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“Feedback Screenings Are Essential to the Process”: Editor Kayla Emter on Oh, Hi!

A young white couple hold each other close.Still from Oh, Hi!. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Director Sophie Brooks’ Oh, Hi! takes place over one weekend as it tracks the disintegration and attempted reconciliation of Iris and Isaac’s relationship (played by Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, respectively). The film will premiere as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres section.

Kayla Emter (HustlersAm I Ok?) served as the film’s editor. Below, she talks about the importance of staying true to the story and characters of the film and how she worked around a major continuity issue in a scene set to a beloved Bee Gees-penned classic.

See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here.

Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job?

Emter: Molly Gordon, who is both a producer and the lead in the film, recommended me for the project after the original editor had to drop out unexpectedly. We’d worked together briefly on Theater Camp and really connected, so she thought I’d be a great fit for Oh, Hi!—something I’m incredibly grateful for. The following day I was on a zoom with the director, Sophie Brooks, where we chatted about the script, how we like to work, and what we value as artists and as individuals. The next day I was hired, three days before production began, and relocated to New York that same week where the film was being posted.

Filmmaker: In terms of advancing your film from its earliest assembly to your final cut, what were your goals as an editor? What elements of the film did you want to enhance, or preserve, or tease out or totally reshape?

Emter: My main focus as an editor is to serve the story, stay true to the characters and keep the emotion at the heart of everything. In Oh, Hi!, it was about capturing the messy, thrilling, and emotionally layered reality of a new relationship. With the story taking place over just a weekend, it was crucial to track the characters’ emotional arcs carefully, ensuring their actions felt authentic and the progression natural. The goal was to avoid emotional jumps that might feel confusing or jarring to the audience.

We also worked hard to refine the film’s tone, which blends humor, emotional depth and a touch of subtle unease. Finding that balance was incredibly rewarding—whether through music, sound design, pacing or performance nuances, every choice added to the film’s layered personality and unique voice.

Filmmaker: How did you achieve these goals? What types of editing techniques, or processes, or feedback screenings allowed this work to occur?

Emter: For a film like Oh, Hi!, where one scene emotionally informs the next, we had to be very thoughtful in our process. Rather than making big bold changes or jumping around, Sophie and I took a thoughtful approach, working through each scene individually to evaluate how well the script’s vision was translating to the screen. Were there redundancies? Where are Iris and Isaac emotionally? What are we building to? Can we leave a scene earlier to keep our momentum up and propel into the next? Once we made that focus pass, we stepped back to look at the bigger picture to see where things might need restructuring or omitting to sharpen the flow.

When our objectivity began to fade and we found ourselves too close to the material, we turned to feedback screenings, which I believe are essential to the process. While they can be tough—because there’s always something more you want to improve—they’re incredibly valuable in figuring out what’s working and what isn’t. They also force us to defend our choices and reconsider things we thought were essential. Even if we don’t agree with every piece of feedback, they help push the film to be its best. Having deadlines and clear goals throughout the process helps me stay focused and prioritize the right changes.

Filmmaker: As an editor, how did you come up in the business, and what influences have affected your work?

Emter: When I was growing up in North Dakota, there wasn’t a film community, so I stumbled into my love for editing through technology—starting with the first version of iMovie and soon moving to Final Cut Pro. As soon as I realized the power of juxtaposition, you couldn’t pull me away from my computer. I’d film anything just to have material to edit. After graduation, I moved to Chicago to study at Columbia College and then to the American Film Institute in LA. Both schools cracked my film brain wide open. I gained so much knowledge on film history, theory, invaluable hands-on experience, and how to collaborate with a variety of filmmakers.

My first job out of AFI was digitizing old VHS and DVCam tapes of Joaquin Phoenix’s talk show appearances for the documentary I’m Still Here. My color-coded database and project organization caught their attention, allowing me to position myself as an assistant editor and join the team. With six editors contributing to the film, I gained valuable exposure to different approaches early in my career. That crash course in post-production opened the door to working with editors who not only supported my goals but also encouraged me to develop my own voice. They created opportunities for me to take on editing work, which was invaluable in my transition to fulltime editing.

Filmmaker: What editing system did you use, and why?

Emter: We used Avid Media Composer for Oh, Hi!. I’ve always found it reliable, especially when working on shared projects. After so many years of using it, the software feels like an extension of myself. I can focus more on the edit itself, letting the tools fade into the background while I get into the creative flow.

Filmmaker: What was the most difficult scene to cut and why? And how did you do it?

Emter: Early in the film, there is a scene where Iris and Issac are driving, singing along to “Islands in the Stream.” Even though it is a catchy, feel-good classic, it did overstay its welcome a bit, so we had to find a way to trim it without compromising the integrity of the song. But where the real struggle lay was with one big moment of continuity. Mid-song, there’s a kiss between the characters, and in some coverage, Iris’s hat falls off, and in others, it stays on, often during different parts of the song. We loved so many moments, but they couldn’t all stitch together. We realized the only certain way to find the best version of the scene was to comb through the footage and try all the versions, one edit at a time. It was a labor of love, and we definitely heard the song echoing in our dreams, but we felt really happy that we knew we landed on the strongest version.

Filmmaker: Finally, now that the process is over, what new meanings has the film taken on for you? What did you discover in the footage that you might not have seen initially, and how does your final understanding of the film differ from the understanding that you began with?

Emter: The script was so strong from the start that my understanding of the characters and story didn’t shift drastically, but it definitely deepened. As we worked through the footage, I got to really explore the core of who these characters are—their complexities, their vulnerabilities and how they navigate love, commitment, fear and all the messiness in between. The more we dug in, the more I found moments that felt deeply authentic, and I realized how important it was to share that with the audience.

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