it still come on, I believe. 

03:08 - Candice Bloch (Host)
But there's also a kiddie one or like a kiddie halftime show, I think. 

03:12 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah, you know, kiddie halftime. I used to do it. Yeah, I had it when it was the kiddie halftime as well, and so working as an assistant editor in picture editorial allowed me to understand what it's like moving in those cutting rooms Working with an editor, that, where you have like, either if I did like a limited series or special, or the puppy bowl, right, is a special All the way down to like a series you have Iron Resurrection, which is one of the shows that I also worked on in reality TV space. Doing all these things while I was in graduate school really helped me to understand that, and so after that, I felt like I wanted to go to California. I felt like I had more confidence, you know, to go into those rooms. 

03:56
So when I moved to Los Angeles in 2016, I was still an assistant editor in reality TV, but really the opportunity to work in visual effects came from moving to LA, because working in Hollywood, a lot of the departments are segmented, so in DC and Maryland I had to be more of a full breath editorial assistant, editor, right. I also worked in VFX graphics, like you're doing with um dailies all the footage, right. You kind of are like a full, you know a full assistant editor, full editor in that space, um, you come out and you work in, you know, the Hollywood. You've got a lot more departments, a lot more segments in the post-production space and so, working in reality TV, I got my union days, or I got all the we say union days, but you got pretty much all the credits necessary to join the union which I'm part of, the Motion Picture Ed editors guild, which is under IOTC, the larger union. 

04:46
And once I was able to come into the union then I went on to scripted shows like HBO, and so visual effects came right after HBO. Because I went into the superhero space and I learned what's the visual effects editorial workflow, cause it's a very unique niche space, and then to do it in the superhero universe is, you know, is, but it's very much a highlight because there's tons of vfx you know in that space, um, but also you learn about the small and visible effects that happen when working in visual effects, all the small things that we do cover and fix to keep the edit and to keep everything seamless right so that you don't get jarred or jumped out of the show. And there's so much more like technology, programs and things that we can use and everything. So not to make a whole long story, but no, it's fine. 

05:37 - Candice Bloch (Host)
You're kind of answering like a bunch of my upcoming questions already, but we can dive into them a little bit more as we go. It sounds like you have a completely like a very well-rounded background which is, I'm sure, very helpful as like a foundation of understanding the different types and styles of editing. But also, just before we kind of dig into some more stuff for our listeners, can you explain the different roles and hierarchy of the VFX department, For example, like a VFX supervisor versus the assistant editors and editors, and then how those are different from the actual VFX artists? 

06:12 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
For sure, for sure. Yeah, so there are a lot of differences and the different roles that exist in VFX departments and VFX depending on the show or feature film or independent project. Vfx depending on the show or feature film or independent project. So a VFX editor, I'm considered what would be on the production side. As a VFX editor, I'm connected directly to the show, dealing with all of the daily footage, everything that comes in, and I work adjacent to our picture editorial department and so you have picture editors, which is normally the editor a lot of people think of. A picture editor is editing. You know the show as you see it, you know making you, cutting the scenes together together right. 

06:50
That's usually what people think of as a picture editor, and usually there's a picture assistant editor as well. Depending on the shows like, let's say, like a 10 episode show or maybe 12 to 16 episode show they'll usually have like three editors on some of those type of episodics. So you have like three editors and maybe each of those will have an assistant editor. Now then this is like this is just a scenario, right, Because it can vary from streaming to like oh yeah, and I'm sure the sizes and budgets and everything yeah exactly. 

07:20
So you have the picture editorial department. Then if a show has the budget and ability to have a visual effects department, they'll have myself, a VFX editor, who we are responsible for tracking all of the visual effects shots, or in those shows or in the film, and what shots mean that they're touched by visual effects. Right, there are things that are not filmed, practically, that we're then adding in and we have to be responsible for what goes in there, keeping track of that. Sometimes we're cutting scenes to accommodate visual effects because it's already been done in pre-production that we're going to have it so right. So the bigger shows, the superhero shows, they're always going to have a lot of pre-production when it comes to visual effects. And so within that hierarchy I have sometimes we have a visual effects assistant editor who will assist you with what we call visual effects turnovers. Which a visual effects turnovers? Basically, you're taking the shots from the show and you're giving them to visual effects artists, and so you have visual effects artists and those are the ones that are really going to use programs outside of my editing software to add the actual effects on the high resolution footage. So they're going to take that 4K, that 2K footage right and put the effects on, versus. 

