All Episodes

April 24, 2026 13 mins

Kiwi film and television editor Bryan Shaw joined Matt and Tyler to chat about his experience working on Lee Cronin's The Mummy. 

The film focuses on a journalist who's young daughter disappears into the desert, but eight years later returns.

"I worked really closely with (Cronin), he let me read the script over 2 years ago, Then 3 months before the shoot, I started doing storyboards with them, adding sound effects and music to them, then I went to Ireland and I was on set editing, which is really the best experience I've ever had," Shaw said. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
News Talks EDB.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Lee Cronin's The Mummy tells the story of the young
daughter of a journalist disappearing into the desert without a trace.
Eight years later, the family is shocked when she is
returned to them. Is what should be a joyful reunion
turns into a living nightmare. This is a film that
blends atmosphere, at tension and storytelling in a way that
really sticks with you long after watching. I saw it

(00:38):
last night and I'm still thinking about it. It's in
cinemas right now. It's brilliant. Go check it out. Multi
award winning Brian Sure here's the editor behind this film
whose work helps bring all of those elements together seamlessly.
He's also been behind the editing brilliance of the likes
of Outrageous Fortune, A Evil Dead Rise, and of course
the Devil Dead Me to Brian Sure is with us
right now. Brian, good to see.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
You, good, good, glad to be here.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
So, Brian, how do you rise through the ranks from
little Old New Zealand to the point you are editing big,
terrifying Hollywood horror movies.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Well, I work with a good friend, Mark Beasy on
Outrageous Fortune, who's a really good director and producer, and
so he introduced me to Rob Tappitt.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Rob Tappett, who you know was one of the three originators.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Of Evil Dead. Yeah, him, Rob Sam Raimie, Bruce Campbell.
They decided they were going to kick off a new
Evil Dead film and they got in fed A Albrez.
So I met with Fede and we kind of clicked
and that film did really well, and I was really
proud of it. And then it was it was horrible.

(01:42):
It was it was a horrible Yeah, it was very traumatizing,
very traumatized.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
It was horrible, And I mean that has a compliment.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, thank you. Yeah, it's always fun to go into
a cinema and when you cut horror and that that's
the real kick. If you get in with an audience
and you see people like reacting it. So it's a
reaction type genre. You're waiting for it.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
People need to see horrors in movie theaters if they can.
It's a totally different experience than then watch in the
comfort of your own home. Especially the Mummy. This latest one.
Talk us through the process, because on The Mummy you
were right there through the production and for months and
months afterwards in a dark edit Sweeten Island.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Right, Yes, Well, basically me and Lee, you know we
did after we did Rise. You know, we got really
close and you get really close the edited director relationships
like no other relationship on set. You're there from before,
you're there during, and then you're there just with the
trauma of Okay, there's always a period of trauma after

(02:41):
the shoot. You know how we're going to pull this together.
Basically I work really close with them. He let me
read the script over two years ago. Then three months
for the shoot, I started doing storyboards with him, adding sound,
efics and music to them. Then I went to Ireland
and I was on set editing, which is really the
best experience we've ever had. So they're cutting the camera,

(03:01):
I'm taking the shot up to the suite. I'm putting
it in especially for action sequences, taking it down to Lee.
We're going that's working, that's not working. When need to
do this, so very very interactive. Then into the suite,
got a huge assembly. Then the pressure is ready on.
We went into the suite every day pulled the curtains,
shut the door, and we worked six seven day weeks,

(03:23):
sometimes thirty days in a row. I was doing sometimes
huge sound mixes for test screenings, nineteen hour sound mixes,
and it just went. This film was like you know
when you watch it, Yeah, it was editing. It was
just it was just exciting but tough. We were so hard, yeah,
and we and all the way up to the end.

(03:45):
It was just a really really intense.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Edit, so intense and long and grueling. And you talk
about the relationship between editor and director but laughs as well.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, mainly at my expense Lee Lee. The Irish humor
is you know, like you always know Irish people were
when the when they're nice to someone's nice to you
in Ireland, it's like then it's like New Zealand, like
you know someone and puts you down. It's actually and
so you know, I'd be working away and Lee would
just be tormenting me, like a bit like Haiti for hours.

(04:22):
But no, we did. But there was of course tears,
and there was also robust debate and you name it
it was. It was Lee cares a lot and I
care a lot, and we fight hard for the film
and that's always at the front of our minds. But
I tell you, like, we were in a sound stage
doing The mex in l A and we looked at

(04:42):
each other and we were saying shit ha. We worked
in a suite like besides the shoot, we were in
an edit sweet for like eight months and we never
went to lunk. We never left the room.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, that is intense.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, so it is one of the scariest movies I've
ever seen. So from an editing perspective, how do you
build that level of Tira in an edit?

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, it's basically like I said, it's like we just
have to constantly experiment with every version of every scene.
So most scenes there's forty to fifty versions of every
individual scene, and then there's over I've got over one
hundred and fifty versions of this film and some big changes,

(05:28):
some small changes, some structurally, So it's just constantly making
sure and thee really experiments a lot. He'll be giving
me the idea one, I'm doing it, He's got idea
two and three coming at me, so he's constantly is
this really the best way we can do this? Is
that shot just a bit too long? And then on
top of it. What I do, which is a bit

(05:48):
more unusual, is I work really closely with the sound
designer from the assembly stage. So I believe the interaction
on any film, but particularly horror, is picture, sound and
music working together early. Yes, Yeah, so that's it.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
So people say Brian that no one really knows what
the story they are telling until they get into the
edit suite. So when you're editing, is everything on the
table in terms of cuts that you're able to work with.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah. Basically my attitude towards any film is you've got
the script, and these scripts to be Hones's whole pretty tight.
Sometimes we'll go all the way down all these rabbit
holes and try one hundred different versions or something and
come back to it. Well, actually the script that order works.
Having said that, I tend to I did a lot

