The Rough Cut

Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Editors – Nat Sanders, ACE; Harry Yoon, ACE and Gina Sansom
Spider-Man: Brand New Day editors Nat Sanders, ACE, Harry Yoon, ACE and Gina Sansom join The Rough Cut to discuss helping director Destin Daniel Cretton take Peter Parker into a deeper, more grounded chapter of his story. Nat and Gina began the film together during production, with Harry joining them for the director's cut, bringing together three editors who had each previously collaborated with Destin on projects ranging from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to Wonder Man.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Spider-Man: Brand New Day finds Peter Parker (Tom Holland) fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that no longer remembers him. As Peter watches MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) continue their lives without him, the pressure of his isolation begins to trigger a transformation he may not be able to control. At the same time, a new threat emerges in New York, drawing Peter into a conflict that also brings him together with Frank Castle / The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Bruce Banner / Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Jean Grey (Sadie Sink). The film also stars Tramell Tillman and Michael Mando.

For Nat, Brand New Day continues a long creative relationship with Cretton that stretches back to Short Term 12 and includes The Glass Castle, Just Mercy and Shang-Chi. Harry previously worked with Cretton and Nat on Shang-Chi, while Gina came to the film following collaborations with Cretton on American Born Chinese and Wonder Man. Brand New Day also marks Gina's first feature as an editor.

In our interview, Nat, Harry and Gina discuss dividing the film between three editors, working in close proximity to production at Pinewood Studios, shaping Peter Parker's darker and more emotionally complex story, and using previews to test radically different versions of the film. They also talk about finding the right balance between practical action and visual effects, managing the reveal and evolution of Jean Grey, preserving Peter's emotional point of view in his scenes with MJ and Ned, and collaborating with composer Michael Giacchino as the film developed through post.
NAT SANDERS, ACE
Nat Sanders, ACE is an Academy Award-nominated editor whose credits include Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, Short Term 12, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy. A longtime collaborator of director Destin Daniel Cretton, Nat has worked with him from independent character dramas through large-scale studio filmmaking. Nat received an Academy Award nomination alongside Joi McMillon for editing Moonlight and has twice won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing.
HARRY YOON, ACE
Harry Yoon, ACE is an editor whose feature credits include Minari, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Thunderbolts*, The Fire Inside, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, First Man and Detroit. Harry's work spans intimate character dramas and large-scale action films, with a particular focus on maintaining performance and emotional point of view within complex visual storytelling. Spider-Man: Brand New Day reunites him with Destin Daniel Cretton and Nat Sanders following their work together on Shang-Chi.
GINA SANSOM
Gina Sansom is an Emmy-nominated editor whose television credits include Wonder Man, Our Flag Means Death, American Born Chinese, Reservation Dogs, Silicon Valley, Better Things, Love and Horace and Pete. She received an Emmy nomination for her work on Horace and Pete. After previously collaborating with Destin Daniel Cretton on American Born Chinese and Wonder Man, Gina makes her feature editing debut with Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

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Hear Nat and Harry discuss their first Marvel collaboration with Destin Daniel Cretton on SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS.

Listen to Harry talk about cutting Lee Isaac Chung's Oscar®-nominated film MINARI.

Hear Harry discuss his return to the MCU with THUNDERBOLTS*.

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Editor – Payton Koch
For Avatar: The Last Airbender editor Payton Koch, this job offered a very different kind of editorial challenge from his Emmy-nominated work on Only Murders in the Building. The series has to move between large-scale action, visual effects, martial arts, comedy, mythology and coming-of-age drama, often within the same sequence. It also has to satisfy a fanbase that knows this world extremely well while still making the story accessible to viewers coming to it for the first time.

Based on the Nickelodeon series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a world divided into four nations — Water, Earth, Fire and Air — where certain people can "bend," or control, one of those elements. At the center of the story is Aang, the last surviving Air Nomad and the next Avatar, the one person capable of mastering all four elements and restoring balance to a world at war. Season Two takes Aang, Katara and Sokka deeper into the Earth Kingdom as they search for an earthbending teacher and make their way toward Ba Sing Se, the massive, heavily fortified capital of the Earth Kingdom. Along the way, the series expands its world with new allies, new enemies and a larger sense of the political and emotional cost of the Fire Nation's war.
PAYTON KOCH
Payton Koch is an Emmy-nominated picture editor with a diverse range of post-production credits on popular television series, including American Horror Story, Ratched and Only Murders in the Building. His work on the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building earned him multiple ACE Eddie Award nominations, as well as his first Primetime Emmy nomination in 2024. His additional credits include American Crime Story, The Politician, Home Before Dark, Just Beyond and The Boys in the Band.  



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Editor – Greg Ng
BACKROOMS editor Greg Ng joins The Rough Cut to discuss cutting a film built around liminal spaces, analog horror, slow-burn tension and the challenge of turning an internet-born phenomenon into a feature-length cinematic experience.

Directed by Kane Parsons, BACKROOMS expands on the world Parsons first created through his viral YouTube videos, where endless yellow corridors, fluorescent hums, distorted VHS textures and uncanny architecture became the foundation for a very specific kind of dread. The feature stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, a furniture store owner whose discovery of a strange passageway pulls him into the Backrooms.  Co-starring with Ejiofor is Renate Reinsve as Mary, his therapist, whose role in the story grows increasingly central as the film moves deeper into questions of memory, perception and psychological uncertainty.