08:30
I work on what's called the offline. I work on a very low resolution of the show and the media, so they can kind of see what I did, but it needs to fit this larger format. So visual effects artists also have different positions, where you have in-house visual effects artists who they help me to do some temp compositing, so I usually a lot of that can be CG related. You know things that like I may not necessarily have the time to build out computer generated imagery all the time, like it's very tedious, and so I like sometimes we'll get an in-house VFX artist. But also you have VFX artists that come from what we call the vendor side, which are the companies that will actually perform the visual effects on those shots. So I work in tandem with a lot of those positions and then I also have a visual effects supervisor. You can have one that's on set as well as one that works that follows to post-production and works with you. 

09:20
Then also visual effects producers and that if you are working with some of the larger studios let's take Marvel Studios I'm also going to have visual effects executives that are on that level right, who are approving all the things that come in, they approve, maybe myself to come on the show or on the movie, all those things. So there's that kind of hierarchy and there's also visual effects coordinators. There's visual effects post, pas or post-production assistants. So, depending on the show, like the Marvel shows, you're going to have a full breadth team. You're going to have where every role that exists is there, right, and then you have some of the smaller episodic shows that they're not going to have as many people. For those teams They'll be maybe myself and a visual effects producer, maybe it's myself and a visual effects supervisor, which is actually one of the cases for the Apple TV show. We're a very small team and you may share coordinators and post supervisors with the picture editorial team, so they're not just dedicated to like me, they maybe are also performing other post-production related stuff. 

10:23 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, well, that's so cool, it's such a big team. I mean I hope people listening appreciate how much work goes into bringing all of these wonderful things to us for entertainment. And yeah, so I know that you're. You know VFX, as you said, it's the things that aren't practically there, right, it's the virtual stuff. So how closely do you? I mean I know it varies project to project, but how closely have you worked with some of the practical special effects teams when you have to kind of like marry the real effects and virtual effects together? 

10:55 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
So we work with them quite closely. Some of my examples are on some of the bigger projects as well, like superhero shows and movies, right, where special effects will do a lot of pre-production with them the special effects team and, in the case of Black Panther, wakanda Forever I came on very early on in the production and so I was at the start of the post-production schedule, which is alongside filming, and so I was sent to Atlanta on behalf of Marvel and was down there. My office was at Tala Prairie Studios, which is also where we filmed a lot of the scenes in those sound stages, and so, because I had actually in the same space of the special effects production team because sometimes they're in one location and I'm in Los Angeles and so we're communicating distantly, but because I was also down there at the same time and in the same time zone, there's a lot of things that I help prep in order for them to film different things, right. So, like whether we had anything that dealt with fire or mechanics or, let's say, car chases and things like that. They'll request from us maybe some of the pre-visualization cut together and some of it will have to be annotated, right, like what equipment we're going to use for what things right and it's. We'll have it in our Avid system and we'll export it as a QuickTime right. So they have these different like QuickTime videos that they can reference of how they're going to do something. So they'll use us as an editorial team to help prep themselves. So we'll be in some meetings, we'll be in different things so that we understand what's coming down the pipeline, and so that's a really fun thing. 

12:20
And then also with Wakanda Forever, which was really special was that, of course, we had a lot of water scenes and so, because I was near our set with the water tanks, I could go on and, you know, be on set with seeing where something's going to end up, and so, working with our VFX, one of our VFX supervisors from Main Unit, he also helped direct some of those water you know scenes, and so, in terms of, from a VFX perspective, help direct some of those water, you know scenes, and so, in terms of from a VFX perspective, and so, being tightly knit, we got more opportunities to work closely in terms of those teams and his name is Jeffrey Bowman. 

12:55
He's awesome. 

12:56 - Candice Bloch (Host)
That's so awesome that you got some work on that. And so I mean just for the sheer interest, because you know most people don't get a chance to talk to somebody working right in that um mentioning the water in wakanda forever there's a lot of um underwater type things. So, for example, like if flowing hair and stuff is happening, is that something where they completely tighten like any head pieces on people so that they don't have that, and then you're adding that all after, or, or how can you kind of get a little more? 

