Hey.
My name is Alexander Aquino, and I
am an editor on "Queen Sugar."
Hey.
My name is Sean Linal, and I'm an editor on "Queen Sugar."
Hey, I'm Alex Ivany.
I'm an editor on "Queen Sugar," and you're watching
an OWN Digital Exclusive.
[LOW FI HIP HOP MUSIC]
My most pivotal moment on my journey to becoming an editor
was actually editing my first episode
because I knew that making a great first impression
was very important, and I wanted it
to be a really great episode.
Well, I've been cutting promos and reality with Ryan Seacrest.
And I was a string-out editor on "The Hills,"
which pretty much means I cut a scene
dry with no music or effects.
But when Ava DuVernay promoted me
to become an editor in scripted television,
it was a very big deal and great push from-- towards my career.
And I was just ecstatic.
The most pivotal moment in my career
was when Ava DuVernay pulled me into her office
and asked me if I wanted to be an editor
on "Cherish the Day" Season 1.
I had been an assistant editor with her
on several different projects, and to get that opportunity
was really amazing for me.
She was willing to take the gamble.
And I know she's done that with a lot of other editors and crew
members throughout the years, so it was amazing to have
that happen to me.
Joining "Queen Sugar's" team of editors
was a very special experience.
I came in as an assistant editor on Season 2
and was bumped up to editor on Season 4.
And our editorial team and the post-production team
felt like a family and felt very familiar.
And because we were also making a show about a family who also
felt like a very familiar family to us,
going back in as an editor felt like I was coming home,
like there was something to celebrate.
I felt as if I had just graduated university,
and I was now getting to take that next step in my career
with people who I knew and people who I loved
and getting to tell a story about characters
that I feel like I know and I feel like I love.
It was very refreshing.
Alexander and I were assistant editors on previous seasons
of "Queen Sugar," and I worked with
Alex on Ava DuVernay's Jay-Z/Beyonce
video "Family Feud."
So it was a rare blessing to reconnect with coworkers
that I have a rapport with.
So I'm super thankful to Ava DuVernay
and [INAUDIBLE] for this wonderful opportunity.
ALEX IVANY: Joining the "Queen Sugar" team of editors
was nothing short of amazing.
It's an honor.
It's really being part of a family vibe
really amongst all the crews in "Queen Sugar,"
but that goes within the editorial team.
We're all super collaborative.
We're friends.
We've known each other for many years now.
And it's a blessing to be in that environment
where you can be creative and explore things with people
you enjoy being around.
[SOFT PIANO MUSIC]
My most favorite scene that I've ever edited on "Queen
Sugar" was from Season 4.
It's a scene in which Aunt Vi calls
Landry to Vi's Prized Pies and calls in a favor from him.
Everything you need on Francis.
My god.
I'd say thank you, but you owe me.
Did owe you.
It was such a boss move moment for Vi
and I think a side of her that we knew was there,
but we just didn't know how powerful
it really was and the influence that she had in the community.
I just really loved putting that together.
And the two of them had so much fun with that scene.
It was a lot of fun to put together, a lot of fun to edit.
I would say one of my favorite-- it's almost like--
it's the juxtaposition of two scenes between The
Real Spot and ladies' night.
So just seeing that moment where Hollywood is sort of mentoring
or navigating the guys to open up and talk
about their experiences.
And since everyone thinks Hollywood's so cool,
they feel like they could trust in him to come
forward with how they feel.
And you know your boy Wood has come prepared, huh?
- [LAUGHS] - Uh-huh.
- Hey. - All right.
Yes.
But you gets to know Jack if you don't start yakking.
[LAUGHTER]
Right?
SEAN LINAL PETERKIN: And then in the ladies' night, we're--
Darla confronts Charley head on like, do you still love Davis?
What's going on?
And then we see Vi open up about Billie and Nova
opened up about Billie.
And then we'll find out more in that episode,
but just the going back and forth
and intermixing those two scenes and making them flow well.
I was very excited to get my hands
on that piece of material, and I loved that moment in 603.
That's how the world wants us.
Got us so messed up that we not even trusting in joy.
Well, we need to, trust joy.
I think every scene is pretty special to me.
When you're an editor, you put a lot of heart into each scene.
One scene that is especially important to me
and near and dear to me is in Episode 6,
when Ralph Angel and Darla have the talk with Blue,
explaining police brutality in the wake
of George Floyd's murder.
I wish we lived in a world where everybody was nice
and everybody was good, but bad people don't see you.
They won't see you.
I wish I could be there to make sure
everybody you meet in life will treat you right, but I can't.
So I need you to know what to do when somebody don't love
you the way me and mommy do.
The scene really affected me.
It's a conversation that every Black and brown parent has
to have with their kids and just another example
of how "Queen Sugar" really captures
pivotal moments in time.
[THOUGHTFUL MUSIC]
SEAN LINAL PETERKIN: Well, one moment for me was all three
of us communicating on Slack, the app where we talk daily
about just the footage that's coming in, how we
feel about the characters, tone meetings,
and then keeping in touch.
I think it's a great way to communicate, and it's live,
and it's there.
It's tangible.
Yeah.
We would do meetings every once in a while just
to check in with each other and just see how we're all doing.
It's so different now that we work remotely.
It used to be that you could just kind of pop
into somebody's edit bay and say, hey, come take a look
at this, or how's it going?
But, yeah, I think because there's--
because we are-- because we have our own episodes that we're
editing, sometimes we also need to kind of check
in with each other about story points, continuity,
kind of see where things are at.
And that's always kind of fun because it
can lead into a conversation about talking about the show,
what's going on. Oh, my god.
That's what's going to happen in the next episode?
That's so crazy.
Like, we keep that lively, keep that interaction fun
the best way we can online.
