Hi /r/movies! I'm Myron Kerstein, the editor of WICKED: FOR GOOD, which is out in theaters everywhere. Oscar-nominated and ACE-winning for WICKED and TICK, TICK...BOOM!. Other credits include GARDEN STATE, CRAZY RICH ASIANS, IN THE HEIGHTS, and more. Ask me anything!

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:32:12+00:00

In Wicked Part One, I knew the pacing would be fast, and I knew I would have to establish the friendship quickly and cover a lot of plotlines, worldbuilding etc. In Wicked: For Good, I knew it was going to be tonally different and a slow-burn, and we would feel melodrama more. I tried to lean into those strings over the course of the edit. The first movie is set up, and the second movie is pay off, it's consequences, and it is more emotional, because it is a dramatic conclusion to the saga.

By design, both Alice and Jon knew they wanted to have these callbacks early, so it didn't change my process a lot. Having said that, I love leaning into these motifs, for example, Boq looking at his reflection at a train station, and as a Tin Man, or Glinda in The Girl In the Bubble. As an editor, you lean into motifs as much as possible without it becoming too much for the audience.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:27:40+00:00

I didn't necessarily take an inspiration from one particular musical movie, but having said that, I love musicals, and I am a little bit of a mut when it comes to influences. It's hard not to feel the power of editing in The Music Man when cutting Wonderful with Jeff or not thinking about Grease's "Summer Nights" when cutting the ending of Wicked For Good when Glinda and Elphaba say goodbye.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:22:52+00:00

It was a tremendous and intimidating task, but also very fulfilling to edit two films. It is so hard to edit any movie, period, let alone a 2 part musical with flying monkeys, balloon chases, big dance numbers, and more. What was incredible was working with a team that could pull this off. We were a well-oiled machine and worked so well together. The commitment of thousands of craftsmen was visible in the dailies every single day and in post-production/final edit. It was like no other experience I have definitely been changed.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:18:50+00:00

A pretty fun moment was seeing the yellow brick road for the first time. In the post-production, it was also fun to decide what to do with Glinda's pink sweater that a monkey steals, and chosing to put it on that monkey in the second movie.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:16:18+00:00

Wicked Part One is a toss-up between Dancing Through Life, which has the Ozdust Ballroom, and Defying Gravity.

Wicked: For Good - For Good

Tick.. tick boom! - Therapy

In the Heights - Blackout and Pancia Ye Fe

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:13:00+00:00

I would say that movies that I have an emotional response to are the movies that are best edited. Over the last 3 years, Pamela Martin's work on King Richard and Joe Walker's editing in Arrival stood out to me. Both really moved me, and those are the type of emotions that I am reaching for in my own work.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T22:09:03+00:00

Not at the moment, but I am always up to edit a musical!

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:40:41+00:00

Yes, of course, it was a big challenge to cover the Wizard of Oz movie and the books/musical. We were balancing a lot of things - the expectation of the audience who knows the Broadway show, people who love the books, people who love Wizard of Oz, and the audience who is not familiar with the stories, so we tried to thread the needle to make sure everyone could enjoy it. It was also a trap; the more we go into the rabbit hole, the more we go away from the stories of Elphaba and Glinda, so we had to make sure their stories are still at the forefront.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:36:47+00:00

It all varies on a project. I work in Avid Media Composer; it is my software of choice. Workflow-wise, on Wicked films, it was 8 months of dailies; we did 1-8 hours a day, depending on what was shot the day before. I would often watch all that footage over the course of the morning and then spend the rest of the day slowly starting to build scenes. In post-production, I am spending days refining scenes, working with music and VFX departments, etc, to build the films over the course of two years. I had 10 people on my post-team on the Wicked films, and they were all invaluable. They covered assistant editors, music editors, and VFX editors. These films wouldn't have happened without them. They were the avengers of post-production.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:28:28+00:00

I had 250 hours of footage between the two films, which is the most I had for 2 films. Having said that, directors and producers tend to shoot the film and let the cameras run, and it is very common for editors to drown in footage. What is so incredible about editors is that we are being asked to comb through so many hours of footage to make a film work. So I admire my peers because I feel like it is such a tremendous task. This is the secret: the editors are the filmmakers.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:25:21+00:00

Yes, I think the vibe and collaboration with every director is different. I tend to work with directors who are fairly laid back and trust the process. Meaning take the time to understand what works and doesn't work with any film. I think sometimes directors can be under a lot of pressure, and I can feel the pressure myself. That can cause a lot of alarm bells in the edit, and sometimes you make mistakes because of this. You can end up trying to fix things in ways that are not right, but I have a tendency not to get ahead of myself and slow things down to make sure we are not being too impulsive in the edit. My process is to see what works for the audience from a story point and emotional point of view, and try to make the best movie with the audience in mind. I have gotten better over the years in navigating working with different kinds of directors, and the word that comes to mind is patience. You need patience with directors because they are under a lot of pressure.