13:29 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
into the specifics of some of that Cause. I know it's just fascinating. Yeah, we definitely have options, you know, for that. Um, when they're filming, so they'll do several takes, uh, where hair and makeup have done different things, or while they're in the water, right. So we had different shots where they're not in water and they're just kind of floating in a blue screen studio space and so where we can add everything in. And then we also actually film them in tanks to see, naturally, how hair will move. And then oftentimes they have like there's like tape kind of around the head so that we could add crowns to specific characters who would wear headpieces underwater. 

14:05
You get you kind of get a lot of the options, which is an advantage with working with the bigger studios, right, they have the budget, the time, the resources to give a lot of options to visual effects, to find what works, to see what feels more real. 

14:19
And so, from a VFX editor standpoint, we're keeping track of all those different we call them plates and we're keeping track of all the different plates right that we may use for VFX. 

14:28
We've got to keep track of it within the edit, you know, because sometimes we're sending out cuts and they've got just those blue screen plates of, like the character floating, you know, and sometimes we're doing some roto work, you know, remove anything that's distracting but also noting like, hey, we're using this tape. 

14:43
So when it goes further down the line in the pipeline and we send this to the visual effects studio companies that we're using, we're telling them like, hey, we're using the underwater plate or we're using the one that's out of water and we have, like all these different shorthanded terms right To help us like keep track of what plate is where. But it was really cool to see, like on that type of film, how it worked at a level with water in that context and where VFX was adding in and, you know, stepping in on certain places where we were more pushed back on, like allowing, like whatever organically happened to stay within the plate. And so it was a great learning experience, you know, for me in terms of that film, cause I was like probably my biggest like water film, biggest like a number of uh locations we went to it's a huge film. 

15:29 - Candice Bloch (Host)
It's probably a biggest for a lot of people and will stay the biggest for a lot of people. Yeah, it was so great, I love that movie, but, um, so I guess also that kind of was a an example of, like you know, working on the hair and the underwater stuff. When you're working with the different artists and sort of coordinating with them are, are they assigned to different types of things? Sometimes, like, maybe a team works on a particular character or a particular like textures, or you know what I mean. Like how does that break down, um, with the artists and maybe what they like specialize in, and then how do you coordinate with all of them? 

16:02 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah, so we had a lot of visual effects vendors. You know, on, let's say, like a lot of the superhero stuff, we have a ton of vendors. Usually Some of them are like Wakanda Forever, right, we had like, oh gosh, we had me definitely over 15, I think, vendor wise, we had a ton of vendors and we had vendors that are specific to the Marvel MCU, you know space, right, they do certain things. So, like one of the visual effects vendors, we use Cinesite. They work a lot with our suits, right, the Iron Man-esque suits that we have, right, and we've got Ruby Williams, who was in Wakanda Forever, who she has revealed within her Ironheart suit, and so we have vendors like Cinesite who touch that primarily. Cinesite, of course, has a number of locations, right, and we also use CineSite UK, so a lot of our vendors are also global. We also have vendors who can take on things really quickly, right. So we have some small shots that are not necessarily the big ones that we kind of maybe find later within the production schedule that we need a vendor who can kick it out very quickly, so like using BassFX, which I think is based in Japan and so base is really is really great, you know, and they could kick out like a lot of the smaller shots that we just needed done. 

17:10
But I take something like Transformers right, one of the ones I use, and we use primarily one vendor you know who's been within the franchise and so they're responsible for the bumblebee that you see. 

17:22
You know that's carried from film to film, and working with our director, stephen Caple Jr, who kind of came into within the universe of Transformers, it also allowed him to see from VFX, like who we were using when it came to just only having a couple vendors Directors who get the opportunity to work within these huge big spaces right, they're also getting to see us as VFX. So we want to like give our best foot spaces. Right, they're also getting to see us as VFX. So we want to like give our best foot forward, right, to make sure that they're getting what they want out of the production, they're seeing what they want to see. And working with vendors who are specific to certain things really does help to say, hey, this one specializes here, like it's been in the universe of this movie. So you know we're going to stick with them and things. So it's definitely very helpful in those franchises. 

