Cutting the cut-ups: Comedy editor Steve Rasch, ACE
Part 2 of a continuing series of editor interviews
Similar to the one-man band corporate editor I interviewed, comedy editor Steve Rasch, ACE, whose current show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, has been running six years now, finds he’s doing more than ever before as an editor. “It seems like there are no rules now,” he told me over lunch in Brentwood at Chin Chin. “Every show is different.” Steve, like most TV editors, creates green screens and other VFX and puts in SFX. Additionally, few years ago he took over editing the music so he makes extra money filling that position.
Workflow
He edits on an Avid which is still the most used system in Hollywood on mainstream, higher budget shows. (Final Cut Pro continues to make inroads and is used on low budget shows.) Steve receives a transcript of the show and a hard drive with low rez HD dailies which he views in a quad split (channel that shows all four cameras on one screen). Once the show is locked, an online editor is hired to do the finishing work, including up-rezzing the show and making it network-ready.
Comedy today
Curb is a single cam show created in the mockumentary style which Rasch traces to Rob Reiner’s 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally. Steve maintains that “The written joke is no longer funny to viewers. They don’t want to hear it. They are more interested in story and character-based comedy.” Also, the show does not use a laff track, which, he reports, most single cam comedies avoid.
On being an editor
Over fortune cookies I asked Steve how he felt after years of editing comedy and drama. “I do not like to be barked at, considered a button pusher. I like it when they value me.” He added, “Editors are always working for some one. Editors are compliant. Editors are in it because they like the craft.”
Editing practices, Editor’s role, Technical and process, Television
Sandip Mahal, London, UK, working on a playout for the executives.
Sandip writes, "The person in the monitor's story is being trapped and isolated from civilisation... i can relate..." 
Susan B. Ades, Editor, NY, NY in front of her home editing suite. 
Vickie Sampson, Supervising Sound Editor, Director, Writer, Shadow Hills, CA, with dog Pinky.
Ed Abroms, Burbank, CA, on loc in Lowell, MI.
I wonder how Steve feels when watching shows that he has edited with non editors and family members.
Don’t know how an editor can be considered a button pusher – choice of angles, when to cut it’s such an art. Of course it probably depends on how much freedom one has in those choices.