First published 2/18/10 on LOSTblog http://lostblog.com/2010/02/18/behind-the-scenes-with-lost-editor-mark-goldman/
Last night on Twitter I was lucky enough to find myself exchanging direct messages with Mark Goldman, LOST editor and director of “LaFleur,” whose prior credits include Editor on ‘Angel.’ He graciously answered a number of my questions about the process of getting a LOST episode completed, and agreed to allow me to post our conversation. It all started when he found out about the
Tweets O’ the Day Mark Goldman Special Edition – a post which came about because, again, he is so generous with his time and fan questions.
mjgoldman – My special edition… Without question, a first for me personally.
Loster21 – You’ve been so generous with your time and tweets, they’ve been really interesting and much appreciated, thank you so much!
Loster21 – So if you wouldn’t mind one more, are you generally working on one ep at a time, or several in different stages of completion?
mjgoldman – We’re ALL working on several eps right now. Last fri, Dam/Carlton & I locked 608, then watched 611 & took notes. I also got dailies for 614!
mjgoldman – All the editors have 2 of 3 shows on their plate.
mjgoldman – The Producers have it worse: plotting the finale, writing 15&16, viewing dailies of 14, cutting 11, checking Vis FX on 10, 9, 8 etc; Phew!
Loster21 -And when an ep is locked, it’s completely finished? How soon does that need to happen before air date? … Do you have a target date, besides obviously May 23, to be completely finished?
mjgoldman – The picture for the finale has to be locked by end of April for snd and vis fx to get everything done for 5/23 airing.
mjgoldman – “Locked” refers to no more picture changes; sound stage can’t start till pix locked. They need MIN. of 5 days per ep just to cut fx . . .
mjgoldman – …record & cut ADR, record foley, clean production dialogue, & other things I don’t even know about. Then ~3 days mix — we’re a big show.
mjgoldman – Double that for 2-hr ep. Vis fx also working on their jobs at this time. Roughly roughly 4 wks from pix lock to air date, if all goes well.
Loster21 – So will you be completely done at the end of April, or still lurking for emergencies (which I’m SURE won’t occur)?
mjgoldman – There’s usually a few things after finale; recutting it to fit 2 1-hr slots for syndication, for ex. I’ll be on a little longer but not much
mjgoldman – . . . barring emergencies, of course.
Loster21 – Let’s just do that. Bar emergencies I mean. Was it this hectic on Angel?
mjgoldman – Sometimes, but not as often. That is, schedules usually weren’t as tight — but all the same steps had to get done.
Loster21 – Loved your commentary on my second-favorite episode (the pilot being my first, sorry) The Constant. Any planned for s6?
mjgoldman – If they ask me for commentary, it’ll be a pretty special ep. So we’ll have to see how they turn out!
mjgoldman – But I’d love to do it.
Loster21 – Thanks again!
mjgoldman – You’re very welcome.
Wow. As I would say on Twitter, the man is just the coolest of coolios. Thanks to Mark Goldman on behalf of LOSTblog for allowing us to post this great information, and on behalf of LOST fans for once more taking the time to give us a glimpse behind the scenes.
simonpegg – @DamonLindelof Damon I heard that the smoke monster is the ghost of Locke’s father’s brother who is Jack and Hurley’s son’s mom. Y/N?
DamonLindelof – @simonpegg WHO TOLD YOU THIS!?!? Someone is getting SO fired.
