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.

How do you shoot a film where time doesn’t move forward, but folds in on itself? For Fabian Gamper, the answer was building a visual language that treats every image like a memory — layered, subjective, and deeply tied to place.

This week on Below the Line, Skid is joined by Fabian Gamper and co-host David Tuttman to discuss the cinematography behind Sound of Falling, the Cannes Jury Prize-winning film that blends four time periods into a single, interconnected visual experience.

From the beginning, Fabian approached the project with a guiding principle: the farmhouse location would dictate the look. Rather than designing separate visual styles for each era, he and director Mascha Schilinski chose to unify the film through a consistent, naturalistic approach — allowing light, texture, and production design to signal shifts in time while maintaining a shared emotional language across generations.

Topics include:

• Building a “memory structure” visually — and why all time periods were treated with the same cinematic language
• Using a single farmhouse location as both logistical anchor and creative constraint
• Designing naturalistic lighting that still carries emotional intent, from candlelight to LED sources
• Creating a filmic look digitally, including Look-up Table development and 16mm emulation
• Balancing available light with precise planning — including timing shots to the position of the sun
• Solving complex practical challenges, from child actor scheduling to in-camera stunt solutions
• Using long lenses and selective framing to reflect how memory distorts perspective
• Reinforcing theme through technique — including recurring visual motifs like reflected light

What emerges is a conversation about control and surrender — knowing when to shape the image, and when to let the environment lead. Whether working with limited resources or ambitious ideas, Fabian’s process shows how a clear visual philosophy can unify even the most complex narrative structures.

🎧 Press play — or watch the full conversation on YouTube — and go Below the Line on Sound of Falling. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.

What happens when you build an action movie from the discipline, pain tolerance, and physical language of ballet? For Director Vicky Jewson, the answer became Pretty Lethal — a film where movement isn’t just style, it’s story.

This week on Below the Line, Skid is joined by Vicky Jewson and co-host Katie Carroll to go behind the camera on Pretty Lethal, the action thriller now streaming on Prime Video.

From the outset, Vicky approached the project with a clear mandate: ballet wouldn’t be window dressing — it would drive everything. That meant immersing herself in the world of professional dance, collaborating with prima ballerinas, and building an entirely new movement language that blends choreography and combat into what the team ultimately dubbed “Ballet-Fu.”

The conversation explores how that idea shaped every stage of production:

• Why the film was designed “ballet first, fight second,” and how that philosophy led to the creation of a new stunt vocabulary
• Building a hybrid team of dancers and stunt performers — and how seven weeks of prep transformed ballerinas into action-ready doubles
• The logistics behind intensive rehearsal, previs, and on-location blocking — including shooting complex sequences with an editor assembling scenes in real time
• Designing action set pieces as evolving story beats, allowing the audience to discover Ballet-Fu alongside the characters
• The decision to embrace the visual symbolism of tutus — not as spectacle, but as a statement about strength, femininity, and perception
• Creating a collaborative, high-trust environment on set, where tone, culture, and preparation all contribute to performance

Along the way, Vicky discusses the realities of getting a film like this made — from years of development and packaging to finding the right partners and building a team that could execute at scale. She also reflects on working with Uma Thurman, whose performance balances heightened, almost mythic energy with emotional grounding.

What emerges is a conversation about preparation, collaboration, and intention — and how a clear creative idea, carried all the way through production, can define the identity of a film.

🎧 Press play — or watch the full conversation on YouTube — and go Below the Line on Pretty Lethal. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.