18:09 - Candice Bloch (Host)
That's cool. So you mentioned a little bit before about, like, the invisible effects and obviously in superhero movies, as we know, everyone knows there's a lot of visual effects. But there's also projects where you don't know but there are visual effects happening. Can you kind of explain just a few for our listeners who might not know about? You know removing things and adjusting things. You know those little things where it's like you don't know that it's actually happening but it's very necessary for a project. 

18:40 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah for sure. So there's a lot of comedies and dramas that use visual effects that aren't happening in space or with aliens or things like that. Exactly, yes, the technology has allowed visual effects to touch a lot of different projects right, and it keeps what you're looking very smooth. So some of the things that we consider like invisible effects or some of the smaller effects may be removing floor markers for actors on sets, right, sometimes our cameras catch that or their cameras from the show will catch that, and it can be distracting to see this yellow dot, you know, or while people are moving around. So oftentimes visual effects will remove that we call it. Sometimes it's called a paint out, where you're just removing it, you know for how many frames it's visible. 

19:25
And then also you have things like split screens, which are commonly used as well, and so a split screen effect is usually where an example of it could be two actors and say, in take one, when they filmed one actor, actor A had a great performance, but actor B, their performance was not what was necessary, it wasn't like what they needed, right, it wasn't the best. 

19:48
And in take two, actor B's performance is actually what we needed it to be right, they said the line the way we need to say it, and all the things were gelling, and so in editorial, picture editor will make the decision that okay, I need to use actor A in take one and actor B in take two, so they'll merge them together. But we need the shot to look seamless because there'll usually be like a hard line. You know that they kind of cut around to like put both of them together and so we call that a split screen and so with visual effects we will actually smooth, you know, these two plates together and make it like one so that it looked like they were both filmed together. 

20:27 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Wow, so it's not. It's not a split screen, like people would think. Where there's a split in the screen, it's like a, it's like a, using the best of this side and the best of that side in the same cohesive shot. 

20:39 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
That's really cool. 

20:39 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Okay, yeah, that's another one, cause I know there's also things you know extending backgrounds and you know removing things that are like like anachronistic to the, the like time frame or whatever, and stuff like that. But that's really. I didn't realize that one, that's. That's really cool. I feel like I want to try to look for it, but it's gonna be too hard because you guys are too good at what you do yeah, or even like a one that you could like. 

21:01 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Look at, um, I worked on the fx show Clipped and I did a lot of VFX work with that, even though I helped a lot with the assistant editor side. They hired me because I had this huge VFX background and so when I came into that show with Clipped we had crowd enhancement for the Staples Center because we couldn't fill it Right Within the show. 

21:23 - Candice Bloch (Host)
So it just gets thousands and thousands of extras, or yeah? 

21:27 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
yeah, so the show. The show was about like the la clippers and their former owner, and so we had to fill the staple center with crowds, so crowd enhancement fell into the effects. Also, we had some of our characters who were not necessarily the height of certain nba players they were portraying, so we actually grew them in VFX, we made them tall. Whoa, that's so cool. Yeah, so in like specific shots it wasn't the entire show, right, small shots where it was a bit visible, right when we needed them to look 6'6", 6'8", you know, 6'9", and some of those actors aren't necessarily that height. So we did, you know, kind of you do it subtly, you know, in a way, so that they look taller when they're standing next to someone, especially like a fan or something like that. 

22:13 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Oh, that's awesome. I would have thought that that type of thing would be done practically or with, like camera angles or something, but that's cool that you can do. I didn't realize you could do even more with visual effects. That's, that's okay. That's really good. I mean, I guess, why wouldn't you be able to if you can create entire being out of nothing as well? That's really cool. So you mentioned that you you've said a few times you work with A in a variety of software, or do you focus on like the main few and then like also which one do you find you work with most often and do you have a favorite of them? 

