Adam Sandler: Love You marked the return to stand-up for the comedian. The Netflix special is the second partnership between Sandler and the streamer, following 2018's
100% Fresh. Josh Safdie directed the project, having worked with Sandler and co-director Benny Safdie in the past on the film
Uncut Gems.
Scott Adderton served as post production producer on the 2024 special, and says he's been working with Sandler in different capacities since 2002, helping to market his films and manage content that appears on his video walls during live performances.
"I was brought in onLove You to build out the gear and (Adobe) Premiere workflow skills in post production to make sure the workflow made sense for the project and all the technical parts of post production work smoothly," Adderton explains.
"(Lead assistant editor) Michael Heubel and I built the Premiere production that was shared to five Apple Mac Mini M2 editing systems. We used a NEXIS NAS that was shared over 10-gig ethernet. All the systems were set up using Jump Desktop for remote editing."
Adderton says a few helpful procedures included labeling the different multi-cam shows in different colors so the team could quickly tell which show a joke or song was sourced from.
"We also burned in the show number into the bottom burn in on every clip of the proxies, so on playback you could easily tell which show the song or joke was coming from," he reveals. "One of the most challenging aspects of the project was, we had 48 tracks of live, recorded audio we wanted to carry with us through the show," he shares. "We ended up only carrying five, with the ability to match back to get any of the 48 tracks to drop in the edit."
His favorite part of the project was the ability to integrate Sandler and Safdie’s vision to make it an intimate experience that stands apart from Sandler’s larger tour performances.
"Also, getting the opportunity to work with Josh Safdie and his post production team to achieve the look and feel Josh wanted was fantastic. Can’t wait for the next one!"
For lead assisted editor Michael Heubel, Love You was his first project with Happy Madison, Sandler’s production company.
"Through a referral from Aaron Champion (of Champion Turf), I had a productive interview with Scott Adderton and (lead editor) Brian Robinson," Heubel reveals. "And they were gracious enough to work around some scheduling conflicts and get me on the team!"
The production had editing teams in both New York and Los Angeles working simultaneously.
"Our Premiere production set-up was essential to seamlessly sharing media and edits between all parties," Heubel explains. "We created a ‘supergroup’ for the final comedy song of the different performances and all the archival clips sourced from across generations of comedians. Working on that and seeing all those performances and the homage to the art form really brought the show home. And the bookending narrative scenes - shot on 35mm - helped transform what could have otherwise been a great standup special into something even more interesting and fantastical."