For the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working on HUMAN ELEMENTS, our series at KCTS that asks scientists not only how they do science, but also why.

This season, producer Sarah Hoffman decided to focus on scientists whose work is affected by climate change and I, along with fellow editors Andy Motz and our newest team editor Danielle Driehaus have been working closely with Sarah to find the valuable bits of interview and verité scenes to efficiently portray each scientist’s method along with their personality and passion.

I edited the third episode of the season which introduced us to Alana Quintasket, a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Senate, who works alongside her community to build habitats for native clams and make the community’s coastline more resilient to climate change and encourage healthy ecosystems for marine life.

Shout out to DP Bryce Yukio Adolphson who provided us with stellar cinematography that was a pleasure to edit.

This next episode I edited is about Darnell Sam, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, who describes his role as a Salmon Chief and his philosophies regarding hunting, the environment and his cultural relationship with first foods.

I am so very proud of how this episode turned out. So much of the time, I feel rushed to tell stories under 8.5 minutes, the longest our series episodes can be. But for this episode Sarah encouraged me to embrace quiet moments, stillness in order to portray Darnell’s extreme patience as he hunts for elk with his bow and arrow.

In this final episode I edited for season 4 of Human Elements, Carmen Vanbianchi, research director of the nonprofit Home Range Wildlife, and her team sample vegetation plots to see how a scorched landscape and changes in habitat could impact the survival of the severely endangered Canada lynx.

I love how this episode evolved and the way it shows the joy and passion of the two scientists.

A new season of Mossback’s Northwest is upon us and I’m excited to share the episodes with you here! I will be uploading a new one almost every week for the next two months. Enjoy!

Episode 1 - Magellans of the Sky

In 1924, Seattle was chosen as the most strategic location to begin and end the first attempt at circumnavigating the globe via airplane. Four propeller planes - each with two pilots - used paper maps and old-school navigation to hop from location to location, tolerating treacherous weather, fierce seas and over-enthusiastic crowds. Many have never even seen an airplane before!

Before we even began editing, Producer Michael McClinton and I decided we wanted to evoke a heroic, cinematic adventure to this first episode of the season. Think Indiana Jones or The Right Stuff. Michael found some great music cues to support this.

I’m most proud of my Indiana Jones animation sequences. These maps alone took two days and a LOT of trial and error to perfect. I’m glad we had a little extra time to get this one right!

Seattle is very proud of our role in the history of flight and the airline industry and I found the ending of this segment especially moving, all thanks to Michael’s b-roll and Skip’s eloquent narration.

Episode 2 - What happened to Washington’s Grizzly Bears?

In this week’s episode of Mossback, What is the history of the grizzly bear in the Northwest, and what happened to them in the first place?

Episode 3 - Where did the P in Seattle’s P-Patches come from?

Seattle’s many communal gardens are a defining street-level element of the city and contribute to an enormous amount of civic pride and community building. In this episode, Skip digs into the history or our P-Patches and where the name actually comes from. (Hint: it’s not peas.)

Episode 5 - German Saboteurs of WWI in Seattle

This episode might just be the apotheosis of my efforts developing the editing style for the Mossback “brand” of storytelling over the last six seasons of the show.

It all begins with Skip’s writing and storytelling and producer Michael McClinton’s music choices which, for this episode, we’re a potent stew of paranoia, action, suspense and, in the end, wistful nostalgia.

From there I start to weave together the narration and music, making sure there are cues that punctuate key moments but also gaps where the audience can catch their breath. I had some fun with this episode designing a few sections with just sound effects and ambience.

Then I map out the different sections that will feature Skip on camera making sure to cut into a close up for key moments. I also have to decide when we cut to archival photos or film and if we need to commission maps from our in-house collaborator Madeleine Pisaneschi or our illustration diva Alegra Figeroid.

