BELOW THE LINE PODCAST

The world of Influenced is one of luxury, exclusivity, and Manhattan's Upper East Side. Bringing that world to life on an independent film budget meant balancing creative ambition with production realities: making every location, every shooting day, and every production decision count.

This week on Below the Line, Bruce Edward Hall joins Skid to discuss Influenced, the independent comedy directed by Rachel Israel from a screenplay by Jill Kargman. Together, they explore the planning, coordination, and adaptability required to bring an ambitious feature to the screen, and how thoughtful preparation helped the production make the most of every opportunity.

Among the highlights:

Scheduling a 23-day feature around child actors, animals, celebrity cameos, and a one-camera production

Using Jill Kargman's relationships to secure extraordinary Upper East Side locations that would normally be beyond an independent film's reach

Making intimate locations and crowded luncheon scenes feel far larger than the budget allowed

Coordinating celebrity cameos and guest actors whose schedules left little room for rehearsal

Navigating everything from neighborhood disruptions to approaching thunderstorms while keeping production on track

Throughout the conversation, Bruce offers a behind-the-scenes look at the work audiences rarely notice, revealing how countless production decisions combine to make ambitious filmmaking look effortless on screen.

🎧 Press play and go Below the Line on Influenced. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.

By the penultimate episode of a serialized mystery, every decision matters. Screenwriter Yona Speidel takes us inside Episode 7 of The Boroughs, where the show's many storylines converge as the season races toward its finale.

This week on Below the Line, Yona Speidel discusses her work on The Boroughs, the Netflix sci-fi mystery series created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. Together, she and Skid explore how a modern television writers' room operates, how Yona's specific episode evolved during development, and how real-life experiences helped shape key moments in the series.

Among the highlights:

How the writers' room collaborated to break down the entire season before a single episode was drafted

Why Episode 7 became the show's "heist episode" and the process of bringing multiple storylines together

Planning a complex action sequence inside the Manor before any actual sets had been built

Drawing on family history, retirement communities, and personal memories to shape key moments in the script

Balancing a writer's creative contributions with the vision of a show's creators and showrunners

Throughout the conversation, Yona offers an inside look at the collaborative nature of television writing, revealing how ideas move from the writers' room to the screen while adapting to the realities of production.

🎧 Press play and go Below the Line on The Boroughs. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.

A station wagon ride. A movie theater. A bathtub drain. In IT: Welcome to Derry, some of the most ordinary places become the source of the show's most memorable nightmares.

This week on Below the Line, Film Editor Esther Sokolow joins Skid and co-host Gianni Damaia to discuss editing the pilot episode of IT: Welcome to Derry. Building on the world established in IT Chapters One and Two, Esther breaks down how the creative team crafted the pilot's most memorable scares while exploring an earlier chapter in Pennywise's history.

HBO provided four clips from the pilot episode, giving Esther the opportunity to break down:

The station wagon sequence that transforms a seemingly kind family into one of the pilot's most disturbing nightmares

The theater massacre and the editorial decision to anchor the chaos through Lilly's point of view

Teddy's encounter with the living lampshade and the practical effects hidden within the scare

Lilly's bathtub vision and the subtle editorial tricks that make Pennywise's presence feel unnervingly wrong

Beyond the individual scares, Esther explains how horror editing relies on audience empathy, carefully controlled perspective, and a deep understanding of what viewers fear before the monster ever appears. From sound design and pacing to practical effects and performance, she offers a fascinating look at adapting Stephen King's world for television while creating an identity uniquely suited to IT: Welcome to Derry.

🎧 Press play and go Below the Line on IT: Welcome to Derry. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.

How do you stage prison riots, cliffside fights, and high-speed chases when you only have a few hours to shoot each sequence? For Stunt Coordinator Victor Paguia, the answer starts with preparation, collaboration, and a willingness to solve problems on the fly.

This week on Below the Line, Victor Paguia joins Skid to discuss his work on FBI, the long-running CBS series now heading into its ninth season. Having been with the show since the pilot, Victor breaks down three standout action sequences from Season 8 and explains how his team delivers ambitious stunts under the demanding schedule of a network television production. 

We discuss:

Planning and executing a truck-to-truck jump at 40 miles per hour in eight-degree weather

Pulling off a crucial hot-rod entrance with a single take before the street reopened to traffic

Teaching actors fight choreography on the day of shooting, a few moves at a time

Designing a prison-riot fight around a dramatic overhead camera move

Finding stunt doubles for guest stars cast only days before filming

Creating a cliffside rescue sequence using real locations, stunt performers, and a custom-built set

Throughout the conversation, Victor returns to the same challenge: balancing ambition with reality. Whether he's coordinating a vehicle jump, choreographing a fight, or hanging stunt performers over a real cliff, every creative decision must account for time, budget, safety, and the practical demands of episodic television. The result is a fascinating look at the planning and problem-solving that make action storytelling possible. 

🎧 Press play and go Below the Line on FBI. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.

Adapting manga to live action has defeated more than a few ambitious productions. But somehow, One Piece became one of Netflix’s biggest successes — by embracing spectacle without losing sight of character.

This week on Below the Line, Film Editor Eric Litman returns to the podcast alongside regular guest and co-host Christopher Angel to discuss the editorial challenges behind Netflix’s hit adaptation of One Piece. From reshaping major sequences in post to balancing fan expectations with emotional clarity, Eric breaks down how the series found its rhythm — and why grounding the story emotionally became the key to making its larger-than-life world work.

Among the highlights:

Reworking the opening of Season 2 to establish energy, tone, and momentum from the very first scene

Building complex visual effects sequences before the effects themselves even existed

Using pacing, speed ramps, and eye-lines to shape action scenes around character perspective

Finding visual inspiration in the original manga while still allowing the live-action series to stand on its own

How editorial restructuring and pickups helped strengthen emotional connections between the Straw Hats

Collaborating with previs, sound, stunt, and VFX teams across multiple countries during post-production

Why the creative team resisted “fan service” in favor of character-driven storytelling

The emotional audience reactions that revealed just how deeply One Piece connects with its fans

What emerges throughout the conversation is how much modern editing — especially on a visual effects-heavy show like One Piece — depends on collaboration. Eric describes a process that extended far beyond the cutting room, involving constant communication between editorial, sound, previs, visual effects, production, and performance.

🎧 Press play and go Below the Line on One Piece. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.