22:53 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
uh, that's a good question. So for me, being in vfx editor on the production side, I stay with the same programs that our picture editorial uses. Okay, because when I, when I pass things to them, I need it to go into their software smoothly as well, and oftentimes in Avid we work in a seamless workflow where we're sharing the same projects. It's a really great aspect of working in Avid. I know Premiere has, of course, similar aspects to it. Avid has had a really good legacy of how we work and it's become still a standard in a lot of editorial spaces of how we work and it's become still a standard and a lot of editorial spaces of how we can move in the same projects and have the same bins open as well. And so I work in Avid a lot in order to either take the media or adjust it so that it's in the same cut Outside of Avid. 

23:40
I also use a number of other programs as well, right In order to do sometimes I do my compositing in Avid. I'll also use After Effects because that's just a very program that I'm versed in. You know I can do stuff quickly. I'll also use, of course, the Adobe, entire Adobe suite. I'll use Photoshop as well. I also have used Cinema 4D as well to create some of the CG, like different things I've had to do maybe like birds, bees, animals I'll create things you know a little bit within there. 

24:10
And we also have Unreal Engine is a software. I'm not like an expert in Unreal Engine but I am familiar a little bit with moving within it. Right, it's a little bit more node-based Some of the things we'll do in Unreal, but it's how a lot of the previs comes to us and VFX editorial. We'll work with companies who will drive some of our review sessions in Unreal Engine and so I can see things that I can like tap to the artist, like hey, can I get that soloed so I can use it when I composite, right, so there's a familiarity there. And then we have different software programs that allow us to do visual effects tracking that are essentially database management, right. That's the side of the VFX editorial that it's not as exciting but it's very necessary. You know, in some people I find it exciting. 

25:00 - Candice Bloch (Host)
That's why you're so good at what you do. You have to be. When you find people that are excited about the organization of stuff, I feel like it goes so much smoother. 

25:08 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
You also have to be able to answer questions at any point, like where certain phases of things are what we're using. I'll use FileMaker. I've used ShotGrid. I think ShotGrid just now changed their name. They also have I think Flow is one part of them, but I used it when it was shotgun and shot grid. I usually will use FileMaker and then sometimes, like, depending on the show it's a small show especially we'll navigate through Google Sheets, you know, and have some things to like-, track and prove. Yeah, you're tracking, you know, you know smaller. So I've done some of the bigger databases you know as well. So FileMaker has been like for the last big features have been what I've used and then I'll use it on some of the smaller shows, but sometimes like to help my coordinators if they're not as versed in it. I'll like transfer material to a Google Sheets so that they can read it really easily, and so that's. Yeah, that's on the smaller projects where we can do that, we're allowed to do that. Marvel, like, can't use Google Sheets. 

26:08 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, it can't be something that everybody could use, no, but yeah, it sounds like in the whole process because there's all these different versions and you know you're you're seeing all these different. I mean, you're organizing a lot of things and it sounds like not everything, like it's a constantly evolving and like moving kind of organism. So have you gotten really comfortable with having no attachment to anything that you know cause it might get cut, or you might spend a lot of time working on something or like how does? Do you? Have you learned to be detached with certain things, because it's such a journey that that changes? Or has there ever been like something you've spent a lot of time on, maybe farther in the process, that you're like really sad to see get cut? 

26:50 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
um, I would say, yeah, it's a mixture of both emotions. Um, you know, you have things that, uh, when you work on it you feel passionate about, you hope it makes it to the end, things that you've touched or worked on or played a hand in some role of it that you hope makes it to the end. But also, um, it's a bit morbid but people say you know you kill your babies, right, you end up having things that you you worked on or touched that just don't make it that far within the cuts process, you know, within post-production. Right, it's removed on the cutting room floor. You know that that's saying and so, um, you have. 

27:28
But as well, there are things that, like, you do kind of remove yourself from that are part of the positions, part of the role. Right, you're helping it get to the next stage, the next phase in visual effects, and so changes will happen and you'll find out the change kind of as it comes down the pipeline will happen and you'll find out the change kind of as it comes down the pipeline. Sometimes you'll know it earlier on and then sometimes you'll hear like a meeting will happen and they'll come out and they'll all, right, we're cutting scene two. It'll be like, oh all, right, you know. Or there's certain scenes where, like gosh, is this going to stay Right? 

27:59 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, you're like we'll show you, but it's probably not going to live on in the final, exactly and then sometimes you remember certain things for how tedious they were. 