Eventually, all of these elements coalesce into what I call a “pre-animation” version which is approved by everyone on the team before I open After Effects. Alegra always makes sure to refine the illustrations by providing us numerous sketch versions, so we are sure what we want before she does the final ink. I also make sure to request different layers of illustrations so that I can pull off different 3-D camera moves. Madeleine refines the maps too.

The After Effects animation stage is the most frustrating part but also the most fun when it comes to improvising different ways to tell the story visually. Sometimes I will have a very complex idea that takes a lot of time to execute and other times I don’t have to do much of anything because of an amazing photo or dynamic archival film. I am thankful that we have a few days for this part because I often have to watch online tutorials and do a little research to know how to pull something off.

This episode uses the most complex camera moves I’ve ever attempted up until now, and I love how they work with the different illustrations and assets.

Episode 6 - The Mother of the Pacific Crest Trail

This episode was the last episode of the season for which I was a contributing editor. It’s about Catherine Montgomery who proposed the famous Pacific Crest Trail, and her early environmental advocacy.

Three years and eleven nominations later we are finally Emmy winners! This last Saturday the Mossback team was awarded a Northwest Regional Emmy for best Historical/Cultural - Short Form Content for our episode about Wyatt Earp. This is the first Emmy the Crosscut team has won in any editorial category since I started working at Crosscut in 2020 despite being nominated in numerous categories for the last two years.

I’ll be honest, I dislike awards mostly because it feels odd to create a hierarchy when documentary has such an expansive definition. But I also have to admit that it feels good to finally be recognized, knowing how hard we work to make each episode special and unique. And things like “Emmy” matter when it comes to job searches and career goals.

And, yeah, it feels good to see that statue resting on a shelf in my tiny little apartment. Best to just savor the moment. :)

The final image we used for the PICKLED ORCA episode. Artwork by Levi Hastings.

We are now producing TWO seasons of Mossback’s Northwest each year which means that I have twice as many opportunities to try and top myself when it comes to the visual design and editing style of each episode. Below are links to my favorite episodes of the season.

Before starting this season, I was provided a week to take online classes and dive in to exploring 3D animation in After Effects and the results have slowly been appearing in different episodes; subtle at first and then, once I started to get the hang of it, more and more ambitious. I think the real evidence of 3D is when I use it to bring to life the different illustrations we commission for episodes where we are lacking in historical artifacts to tell the story. This season we commissioned artwork for THE NEW DEAL, PICKLED ORCA and NATURE MAN.

I’ve also been experimenting with a Terry Gilliam-like animation for the STUMPS and NATURE MAN episodes where I imitate the absurd, DIY animation aesthetic made popular by the legendary director and former member of Monty Python. Producer Michael McClinton and I have a shared affection for these animations and it’s been really fun calling out the style - especially with content made for PBS which is where I first saw Monty Python sketches as a kid growing up in Kansas.

Gilliam’s film work is a major inspiration for me as a filmmaker with TIME BANDITS, THE MEANING OF LIFE, THE FISHER KING and BRAZIL being major cinematic touchstones in my life. TIME BANDITS was especially affecting when I saw it in the theater since I was a similar age to the young protagonist. The movie, while dark, is similar to Grimm’s Fairy Tales that use dark imagery and parables to teach tough life lessons.

And speaking of filmmakers, check out the LIGHTS, CAMERA, SEATTLE episode where I get to flex my picture editing muscle by cutting together a “best of the Pacific Northwest” clip reel dedicated to movies shot in this neck of the woods.

