Case studyPublic Media
KangaRoddy A $3M PBS Series with an Editor's Eye
Cutting the pilot earned 6 of the 12 episodes as director and senior editor. A $3M budget, two season renewals.
Deliverables
- Directed 6 Half-Hour Broadcast Episodes
- Edited Pilot & co-edited 12 Episodes
KangaRoddy came to me as a pilot with production wrapped. I cut it, the cut worked, and the show got funded for a full season, this time with me directing and running editorial.
The challenge
Twelve episodes of network‑quality children’s television: puppetry, song‑and‑dance numbers, and Academy Award–nominated actor Pat Morita, all on a $3M budget with a 20‑person crew and a schedule that had room for few rehearsals.
The craft
I directed six of the season’s twelve episodes and senior‑edited all twelve, training assistant editors up until they were cutting episodes in their own right.
The schedule set the method. Little to no rehearsal time, often the first take was the rehearsal. For song and dance, we’d run each number four times with the two cameras assigned different angles on every run, so in the cutting room it played like eight‑camera coverage.
Editors get brought on to direct because they know the pacing, and the hero shot that’s going to sell the rest of the scene.
Morita made it a joy: call action and he’d hand you a different flavor every take, each one usable, each one a different way to cut the scene. A professional choreographer ran the dance numbers and a team of composers covered classic soul standards. A lean team technically, but talent and teamwork filled in the crew we were missing.
The deliverables
Season 1 landed well enough that PBS renewed the show for two more seasons, built to broadcast standard on a budget several times smaller than the show looked.
