We took a lot of time in that opening number to set up the rules. [Miranda] couldn’t have been more accommodating to allow us to break it. I got to know him more once we started shooting; he loved everything we were doing. In the recordings of all of the songs, he was pretty involved. In the edit, he gave us room to do our thing. He trusted us – he was right there.”

Most of the musical numbers in the film were prerecorded, save a few songs which were recorded live. “Champagne” was one such tune which was executed on set with a single camera angle. “A majority of it was a road map for sure,” says Kerstein of the material shot to playback. “But we would often have to go back to [executive music producers] Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman, and Lin-Manuel and say, for instance, that we needed a longer amount of music to do a section of the film.

A big part of this process was working with my music editors, Jennifer Dunnington and Jim Bruening. They must have done 15 musicals between them. I worked with them and sketched out ideas for timing purposes – we could then give it to Alex and Bill. It was a back-and-forth.” Cutting at Company 3 in Manhattan, Kerstein, with the help of 1st AE Andrew Pang and 2nd AE Elliott Traeger, took delivery of dailies, beginning in the summer of 2019 when footage from the New York location was first generated.

“I tried my best not to get overwhelmed,” he says. “Receiving the dailies was a real emotional experience. I would send Jon videos of me crying, connecting to the material, daily – feeling the heart and soul of these actors in the neighborhood. I let the dailies wash over me for two or three hours.”

Watching dailies throughout principal photography, Kerstein would take notes but sought to experience the footage like an audience member. “Then, I would be cutting a musical number while looking at dailies from another number,” he says of the nonlinear nature of the shoot. “I meticulously [went] from that database and started grabbing selects and building select reels.

I would break down a musical number by section. One day, I’m getting dailies for the song ‘It Won’t Be Long Now,’ and cutting ‘Carnaval [del Barrio],’ and selecting shots for another one. I bounced around as I completed any one scene.

Most of the musical numbers in the film would evolve over a period of weeks or even months. “I didn’t have a choice,” Kerstein says. “Otherwise, I’d be cutting one number for two weeks and not be doing anything else. I spent my time finding kernels, knowing full well that I’ve seen every single frame and
angle, without rushing.”

Simulaneously to Kerstein’s endeavors in the editing room, Chu was trying to best determine how the music would endemically wind in and out of the narrative, working with Miranda, Kerstein and the music team. “Music is another language,” Chu declares. “We were going to be tricky with the audience – we slap them in the face to start us out. It throws the audience off; this is not the Broadway show. We are going to be as honest as possible in the emotion of the story. Sometimes, it’s a beat done by an instrument. Sometimes, it’s a door or a coffee maker. The streets are made of music.”

Given that In the Heights is a core Lin-Manuel Miranda project, Kerstein says that editing many of the film’s scenes mandated a similar approach regardless of whether music was involved. “The cast’s singing was like dialogue where they are charming or emotional, or they make you cry. I approached it like a monologue. No difference to me, how I was cutting those scenes.” Many of Kerstein’s tasks involved the flourishes that would come in between musical numbers. “Should I embellish the cutting?” Kerstein wondered, focusing on a dazzling dance sequence inside a nightclub with both male and female dancers.

“Vanesssa, played by Melissa Berra, is dancing her ass off; I don’t need to cut her up. I want to cut to this person – a wide of the band where the drummer is hitting a cymbal. Hopefully, they are engaged like a big action sequence. It was important to me in cutting it to treat it like a real scene and not like a music video.

The second we treat it like a music video, it’s over. I could really go crazy, [but] we’re making a scene here, a set piece. I am not trying to wow them with my editing. That number is one of my favorites – you can feel the heat in that club.” For the first time in his career, Kerstein cut in 5.1 surround sound. “I could build, for Jon, a soundscape, so that we could feel the club in our edit room,” Kerstein says. “I’ve spent a lot of my career on musical-based films [his credits include Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist]. All of those things gave me the training for this moment. Wyatt Smith, ACE [editor of Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns] gave me an hour tutorial how to cut in 5.1.”

Another critical narrative moment involved an impending blackout when Usnavi (Ramos), Vanessa, and the rest of our family, wrestle with the tensions building so far in the film. “We constructed the dialogue, choreography, and little character moments, into one giant set piece, then we go all West Side Story crazy – building into almost chaos. Then we shut the lights off.”

Chu and Kerstein first worked with each other on Crazy Rich Asians and the trust between them grew during the course of this production. Chu says, “I shoot a lot and don’t cut a lot. Myron is a really good investigator of that. He’s emotionally sensitive. He’s collecting all of these moments. That means I can be more efficient as a director and more confident when I shoot.”

In addition to the element of trust, Chu relays that he is also able to be trickier when he is shooting. “We had to start working together in pre-production rehearsals with our choreographer Chris Scott and our DP [Alice Brooks]. I had clips for him to edit and play with on an iPhone. We sketch together; we will cut storyboards together – it then turns into rehearsal footage.

At dailies, he takes off. I see stuff weeks down the line.” Chu adds that Kerstein will communicate if there are any problems with the footage, or editorial needs are not being met. “It allows me to be free with my own ideas,” he says.

“Music and dance felt very fluid with Chris Scott and Alice. Technology helps us to stay in the loop. I had a board in my office on which I’d written an emotion that we aim to be feeling in each of these scenes. Everyone knew what the goals were.”

Once post-production was in full swing, Kerstein took the lead for the first two weeks before Chu joined him in the New York cutting room, with finishing touches taking place in L.A. in mid-2020. “We fight a lot, but the best idea always wins,” Chu says. “We have competing moments when we show [other] people the cut footage. Myron falls in love with these characters. He has such a humanity to his work.”