I’m excited to announce that four episodes of content that I edited last year for KCTS have been nominated for regional Emmy awards:

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL - SHORT FORM CONTENT

Mossback's Northwest: Wyatt Earp in Seattle ∙ KCTS ∙ Michael McClinton, Producer/Director ∙ Stephen Hegg, Producer/Director ∙ Knute Berger, Host/Writer ∙ Resti Bagcal, Director of Photography ∙ David Quantic, Senior Editor ∙ Brad Curran, Editor ∙ Alegra Figeroid, Illustrator

Mossback's Northwest: Northwest Dog Heroes ∙ KCTS ∙ Stephen Hegg, Producer ∙ Knute Berger, Host/Writer ∙ David Quantic, Editor ∙ Resti Bagcal, Director of Photographer ∙ Amy Mahardy, Senior Producer ∙ Levi Hastings, Illustrator

Mossback's Northwest: The Panama Hotel ∙ KCTS ∙ Michael McClinton, Producer/Director ∙ Stephen Hegg, Producer/Director ∙ Knute Berger, Host/Writer ∙ David Quantic, Senior Editor ∙ Resti Bagcal, Director of Photography ∙ Sarah Menzies, Senior Producer

INTERVIEW/DISCUSSION

Crosscut Festival Mainstage - Retelling Our American History with Nikole Hannah-Jones ∙ KCTS ∙ Sarah Menzies, Senior Producer ∙ Kathy Tuohey, Producer ∙ Valerie Vozza, Editor ∙ Resti Bagcal, Director ∙ Viktoria Ralph, Crew ∙ David Quantic, Senior Editor ∙ Jake Newman, Producer ∙ Andrea O'Meara, Producer

I was the editor for the first four episodes of the latest season of Human Elements, our environmental series at Crosscut and KCTS. Series creator Sarah Hoffman had an ambitious goal for this latest season. She decided to jettison the nameless narrator who helped frame the episodes in past seasons and, instead, let the subject of each episode drive the storytelling in both a formal sit down interview as well as ambitious verite sections.

Any documentary filmmaker can tell you how hard it is to wrangle verite moments into a cohesive narrative arc. Knowing this, our team gave ourselves a much longer gestation period for each episode, often going through numerous radio edit revisions until landing on a story and structure that made sense and was supported by the hours and hours of footage Sarah and cinematographer Bryce Adolphson collected for each episode.

The result is so satisfying to watch - especially when our subjects have meaningful interactions with the natural world that they have decided to focus their hours and hours of dedicated work and emotional labor on. And the subject of our first episode, Malcolm, is a perfect example of professional dedication and deep empathy for the species he has dedicated his life to: endangered marmots on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

This next episode follows a glassblower from Washington’s stunning Lopez Island who creates magical animals out of glass.

This last episode features Daniel Curry who is a “range rider” in north eastern Washington where he manages wild wolves and local livestock, making sure that they can co-exist without the wolves killing the cattle and without the ranchers killing the wolves.

Sarah Hoffman and I collaborated closely to edit in more verite action and I think our hard work paid off!

Mossback Northwest’s sixth season has begun and I will be adding the episodes here as they are released. This episode is about the fascinating and heartbreaking role Japantown's Panama Hotel played during the internment of Japanese-American citizens during WW2.

This week's Mossback's Northwest (edited by yours truly) is about Roald Amundsen's many arctic adventures and the special role Seattle played in the exploration of the North Pole.

Paul Robeson, a world-renowned singer, actor, athlete and activist who stood up to the Red Scare and used music to spread his message of peace and equality.

What the heck was the Pig War? Well, an “almost war” to be more specific.

This episode is about Chief Joseph visiting Seattle and advocating for Tribal rights as well as his unlikely attendance at a UW football game.

Learn more about Emily Carr, a unique nature painter from Victorian Victoria, British Columbia!

The final episode for the season features a peek into Seattle’s jazz scene during the prohibition era where jazz halls provided spirits and a place for cultures and classes of all kinds to meet and artists like Frank Waldron were there to write down the notes and teach up and coming artists like Quincy Jones who would change the music landscape of the world.

Created by producer Sarah E. Hall, MADE THERE features the origin stories of various artisans living in Kitsap County, the charming community just across Seattle’s Elliott Bay. Below is a selection of the episodes I edited for MADE THERE. I also shot B-Roll for the series.

I enjoyed traveling by ferry to Bremerton, Winslow and various other locations on Bainbridge Island. It was nice to have an excuse to just drive around and find beautiful things to film.