28:09 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
You know, like when I watch, when I watch back you know shows or movies I've worked on, I may like pull something dear because, dang, that took me like a week to like get that out the door. 

28:20
You know or like sleepless nights or whatever happens, you know. And then you're working closely with the picture editors as well. So quite often, like your opinion is asked, you know from VFX editors where it's like. What do you think. You know, not just from VFX perspective but emotionally, where a scene is going, because you're still an editor, you still have to understand what resonates within a seamless cut, and so your opinion about how something looks still matters, you know, and it matters to a lot of people right, sometimes outside of our space, our industry space, people think it's just the director and their opinion of what we over here who create a whole collaborative process and everyone is a storyteller and it's all. 

29:04 - Candice Bloch (Host)
You need, all those you know, talents and perspectives and interesting, to make it the best possible thing. So I it's great to hear that there's, you know these all of these levels can have a hand in shaping the sort of like story of it. 

29:19 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah, and it's a really you know. I wish it was highlighted a lot more how often, like within post, everyone's asked their opinion, Like what do you think? You know, all the way down to the production assistant, you know, asking them what they think about something or what looks cool or what sits with them. Or sometimes we have moments in like some of the other shows I've worked on, where we're referencing TikTok or we're referencing Instagram and we need, like, someone who may be like oh, I'm on TikTok every day, or something like that, and we'll ask like things like that. Or somebody who's a newsie and they'll like ask questions, you know, about newsie stuff. Or like, or an instance for Wakanda Forever, like where we had a moment where we're in Virginia and we didn't have anybody else who was from the DMV and they're like, where do people who work for the Pentagon live? And I was like, oh, oh. 

30:08 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, you're like, I got this one. I know this one, that's where I'm from. Yeah, exactly. 

30:15 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
So you have little moments and things like that. 

30:18 - Candice Bloch (Host)
It's really great that they actually tap into that because you know, when you are from, an area like the DC area, for example, is a place that you see in film and television more than some other, perhaps smaller towns in the middle of the country, for example, right, so we see our streets a lot more than some other. I mean people in New York and all these LA also see that you know the more commonly you know the more common locations in a lot of narratives and so I think it's always funny when you're watching and you're from somewhere, you're like those, those don't connect or that's not what that looks like or that's an impossible like journey that that person just took and it pulls you out of it a little bit. So it's really cool that they're like let's have some authentic authenticity on it and ask the people from there. I think that's great. 

31:05
Um, I did also have. You were mentioning, you know, spending really long nights and taking your time on stuff and working really hard. I know that a lot of editing, as someone who has done it a lot, could take really long days and long hours From a practical standpoint. Do you have any pro tips for like those really long days, like desk chairs or eyewear or you know those kinds of things or any pro tips that have helped you in terms of, like, frequency of getting up to walk around and stuff like that. 

31:36 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah, well, that's one that you gave as well. Like you know, getting up and walking around, being in some of the projects I've worked on, my contracts are usually 12 hour days, right, and that gives me six or 10 to 12 hour days. I can bury the show 10 to 12 hours so I can usually have up to 60 hour work weeks right, and that's a long time either to be at a screen or to be looking at anything. So I use a standing desk as well and also I have, like, if you're sitting, I also have chairs with headrests. You know that's a big thing of. You don't realize like it's good to be erect, but how often your head gets heavy, especially for editorial. You want to create comfortable settings for yourself, also using backlit keyboards very helpful. You can find backlit keyboards for usually most platform programs, like the bigger ones Avid, premiere they all have their own keyboards. 

32:23
I'm very shortcut heavy. You know like I definitely use tons and tons of shortcuts. I'm using my keyboard shortcuts, the one created by Avid, as well as the ones that I program myself. I also use a Wacom tablet as well. I know the world sometimes can be 50-50 on like Wacom tablets and mouses or tablets in general and mouses, or I use, well, I'll say, not a tablet as a pad, so a Wacom pad and it has a stylus and it helps me with my rips Quite often when I'm also doing roto work. It's very, it's a lot easier to do the roto work with a stylus because I can easily like, draw very quickly and so I can make my key frames like very quickly. And so Wacom actually has a. 