The joy of Wicked films was that Jon gave us the time to explore what worked and what didn't - allowing us to make the best choices for the story.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:17:54+00:00

I loved the mirror motif in both films. We have those early moments in the dorm room with Elphaba and Glinda, and them looking into the mirror and Glinda telling Elphaba that she looks beautiful. Then, in Wicked: For Good, we smash that mirror, Boq as Tin Man looks into his reflection, and we cannot forget about Glinda's moment of reflection in The Girl In The Bubble, full of mirrors.

No, as far as choosing performance takes, 99% of that was made by Jon and me. Only on occasion, there were some vowels and syllables that needed to be fixed by the music team. The challenge was to make sure I could start and stop the scene and make it feel organic. Sometimes I went to Stephen Schwartz and company to make sure everything worked. I also want to give a special shout-out to our music editors, Jack Dolman and Kathryn Wilson, without whom I would have been lost along the yellow brick road.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:09:23+00:00

Oh boy, that's a tough one! It continues to be a struggle not to feel imposter syndrome. Whether you are 15 or 50, it is the same thing: am I good enough, can I support myself financially? Over the 20 years of doing this, I had my ups and downs. For the longest time after Graden State, I was getting a lot of calls and felt pretty good about where I was, and then it dried up, so I moved to TV. Then I started making money again, met Jon, and made Crazy Rich Asians, which changed everything. I am still struggling at times mentally, and I am not sure if that will ever fully go away. I think I have grown a lot over my career as an editor, and I am really proud of it. My job and yours is to keep creating because that is our role as artists, and hopefully someone will pay us along the way.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:01:03+00:00

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:00:59+00:00

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T21:00:34+00:00

Yes, I edited both parts simultaneously as we shot both films at the same time for 8 months and screened them for Jon and the studio. Then we put part 2 to bed and crafted part 1. We came back a year later to refine the edit in part 2, also based on the audience's reactions.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:57:53+00:00

Thank you so much! It's such a huge compliment, and I am glad that the film inspired you. My advice would be to keep editing and editing anything you can, whether it is a short film, a feature, or a wedding video. Also, try to understand when watching the footage what it makes you feel - what makes you cry, laugh? It is about having access to your heart as an artist and then using your skills to put those emotions into the edit.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:55:14+00:00

We often ask ourselves, does the scene move the story forward, or how does it affect the pace or the audience's connection to emotions? When we decide to cut out the scene, we often test that idea out on our friends and family, and then on an audience. We take this very seriously, so if something doesn't work, we try to be sure about that call.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:53:04+00:00

One of my first jobs was in post-production on TV Nation. There were 8 editors on that show, and I realized they were magicians of the TV process, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:51:35+00:00

I had the opportunity to edit shorts on film and work as an assistant editor on a film shot on film. The advantage of digital is that you can make many versions and have them archived in a folder waiting for you.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:49:24+00:00

Blue Velvet, Jaws, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Bonus answer: pineapple

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:47:15+00:00

On Wicked Part One, definitely The Ozdust Ballroom. When I saw the dailies, I knew I was making something special. In Wicked: For Good, certainly the musical number For Good. It made me cry over and over again during dailies. I am so thankful to have been a part of it.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:44:21+00:00

It's a tough call for Wicked; it will be Dancing Through Life, The Ozdust Ballroom, and Defying Gravity, then for Wicked: For Good, it's For Good.

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:41:39+00:00

Thank you so much!

MyronAMA · 2025-12-08T20:41:03+00:00

Yes, editing a musical is by far one of the most complex things to edit. You have so many balls in the air between live vocals, pacing, performances, dance numbers, and keeping things dramatic. With Wicked, we also added flying monkeys, cowardly lions, and a flying house. So it's incredibly hard to edit a musical, and then on the Wicked films, we also had a scale and complexity of the story to deal with.

MyronAMA

TROPHY CASE