(06:38):
of documentaries early, so I just look at it and
I just think I can put any single shot anywhere
I like if it makes it better. So you just
keep an open mind, really open mind.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Does it scare you the movie at all? When you're
sitting there this week? Can you get outside of because
I watch it and I don't know anything. I haven't
read the script. I haven't seen any of the takes.
I wasn't on set, so I start to believe it's real,
and my heat and part of my head. Is there
any part of you that enters into the film and
believes the characters and gets a little bit creeped out?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
But I think. I mean, I've watched it over two
hundred and fifty times, so I don't. I don't think
it does anymore, I think, but I do try. And
when I'm doing the first cut, I have this theory
about anything I cut that there's this moment when you
first get it where you're the audience, like there's the
first time you see footage. Yeah, And I try to

(07:34):
hold that the very and I try to do a
really fast first cut where I'm just emotionally responding to it. Fear.
You know, there's a lot of emotion in the film
as well. In my first cut, I try to tap
into that and then then refine it. I don't initially
over watch all the footage. Then I watch a lot
of the footage, so you're right now, it probably doesn't.

(07:56):
I tend to look around the room and enjoy watching
other people be traumatized. But yes, there was definitely trauma.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, and it must be a great moment when you say,
when you're sitting watching it, it must be great when you
watch it with the final audio max, the final score,
everything played out, so it is an actual movie finished.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, I mean one hundred percent. I mean, I'm working
in this suite. I've got well, you know, I'm working
with temp music, temp sound effects. Although I do get
a lot of sound design early from Peter Orbrison who
was just this absu genius sound designer. But you know,
I got forty tracks. I'm doing my best. Then you

(08:38):
go to the sound stage and it was on it
was in Copenhagen where Peter lives, and it's amazing. You
walk into this room. It's a full seven point one
Dolby at my stage and they're mixing it. And that's
the first time actually where I'm seeing it on a
big screen and I mean they're running one thousand tracks
of audio. Yeah, and it's just, yeah, it really comes alive.

(09:03):
That's when it really comes alive from here is when
you start to hear that sound, which is once again,
where you go to see this sort of thing has
to be in a cinema. Yes, you're not going to
get the experience in your lounge with you're just not
sound wise yep. So anyway, so that you're right. That's
the big kick for me is when I first get
to the soundstage.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Incredible in a movie thera and agy say, you've got
to be in that theater to experience it. What do
you think movies are so hard to get right?

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Ah? Yes, I thought about this quite a lot. I
think basically it's deceptive that there's you think about. The
sound stage has a thousand tracks, right, every single thing
is bespoke and made like the poor canary at the
front is you know that is a robotic canary. Everything

(09:51):
there's a million moving parts, hundreds of people making it,
and every one of those parts, and every one of
those people needs to work perfectly. If any piece fails,
then the whole thing fails. If any scene fails, the
whole movie fails. If any performance fails, the whole film fails.
So my job is constantly to stay critical of everything,

(10:12):
including my own work. But then on top of it,
I think there's a dark art and there's a certain
magic and just chance in filmmaking, and so it's like music,
if everyone knew the formula for a number one hit.
Every band would just have a million hit songs. But
you just can't quite define it because films are basically

(10:32):
they're kind of living and breathing things. From the minute
you roll to the minute you lock the cut and
the sound mix, the thing is just constantly changing. So yeah,
I think it's just a bit of magic in it.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yeah, you've obviously edited comedy and horror, and in horror,
there's always comedy. Horror for some reason, is a great
genre for little stabs of comedy. So what gives you
more satisfaction scaring the crap out of someone or making
them laugh?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Well? Both really, both really, and some horror fans ready
to get it. Yeah, you know, they just get it.
It's sort of like, you know, it's that dark yellows humor.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, some people who.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Goes too far when it goes that extra step and
you're kind of almost angry at the filmmakers. You're like,
come on, but with.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
More emotions here.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
There was a few moments in this film. I'm like,
you've added about two or three things on top of
my already well outside my comfort zone.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
No, I was reading this, so there's pick there's literally
people who can't clip their nails at the moment.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
This is going to be a problem.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
You're right, You're right. It's a real kick. But I
think comedy horror, I mean I love yeah, yeah, if
you could do both, I mean yeah, I mean that
that's the cack, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah? Well, oh my god, Jesus, something from the movie.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Don't do that to me.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
You're too free now.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
For that, mate, was getting your mouth.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
So Brian, you're undoubtedly, you know, our best film and
TV editor, and you've saved my ars on at least
two major productions.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's hard to do in the past.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
Was it was a pleasure coming coming and saved so
so I'm so pleased to watch you succeed on the
on the bigger stage. And you know, The Mummy, it's
just such a terrifying but brilliantly you know, created movie
with with deep, deeper messages that that may I not

(12:25):
may I may not be you know, understood by everyone.
But just a fantastic movie. And you're a fantastic human
being in a great New Zealander. And thanks for so
much for coming and talking to us.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Thanks very much.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I appreciate it, really enjoyed that that is Brian, sure,
of course. And Lee Cronan's The Mummy is in theaters
across the country right now. Go and see it, and
you've got to go see it at the theater. The atmosphere,
that shared experience it is terrifying and beautiful and you'll
think about it for a long time afterwards.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
The bigger the screen, in the in, the louder the sound,
the better for yourself.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Brian, thanks again.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
For more from News Talks b Listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on radio
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Hey Jonas!

Hey Jonas!

Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.

  • Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • AdChoicesAd Choices