Jamie Martin was an editor on Season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The show’s earned 27 Emmy Awards and has become a staple in modern pop-culture as it follow the drag queens who compete to become "America's Next Drag Superstar."
A highlight from Season 15 is the “Wigloose: The Rusical!” episode, which features show-stopping performances while also addressing the real-world issues impacting the drag community.
“For the edit on 'Wigloose,' we wanted to make sure that we highlighted each queen's performance to the fullest extent,” Martin (pictured) explains. “We were so fortunate that each queen gave such dedicated performances. I think this speaks to the pertinence of the storyline of a town trying to ban drag and how connected the queens felt with this theme. Using each queen's best takes to start the structure of the edit, we then put the importance on making the viewer feel as if they were watching a Broadway performance from the front row.”
The amount of material for each episode can vary, but Martin says the “Wigloose” episode was probably a 4:1 ratio.
“For entire episodes it varies, but we'll generally have two days of shooting per episode, with up to eight cameras. I would say our shooting ratio is about 15:1, however, this doesn't include interview days, where the queens shoot their confessionals, which are shot throughout the entire series.”
Most of the show’s editing takes place during post production, though elements are needed for the shoot, including “RuMails,” rough cuts of some of challenges and green-screen shots. The show is edited on Avid systems running on Macs. Graphical elements are created in Adobe After Effects.