With as many as three storylines in each half-hour episode, it can be a challenge to whittle down each program to its 21-minute run time. “It is a jam-packed show,” says editor Meg Reticker, who recently won an ACE Eddie award for her work on the show. “It’s really all about the writing and trying to maintain all the storylines while keeping all the jokes in each scene.”

As many as five episodes are in various stages of editing at once. This keeps Reticker and co-editor Ken Eluto busy, along with assistants Elizabeth Merrick and Alex Minnick. Each uses a Media Composer workstation connected to an Avid Unity MediaNetwork shared-storage solution with 3 terabytes of storage....

Now in its third season, the show continues to add even more sophisticated creative elements, particularly in the area of visual effects. “We really do an amazing number of visual effects and greenscreens for a comedy show,” says Eluto.... The assistants rely on the Media Composer software’s effects tools, including 3D Warp and the AniMatte feature, to create temp effects that are seamlessly transferred to the Avid DS Nitris system, which is used for finishing the show in HD at Postworks. Read entire story »