BROADCAST SERIES
Human Footprint
Editing the Emmy-nominated series for PBS
ROLE: EDITOR
Earth is home to more than 10 million species. Yet the actions of one — humans — affect every other. Human Footprint follows evolutionary biologist Shane Campbell-Staton as he travels the world to explore our global impact.
When the series returned for a second season on PBS, I joined as a lead editor to help wrangle its sprawling coverage. Over the course of a year, I crafted 18 of the season’s 30 segments, refining hundreds of hours of footage into a high-octane, journey in science storytelling.
Image by Day’s Edge Productions
Challenges
Human Footprint explores lofty ideas, but to resonate with viewers, it needed to be fun. In Season 1, editor Andy Laub established a style drenched in 90s hip hop and laced with visual jokes. My goal was to honor this foundation while refining and focusing its rhythm.
From green light to air date, we had a brisk eighteen months to deliver six hours of television. This pace demanded:
Quick thinking: With an average of three shooters and six cameras per crew, we had an enormous volume of footage to sift through — often 40-80 reels for a 12-minute segment.
Creative autonomy: With directors focused on field production, I was often assigned to build the visual structure from scratch, translating raw footage into a story before the first review.
Intricate sound design: Since the show’s kinetic style relies heavily on SFX, directors needed to hear provisional sound design as early as the rough cut.
Exploration and Solutions
Find the Pivots
Work on every segment began with a script and a dialogue stringout. I would play the audio against the text, hunting for the "and," "but," and "therefore" moments where the story pivoted. Once I mapped these structural turns, I built a playlist in Epidemic Sound for each beat.
My guiding question was always: “How do I want the viewer to feel here?” I would isolate, cut, and loop individual instruments to tailor the tracks to the story. By the end, I’d have 10-15 cues arranged in an alternating pattern, creating a sense of motion through moments of intensity and release.
Image by Angel Morris
Image by Mike Morrell
Visual Assembly
With music and dialogue in place, I waded into the footage. To find things quickly, I created detailed bin structures for each segment, organizing shots by location, setup, and camera format.
As my mental map of the footage clarified, I roughed in visual sequences, gradually refining shot selection for continuity and flow. By taking ownership of these initial choices, I ensured that when the directors entered the edit bay, we could focus on refining the emotion rather than hunting for coverage.
Stock and Archive
Human Footprint dove deep into its subjects, covering everything from Las Vegas’ water infrastructure to slavery in the shrimp supply chain. Despite prodigious output from our field crew, gaps in coverage were inevitable. I utilized stock libraries to enrich our setups and broaden the show’s sense of scale. I also worked closely with archival producer Katy Garrity to source specific historical assets, which our partners at MK12 turned into gorgeous animated sequences.
Cooking with Sound
If editing a film is like cooking a meal, sound design is the sauce. Human Footprint relies on sound to justify its brisk visual pace, and while most productions wait until picture lock to begin sound design, we incorporated it at the rough cut.
I collaborated early with the designers at Ott House Audio, sending them SFX wish lists based on dailies. By integrating their professional ambience and FX packages from the start, we achieved a detailed soundscape early in the process, giving the directors a clear vision while easing deadline pressure for the mix engineers.
Supervising the Season
As the season progressed, my role evolved from editor to problem-solver. I began assisting with segments that had stalled, offering a fresh perspective to troubleshoot narrative flow. Eventually, I served as the Supervising Editor for two episodes (Shelf Life and Dammed if You Do).
This role shifted my focus to unification: refining sequences across the episode to ensure stylistic continuity and conforming the final locked cuts to PBS’s broadcast clock, down to the second.
Collaboration
We had a dream team for this film:
Elliott Kennerson directed and wrote the script.
Angel Morris directed, edited, and wrote several themes for the score.
Mike Morrell recorded field audio during our boat trip.
Jeremy Roberts, Nova West, and Matthew Busch helped film seagull behavior on Anacapa Island.
Sam Wolff and Georgia Krause provided G&E support during our Seattle shoot.
Katy Garrity surfaced archival footage and wrangled clearances.
Stephen Derluguian made our footage come alive with a stunning color grade.
Ott House Audio designed and mixed the sound.
Seth Samuel composed and performed the original score
Image by Georgia Krause
Results
Love Birds premiered at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival in April 2025 and has since screened at more than 20 festivals worldwide, including DC/DOX, Hot Springs, and Flickers Rhode Island. At the St. Louis International Film Festival, it won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short, qualifying for the 2026 Academy Awards.
The film also received Best People & Nature - Long Form and Best Editing honors at the 2025 Jackson Wild Media Awards.
Love Birds is currently seeking distribution as its festival run continues.
