It was May 2021. I was about to wrap on my first post-covid show, an MGM studio film called Samaritan, and I was actively looking my next gig. At this time, shows were finally picking back up after the over a year-long industry work stoppage caused by the brutal and devastating Covid lockdowns. I survived it, and finally the long wait for work to return was starting to pay off - I was finally getting a bunch of emails and phone calls about new shows starting up. The evidence was clear at the time - work was picking back up, and I suddenly had multiple shows to choose from.
Enter Coyote vs. Acme. At the time, it was just like any other gig - a fully remote job, work from home, studio movie. Covid restrictions were still in place, and people were still wearing masks and hesitating to return in person to offices. I was very cool with working remotely, and I accepted the gig.
The movie wasn’t even greenlit yet. My job was to help make the Pitch reels, so the studio could see potential and greenlight the film. That said, at the time everyone I was working with felt pretty optimistic and confident the film would likely get greenlit -that was the vibe at the time from the team.
CvA was a perfect summer 2021 gig. I could work entirely from home, catching my breath between two bigger in-person shows before and after, and I could just enjoy the summer and work on a really fun project with great hours, and with a really great and lovely team. At the time it was just a gig and I didn't think too much of it - I helped make this pitch presentation for the studio, and I did a lot of typical assistant editor work (a heavy amount of temp sound design, also temp vfx, assisting the editor, project organization, cutting in new previs/animatics, etc.). It was low key and low stress, no O.T. - my perfect and ideal gig.
The movie had not been shot yet. The movie had not even been cast yet. Everything was temp, and placeholder for what would eventually come later. We recorded Temp ADR using our own voices on our iPhones. The cut was in it's most raw and rudimentary form. Our reels were a mix of previs, animatics, and radio edits. A radio edit is literally text from the script over black, with temp sound design to carry you through the lack of visuals. That's all we had at the time. But the story was there, and I can tell you, it was very promising. We knew we had something special. You can just feel it when you're on a project that you know is good.
At the time we were working in Adobe Premiere (not Avid), which is rare when on a big studio project, but it can happen, especially in animation. There were advantages using Premiere, mainly the seamless ability to open graphics/visual effects files directly out of Premiere into After Effects and Photoshop, make changes, and the edit would be updated live in Premiere as soon as I hit "Save". Not all assistant editors know Premiere like they do Avid, but fortunately I was very experienced in Premiere and it was a perfect fit for me.
I started Coyote vs. Acme in May 2021. When I was hired, I was told it would be a 3 month gig, lasting until September 2021. That turned out to be true, and by September I was told we were winding down on the pitch presentation. I had multiple other job offers at the time, as the post-covid explosion of new jobs was now in full swing, and I had several different projects all reaching out to me at the same time about my availability. I ultimately chose a Russo Brothers film called The Gray Man, which was offered to me and I simply could not turn it down, as I was a huge Marvel fan. I wrapped Coyote vs. Acme on a Friday in mid-September 2021, and started The Gray Man on that very coming Monday.
As I was super busy working away on The Gray Man, I was aware that CvA would likely get greenlit and enter production in early 2022. Casting announcements started coming out. I stayed in touch with the editor I worked with, and learned the studio screening of the pitch reels went well, and the film was officially moving forwards. For most of my run on The Gray Man (late 2021 and early 2022), Coyote vs. Acme was essentially on hiatus, as they geared up to start production in the spring of 2022.
Finally, in my final months of The Gray Man, in spring of 2022, I once again indicated my interest in returning to CvA for production. I learned the show was leaving town entirely, and not returning. They shot the movie in New Mexico, then immedietly moved to London for post-production, so I ultimately did not have a chance to return, but it was ok because things were still so crazy busy at the time, I had multiple job offers as I was finishing The Gray Man, and I immedietly jumped onto Thor: Love and Thunder at Marvel Studios, and I didn't look back after that!
Over a year went by, and I was still very busy finding my path on multiple big budget studio projects, when the industry slowdown started, and not too long after that, the big announcement of Coyote vs. Acme's famous Cancellation came. We suddenly entered a very dark time, both for the film industry overall, and also especially for CvA. And CvA's cancellation was a huge shocking surprise for everyone, that came out of nowhere. I had continued to stay in touch with the editor, and learned that the film had been 100% finished at this point. All the crew knew was that their original release date was given to Barbie, and they were awaiting a new release date, when the cancellation news hit in late 2023.
I did not have as much at stake as the many others who worked on the film, as I was only on it for 3 months, while some others were on it for closer to 3 years... so I viewed CvA's cancellation as very unfortunate, but not really my big battle to wage. For me, it was just one gig of many, but a great experience. But of course I supported the film and absolutely wanted to see it get released. And as time went on, I started to really feel for the team and became more invested in seeing the film get the release it deserved. When the announcement finally did come that CvA would get released, I was so relieved and proud. This is a really good film, it did not deserve to get cancelled, and it's going to get love when it comes out. It was a huge privilege to have creatively contributed to very early versions of many sequences you will see on the big screen when the film finally comes out. That's all I'll say for now - go see Coyote vs. Acme on August 28th!!!
