Giving Shape to Broad City

Broad City—the fast-paced, hilarious, oftentimes bizarre half-hour show that follows two 20-something best friends as they navigate life in New York City—concludes its second season tonight, to the disappointment of fans. The show began as a web series before debuting on Comedy Central last year and stars cocreators and cowriters Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, as Abbi and Ilana (who else?).

Last week’s episode was typical of the kind of adventures that befall the two: Abbi meets Kelly Ripa while working at a coat check and later gets drunk with her, while Ilana starts dating a woman who looks just like her (and doesn’t notice until Abbi points it out). In another recent episode, Ilana inadvertently loses Abbi after her wisdom teeth are removed and she has a bad reaction to painkillers.

The show has had overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. According to New York Magazine’s media website Vulture, it is “just crazy-liberal enough to reflect the way millennials view the world, with no presiding sexual norms, no judgment on experimentation, and with diversity among friends and in the city at large that doesn’t feel like a quota.” The comedy was nominated for both Best Comedy Series and Best Actress in a Comedy Series (Glazer) at last year’s Critics Choice Awards.

Tonight’s finale and two regular season episodes were edited by Laura Weinberg (COM’96), who has spent close to two decades editing documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine (assistant editor), feature films like Boys Don’t Cry (conform assistant editor), and television shows like The Wire (assistant editor) and Childrens Hospital (editor).

Weinberg, who majored in film and television at the College of Communication, says she especially enjoyed working on tonight’s episode, titled “St. Mark’s,” in which a runaway teen threatens to interrupt Ilana’s 23rd birthday party celebration. BU Today spoke with Weinberg about her career and the differences between editing episodic and sketch comedy (she’s also worked on Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer).

BU Today: What does editing entail?

Weinberg: I put all of the pieces together. The footage comes to me in a raw state, and I get to assemble it into coherence.

How did your career unfold?

I knew I wanted to be an editor when I graduated. After graduation, I lived on Long Island and commuted into the city while interning at postproduction places. I then became an apprentice editor and an assistant editor, and eventually started cutting. That was all on film. I started cutting short things, like super–low budget documentaries. About five years ago I switched from film to TV.

I was one of the editors on IFC’s Onion SportsDome as well as the Onion News Network. While there, I started to work on season two of Inside Amy Schumer, and the editing house I worked for also cuts for Broad City. I’m mostly contacted by producers if they have a project going on. It’s word of mouth, so maybe another editor I know can’t do the work, and they call me. You start to get referred by friends.

Were you a fan of Broad City before you started working on the show?

Definitely. I watched the first season. Abbi and Ilana are so fun, and so is the show.

How did you prepare to edit season two episodes?

There’s a learning curve at the beginning of every show. Sometimes it’s helpful to have examples of the first season so you can see what direction they went in, and then you can try to match the editing style. But you should also put whatever spin you think you should put on it. First seasons, though, can be tricky because you don’t know what the style is yet. Second seasons are easier because it’s been figured out.

What do you mean when you refer to editing style?

Like, for instance, whether or not to use the actors’ improv, whether or not to keep the scenes tight or let them breathe more, and things like how many cuts to use, and whether or not to use lots of wide shots versus close-ups.

How much material are you given to cut down and edit for an episode?

It kind of depends on the episode. On Broad City, Abbi and Ilana do a lot of improv, which is great, but it also takes a lot more time to look at and cut and try to finesse the edit. It’s a 22-minute show, and the amount of footage really varies by episode. Episode 210, which airs tonight, was a different shooting style, but I don’t want to give too much away.

What are the challenges of editing an improvised scene?

Abbi and Ilana sit in on the editing process. You use the best moments from all of the improv, but sometimes they don’t cut together perfectly. So it’s like trying to get the jigsaw puzzle to fit with all of the best pieces you can get in there. If one of the ladies says something hilarious on camera, you have to try to figure out how to splice in the best reaction shot. You have to get the answer and the response to match up. If one tells a joke and the other responds, how do you get that to work? You have to find something that’s on camera for the second lady that will match.

What’s next for you?

Right now I’m working on the third season of editing Inside Amy Schumer. Working on that show is incredibly fun and different. It’s different because it’s cutting and editing sketches versus cutting episodes. Sketches live on their own, so you don’t have to connect them to the rest of the episode like you would a traditional TV episode. They are both fun styles to edit, though.

The season finale of Broad City airs tonight, Wednesday, March 18, at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.