33:05
Well, I will say they do have a tablet that mirrors our um avatar line and it's a full like, it's almost like half the size of a desk, and you can work in that kind of way where you don't even like. Some have figured out how to semi look down, semi look up using the tablet and see the timeline on on their screen in that way, and so that's. Those are some of like the things that I that I do that help me work faster because every click and second counts. You know, when it comes to those long days, right, you're trying to get something out as quickly as possible so that the train keeps moving. I tell my family, you know, they often didn't realize I was like. You know, filmmaking and post-production is a 24 hour process. There's something happening all the time. And to take it all the way back to when I was in DC, I was a night assistant editor and that allowed me to take my classes in grad school during the day and then I would work at night. 

34:01 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Did you? 

34:01 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
sleep. I know, I know. 

34:05 - Candice Bloch (Host)
You're like I filled all 24 hours and then I forgot a few things like sleeping and eating, but it's fine. 

34:11 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah, it was wild. You know I usually work till about like midnight, in some cases 2am. This was when I was working with National Geographic or NatGeo for working with their app and some of their other operations, which was, very honestly, really fun and it teaches you a lot about the industry if you work in operations department. So anybody trying to get their foot in the door, that's very like, you know, it's a very good way to come in. But I took tips from there when I moved up into the the editor role for bfx as well, like things that help me move quickly, you know, and that kind of one of the things that sells your you know, you sell yourself to a show is that I can get these things done fast. Um, I can get these things done efficiently and fast, you know. So there's all these little things you know that you'll do, maybe standing desk, you know, getting up and just walking, do you ever set an alarm to do that? 

35:03 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Because I feel like if you're in a project, you're not going to know what time it is necessarily or how long you've been doing it. 

35:08 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Well, like I am, because I use the Apple Watch and it has an automatic built-in oh, the little like stand alerts and things. 

35:15
Yeah, I use those too, yeah, so I use that to stand up and walk around, and so right now I'm working from home, right, so I have to be more conscious about making sure that I'm getting up and walking. But when I'm on a studio lot right, and there's other people within our space, right, it's a little bit more. It's easier to just kind of get up and have the water cooler conversation, or or go to the kitchen or walk around, do a lap, as we say, around the lot. So for my current show, my office is in Warner Brothers Studios, california, and then I also have the ability to work from home. So I usually spend half the day work from home and then I go into the office and then I run visual effects reviews as well, and so, yeah, you kind of find all these different ways to keep yourself. 

36:00 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Your life sounds so cool. I'm just like, oh man, that's amazing. So many things. We are running a little long on time, but I did want to make sure to ask a couple of things because you were talking. I mean, we just got some great advice from you. I have heard in some other interviews, I listened, of you that you you mentor as well. Do you do that? If so, can you talk about like sort of the, the importance of that, and like maybe what, what you kind of learn back and forth with mentors and mentees? I know you've had mentors as well, but, like you know how important is it for you to be a mentor now. 

36:39 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Being a mentor is very important. It's a big part of how I've been able to succeed is because I had people give their hand back and help me and either teach me certain things, recommend me, and it's been at every level of my career since at 20 years old, when I said I wanted to do I think I'm going to go into TV, right, and I didn't, like I didn't have anybody in my family who worked in TV direct. You know, I had someone who worked in advertising and some other things, but no one who was doing. What I wanted to do was be an editor and I had to kind of figure that out. You know, and from interning and being a production assistant and all those things, you know, there are people that you meet on your path and they ask you what do you want to do? You know, and where do you want to do? What do you want to do? Where do you see yourself? Right, and so learning how to answer that question and also what do I need, you know what I could ask someone to help me with, the more specific I got with that answering that question was how I was able to then get to a certain space, and then that's where I found someone who could help guide me and create those steps. And so mentorship is very big for me. 

37:46
I participate with American University's School of Communications Mentorship Program, with the MFA program Also. I have that. I have some unofficial mentees that are people that I've just met along the way who just kind of need the help or asking about how to get into visual facts, how to do editorial. Also people just moving from DC or another area to Los Angeles how do you navigate moving in that space? Right? And then also the changing parts of our industry. You know we had a really rough time last summer with the Adapters and Writers Strike and I spoke to a few classes as well where students were nervous about I'm entering this industry in the middle of a strike and I was like I guarantee you this won't be the last strike. 