One of the biggest challenges was finding the right editorial language for a film where the space itself often functions as a main character. Greg discusses how the film's pacing intentionally allows characters to move through the Backrooms in near real time, preserving the hypnotic quality of Kane's original work. Rather than cutting quickly from one dramatic beat to the next, the edit often lets the audience remain inside the space long enough for the atmosphere, sound and uncertainty to take hold.
GREG NG
Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Greg tries to maintain a balanced diet of both narrative and documentary editing, and periodically writes about himself in the third person. He is an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre and a member of the Canadian Cinema Editors, ACFC, IATSE, the VPA, and other organizations with acronyms. When his nephew asked him what editing movies was like, he said it's just like playing with Legos, but with videos and emotions instead. In addition to these biographical details, Greg has won several awards for editing, which have validated his professional insecurities and made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. Some recent credits include LONGLEGS, THE MONKEY, and KEEPER.

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Editor – Greg O'Bryant
Tuner editor Greg O'Bryant returns to the podcast to discuss cutting a film that is part crime thriller, part romance, part character study, part music movie and part very compelling argument for keeping your ears covered in New York City.
Directed by Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher, Tuner stars Leo Woodall as Niki, a gifted piano tuner whose hypersensitive hearing makes every day sound almost unbearable. That same extraordinary hearing also gives Niki an unexpected talent for cracking safes, pulling him from a quiet life of tuning pianos into an increasingly dangerous criminal world. The film also stars Dustin Hoffman as Harry, Niki's mentor, Havana Rose Liu as Ruthie, a young composer, along with Lior Raz, Jean Reno and Tovah Feldshuh.
One of the biggest challenges on Tuner was the sheer amount of footage. Roher shot a large volume of material over a short production schedule, giving Greg and his assistant a mountain of performances, musical material, safe-cracking details and improvisation to shape into the final film. Greg discusses how he approached that process by focusing on subjectivity — using the edit to put the audience inside Niki's experience rather than simply moving through the plot.
Sound was another major topic of conversation. Because Niki experiences the world through hyper-sensitive hearing, the editorial and sound teams had to build a language for when the audience enters his point of view.  Which meant figuring out how much of that experience to hear, and how to make the effect clear without making it punishing. O'Bryant also talks about working with sound designer Johnnie Burn, composer Will Bates and executive music producer Marius de Vries to balance the film's sound design, live music and score.
GREG O'BRYANT
Greg O'Bryant is an editor whose credits include the feature film The Report, as well as the television series Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Extrapolations and Brand New Cherry Flavor. A frequent collaborator with filmmakers including Scott Z. Burns and Nick Antosca, Greg's work often explores stories with complex tone, subjective experience and ambitious sound and visual design.



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Hear Greg discuss his work on BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR.
Listen to Greg detail his experience cutting the Apple TV+ series EXTRAPOLATIONS.
Hear Greg talk about cutting the Amazon Prime Video series MR. AND MRS. SMITH.
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Widow's Bay
Editors – Isaac Hagy, ACE; Kyle Reiter, ACE and Jen Bryson
The editors of Widow's Bay may not live on a cursed New England island, but after years of working together across shows like Atlanta, Station Eleven and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Isaac Hagy, Kyle Reiter and Jen Bryson have developed the kind of shared creative history that makes them feel right at home in one.

Created by Katie Dippold for Apple TV, Widow's Bay stars Matthew Rhys as Tom Loftis, the skeptical mayor of a strange little island town where the locals believe the place is cursed. Tom would very much like to turn Widow's Bay into a thriving tourist destination. Unfortunately, the island has other ideas. The series also stars Kate O'Flynn, Stephen Root, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Kevin Carroll and Dale Dickey.

For Isaac, Kyle and Jen, the show was another chance to reunite with longtime collaborator Hiro Murai and post producer Kaitlin Waldron. Isaac's creative relationship with Hiro goes back nearly twenty years, starting with no-budget music videos before eventually leading to Atlanta. Kyle joined that extended creative family through Kaitlin Waldron and Atlanta, while Jen came up through the same post team, beginning as a post PA before eventually moving into the editor's chair.

In our interview, the editors talk about how the show was first described to them as something close to "ten episodes of Teddy Perkins," with additional reference points including Jaws, John Carpenter films, Stephen King stories and the specific textures of rural coastal New England. The island itself was designed to feel contemporary, but also strangely out of time — a place without cell phones, without modern comforts, and possibly without a sensible tourism strategy.


ISAAC HAGY, ACE
Isaac Hagy, ACE is an editor whose work includes the feature films Waves and The Friend, as well as television series such as Atlanta, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Station Eleven, American Vandal, Chef's Table and Sirens. He has received multiple Emmy and ACE nominations for his work, including recognition for Atlanta and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Across his work in television and film, Isaac has helped shape stories that blend tonal precision, visual invention and deeply character-driven editing.
KYLE REITER, ACE
Kyle Reiter, ACE is an editor whose credits include Atlanta, Barry, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Station Eleven and Black Rabbit. A multiple Emmy nominee, Kyle won an ACE Eddie Award for his work on Atlanta. His editing work spans comedy, drama, surrealism and genre storytelling, often finding the rhythm between deadpan humor, emotional honesty and unexpected tonal shifts.
JEN BRYSON
Jen Bryson is an editor whose credits include Atlanta, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Sirens. After years of working with the post team connected to Hiro Murai, Kaitlin Waldron, Isaac Hagy and Kyle Reiter, Jen moved from post production assistant work into assistant editing and then into the editor's chair. Her work reflects a sharp eye for performance, character detail and the delicate balance between comedy, tension and emotional truth.  



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Hear Isaac discuss his work on SIRENS.

Check out Kyle's interview for BLACK RABBIT.

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Visit The Rough Cut on YouTube.