Rob Feld
Nicole Brik finds the edit via a casual click of a button.
Back in high school, when Final Cut Pro debuted, Brik tasted crafts for the first time while organizing a creative project. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she recalled. “I just pressed the button and the magic happened.” Story-telling and accessible technology intertwined, and Brik was fascinated.
From there, her path was not entirely linear. Convincing immigrant parents that Hollywood may be a viable career choice that needs research, as she said, “facts.” After circling the hospitality industry, Brik provided the numbers from the editor’s guild salary scale and opportunities offered by the ace (student competition). “It’s not what I want,” she said of the latter option. After years of dissatisfaction, she said she quit and applied for graduate students at Chapman University, eager to start fresh.
One milestone led to another: nominations in the ACE student competition, spending countless hours of commuting between Orange County and Los Angeles, and finally her first major breakthrough – Nighttime Assistant Editor who won the union era Position. “Literally, on my 100th day, I got the call,” she said.
Brik’s latest collaboration with showrunner Liz Feldman is “No Good Deed,” a dark comedy that circulates on Netflix, in the eight and a half hours of drama The set unfolds, followed by three very different families as they competed to buy the Spanish-style villa of the 1920s, which seemed to be in the Spanish-style villa that seemed to be in the Spanish-style villa. Los Feliz’s idyllic Los Angeles community. The house promises to solve their problems, but it quickly shows that it is a dream. The center of the chaos is Lydia and Paul Morgan, played by Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, their views on selling their own family homes contradiction. As they struggle to bury the dark and dangerous secrets inside the walls, the couple find themselves at a crossroads, facing life-changing changes they have never seen before. Paul remains stoic when Lydia begins to express her long-standing repressed emotions, and their contrasting reactions echo the house’s troubled legacy.
Movie: Tell me about your relationship with show host Liz Feldman and find the grammar of the series in the pilot?
Nicole Brik: When I started “ungood deeds,” it was interesting that at the time, my resume didn’t show a lot of comedy experience. I made a short film here and there, but nothing more. However, Liz is looking for someone who has both comedy and dramatic experiences – someone can fall into a favorite in between. She loves the dramatic work I do, and I think she feels like she will find that balance in the comedy context. Actually, I’m going to cut down an episode directed by someone I’ve interned right after graduate school. He was so happy with the episode that he praised my praise for Liz. From there, I just got her tone and her dark sense of humor. The first season, I barely saw her editor, I think, Am I doing this? But it turns out that this is a good thing. I nailed my tone early, which made her life easier. That’s how I ended up working in all three seasons “Dead to Me” seasons, and ultimately “No good thing.” I’m nervous about this new project because I want to prove that I’m not a monorail pony and that I can do more than “death to me”. I’m happy to say that everything goes well. I was able to hear her voice and understand the tone of the show from the beginning.
Movie: Can you give an example, you find “Ah, what is this show?”
Brick: The DNA of the Leeds show is indeed dark humor. With “no good deeds,” we allow ourselves to play more with comedy, especially because the script involves such heavy themes of sadness and loss. Characters – Lydia and Paul are going on very different journeys, so we need to strike the right balance. In the early days of the pilot, Lydia and Paul sat in their son’s room, discussing whether to sell the house. I walked back and forth in that scene throughout the cutting because I had to make sure we were loyal to their experiences and emotions. Some are more inclined to comedy, others are more dramatic. Once I started seeing the daily for the rest of the season, I tried to keep Lydia’s voice consistent and take root in that moment. Lisa Kudrow is so fun, but I want to be true to the reality of her sadness and mother’s journey. That scene really sets the tone for the rest of the show.
Movie: Such shows must balance comedy, suspense and drama. What kind of coverage will you get?
Brick: There is no storyboard for most of the show. We usually shoot with two cameras. The only part of the storyboard is the VFX transition sequence, and for this we already have the previous time so we can determine the schedule before filling in the shot. We are working with such a huge comedian, and there is a lot of gold in the script. But we also have to be careful not to throw comedy just for comedy-we need to be loyal to the characters. There is coverage, but it is very scenario-specific. For example, the opening scene is read like a single time in the script, which is how they shot in the beginning. At some point, they decided to get some safety nets, which was ultimately a wise decision. For a while, we stayed in that single room until the kitchen scene. But we realized we wanted to get to Paul and Lydia’s story as soon as possible, so the coverage gave us the flexibility to tighten our schedules and make pacing better.
Movie: Can you weigh such a decision (to cover the security range), or a production phone?
Brick: I believe Liz and director producer Silver Tree had a conversation ahead of time. I think they are still going to be singles, but they also have vision to capture coverage. I’m really glad they did–eventually become the right call for the show.
Movie: What is important to you about this show?
Brick: This experience is incredibly a fully collaborative environment. I shared the same instinct as Liz and Silver, which made the process so smooth. Building these relationships is crucial and really helps the performance success. This is not only for this series, but for any project you work on. I had a great time having fun. I am very grateful to Liz for her storytelling and I hope to continue working with her with any ability. You learn something new from each project, and for that, it’s about dealing with ensemble actors. I learned how to keep the story arc and sound clear for each character. At some point, we actually go beyond a character’s scene to see their arc in full view. It’s a key storyline and we want to make sure we get rewards at the end of the season. It’s worth making sure everything is tracked and the right emotional beat is worth the effort. We sat down, looked at it, thought, OK, we’re fine.