38:29 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Yeah, so that's also good practice, yeah. 

38:33 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Exactly, I might do that, and I do a lot of mentorship through my guild as well, through the Most Picture Editors Guild, and I'm also a big like, a big supporter also of mentorship programs for women of color, you know, making sure that there's also opportunities to get different faces and different talent, you know, and having the opportunity for them to have the same opportunities. So I do a lot of mentorship in that aspect as well and I know that you know I'm paying it forward, you know, by being able to do that. 

39:03 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, I mean we thank you so much for doing what you do, not only because it creates really awesome entertainment for us, but, yeah, like I love that you do interviews and things as well, to as well to not only highlight this profession because, you know, not everybody like that's another thing I love about the show that we do is we like to highlight women and in different positions and highlight all the different roles and the different positions that there are. 

39:29
Editor people might not know they might think of one very highly specific thing with. There's all these other roles that like feed into and play off of each other and there's all these different levels and so, um, honestly, thank you so much for for talking with us today. There were like a ton of other questions, but uh, you know we we can't talk for two hours on the show, but thank you so much for what you've been able to let our listeners know this time and hopefully there's even more inspiration and people will look into really cool VFX editing. And thank you so much again for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. 

40:09 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
No worries, thank you so much for having me. I'm a fan of what women in film and video do and what you all are doing in the DC area, and I participated when I was a student. So I'm a fan of what women in film and video do and what you all are doing in the DC area, and I participated when I was a student. So I'm very happy to be able to stay connected with you all while living in Los Angeles and be able to just do things and see how you all are flourishing each year. So thank you so much for inviting me on your show. 

40:31 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Also, just before we go, are there any? Obviously, it seems like you can't be too specific about the upcoming show that is going to hit in 2025 that you're working on, but can you tell our listeners some of the things that are out currently that they could see that you have had a hand in? 

40:50 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Yeah, for sure. I think with the streaming shows right, it's very handy. I'm streaming that you can go back to and all the episodes are there, so you can. You can look at clips, uh which is on Hulu. Um, it's a limited series, so only six episodes, Um, so you'll see some of the things that I worked on there and it's it's a very, like I said, grounded show where there's invisible effects, there's graphics, so that's kind of fun. Also, a fun fact for Black Panther, wakanda Forever, which is also on Disney Plus, if you have the Blu-ray version of Wakanda Forever and the deleted scenes, my voice is actually used in the deleted scene. I was used in place of Angela Bassett's voice for a scene that we had that we were thinking that she would come back and do ADR for, and it ended up not making it into the movie but it made it into the deleted scenes and so they needed a queen's voice. 

41:50 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Enter Anidra. Look at that, that's so cool. 

41:53 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
So, like my audio was like recorded so long, like it lived in the movie for a long time, and then, when it got taken out, and then I got a request from the producer asking, like you know, are you comfortable with you going into the deleted scenes, like you were, your scene was submitted or the scene was submitted with my voice? I said sure, and I got a separate contract for my voice being used. Hey, look at that. Yeah, and I'm also in the actual movie. My voice is used, but I'm used with a choir, so it's a blend of a lot of different voices. But it's when Shuri approaches the waterfall towards the end of the movie where we're singing her name, and so it was really fun to kind of have those. So those are little fun facts that you watch, yeah. 

42:34 - Candice Bloch (Host)
Well, everyone should go out and watch it and keep an ear out for those. And maybe there's more performing in your future, we don't know, yeah. But yeah, I mean, definitely we'll keep an eye out for all the amazing stuff you're going to do. And yeah, again, I could just keep talking, but we have to wrap up the show. So, again, thank you so much and good luck with everything, and I'm excited to see what you bring to audiences. 

42:59 - Anedra Edwards (Guest)
Awesome. Thank you so much. 

43:03 - VO (Host)
I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video. To learn more about WIF, visit w-i-f-s-n-frank-v-s-n-victororg. This podcast is created by Sandra Abrams, candace block, brandon Ferry, tara Jabari and Jerry Reinhart, and edited by Michelle Kim and Inez Perez, with audio production and mix by Steve Lack audio Subscribe. To continue learning from more amazing media makers, please visit medium maker spotlightcom for more information.