Yeah.
And I'll say-- also, I'll add, when
we were working before COVID times all together, we'd
have lunch together and be able to kind of discuss our episodes
just on the regular and also just discussing life,
other movies, other shows.
And I definitely enjoy that aspect of filmmaking.
I got bumped up during COVID, so I
didn't really get that chance to pop in their bays
and have lunch.
And I missed that because when I was an assistant,
I did have lunch with Alexander.
And I did get to talk to Alex when we--
I think we were at the Sherman Oaks location back then.
Oh, my god.
Yeah.
SEAN LINAL PETERKIN: And yeah, so--
Yeah.
--I agree, guys.
ALEXANDER AQUINO-KALJAKIN: Because we're working on a show
that deals with current events and deals with themes of social
justice, touches on politics, deals with culture,
music, we are also--
especially for Season 5 and 6, we
were living through still a lot of the moments
that happened in the show or themes of the show.
And as a team, we would talk about that.
And I think it made us stronger and closer because we could
relate to each other on that level of we're
experiencing this in real time while we're also creating
this piece of artwork and a story that
is telling the story of a family who's
going through the same thing.
So I feel like we would check in with each other
when things would happen in the world that were
being reflected on the show.
And I don't know if we ever got into too
crazy, deep conversation about things, but it was there.
We all felt it.
And I think that made us stronger
and made us closer as a team to be sharing those experiences
while also working on the show.
[LOW FI HIP HOP MUSIC]
So as editors, we have assistant editors
who help us bring in dailies, help us organize the footage,
help with sound effect design and scoring and music,
as well as take care of a lot of the more technical aspects
of the editorial process like sending
the media to our sound mix stage and our composer
and our VFX artists.
And the relationship that an editor
has with their assistant editor, it requires a lot of trust.
And in some sense, when you're working on a show like "Queen
Sugar" that's very personal and very emotional,
it is really nice to have an assistant who
is a fan of the show, as well, and who you can kind of talk
about the show, not just the technical aspects of editorial,
but talk about the story, talk about what's
happening with the characters.
My assistant editor, Emily DePouw,
who's been with me for "Queen Sugar" Season 5 and Season 6,
is just amazing.
And I have been able--
I am lucky enough to have been able to trust
her wholeheartedly, knowing that she'll get the job done well,
all the technical stuff that we need to do,
but also knowing that she has feelings for the show, as well,
and that she cares about it in a way that I do
and in a way that we think the audience does, as well.
So sharing that passion and that trust
made for a really great working relationship.
Yeah, yeah.
Definitely the passion that they bring
to it just in all aspects.
And really, I think assistant editors are kind
of like the unsung heroes in--
especially in television, everything's so fast paced,
and there's lots of deadlines.
And as an editor, you really just want
to focus on the creative aspects of things
and not have your mind bogged down by certain issues
coming up along the way.
And it's just an incredible freedom to have
a solid assistant editor.
And I've been fortunate enough to have some solid ones.
Alisa Khosrovschahi was my assistant on "Queen Sugar,"
and I'm now working with Marcela Garcia on "Cherish the Day."
And she's been great and really supportive,
so it's just incredibly freeing.
I just was an assistant editor not too long ago for a very
long time, so there is just--
it's really important that they care as much or maybe
even more, because they're turning
it over for it to go to online.
But you have to care about the characters,
care about the story.
Kenny Kiesecker and Tasha Curtis, two assistant editors
that are working hand in hand, trying
to get the show out on time and making sure
that everything looks good.
But it's very helpful to me when I'm going through dailies,
going through stuff, and having them work on sound.
And then when it's time to actually pass off the cut,
and they have to get it ready and prepped for the world,
it's--
there's a lot that goes into that.
Like, back in the day, the assistant editors just--
after they got the dailies ready,
they just hung out with the editor and learned.
But today, because of technology,
the assistant editors have to do a lot of technical work
like maybe pre-visual effects and work on pre-sounds
to kind of help out the vendors a little bit
before our stuff goes out.
And stuff gets finalized on their end,
so it's an extremely important role.
We all recognize we're a part of something monumental right
now because "Queen Sugar" is all woman directorial team.
Most of the department heads are people of color.
And amazingly, in Hollywood, that's not really a thing,
so I just think it's just a beautiful landscape
for the future of what this industry can be.
One of the areas of my life that I'm
trying to own wholeheartedly and become the best version
of myself in is as a father.
I have two daughters, and they're young.
And we are learning how to grow together.
And I am learning what it means to be a father.
And I am trying to do that by just spending time with them
and letting them show me what is interesting to them
and allowing myself to learn from them.
As much as I want them to learn from me,
I think they have a lot to teach me.
And I just enjoy practicing spending that time with them
and just hanging with them.
I would say the one and the most important area in my life,
I got married earlier this year during COVID.
We didn't have an actual wedding ceremony.
We're having that next year.
But I'm just work hard to be present,
present meaning conversations or wherever we're at in the world
together or even on a text message.
Just be present, listening, involved, also very supportive.
So I'm trying to be a selfless person,
and that's always-- like, just always
rechecking myself every time.
Is this what I want, or is this good for us or good for her?
So I'm always putting my wife first
and putting myself second.
It is the one area of my life that I'm
trying to own wholeheartedly.
I'd like to own being the best version of myself
in taking good care of myself.
I think in this industry, with being creatives
and loving film and TV so much, we can
get a little caught up in it.
And we have to remember that being a creative person
requires you to bring your life experiences into your work.
So enjoying other forms of art, reading, being outdoors, having
conversations, all those things enhance what you
bring to the creative process.
So I'm hoping in taking care of myself
and my health and well-being that I can also improve my--
how I perform at work.
Thanks for watching.
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[LOW FI HIP HOP MUSIC]