In Fall of 2021, the team behind The Jinx faced a daunting challenge: how to develop a new season of the groundbreaking true crime series after six years while modernizing their workflow during the pandemic. Season 1, which premiered on HBO in early 2015, had been edited in traditional edit suites using Final Cut Pro 7. With a mix of daisy-chained Firewire hard drives and obsolete editing software, diving into Season 2 required a new strategy. “We needed a solution that could bring our team together, no matter where they were, and provide the flexibility and support to adapt to an ever-changing production landscape,” said Executive Producer Kyle Martin. “Frame One was the clear choice.”

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Frame One equipped The Jinx editorial team with high-performance remote workstations in their New York City data center. With shared storage on Frame One’s 100Gb fiber optic network and load balancing across multiple 10Gb internet connections, the team had reliable, round-the-clock access. Utilizing up to 12 workstations and 125TB of shared storage during the two year edit, Frame One’s centralized infrastructure allowed the project to scale effortlessly while meeting the show's strict content security requirements.

The Challenge: A New Era, A New Workflow

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From the very beginning, the editorial team had to reckon with Season 1's legacy technical constraints. Season 2 needed to adapt not only to new software—moving from Final Cut Pro 7 to Adobe Premiere—but also to a new hybrid workflow that could accommodate remote collaboration. This challenge was magnified by the nature of the story: a documentary series unfolding in real time. The production's timeline had to be flexible, ready to pivot as new developments emerged.

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Lead Assistant Editor Pedro Vital, who joined the project from Portugal, recalls the effort that went into integrating the old Final Cut Pro 7 projects, “We had to backtrack footage from Season 1, often recreating sequences with little more than references like ‘that shot from Episode 3, 30 minutes in.’ With Final Cut 7 no longer compatible on most computers, I set up a virtual machine where I could open old projects and track down the metadata to locate the footage.”

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By ingesting all media into a centralized shared storage system on Frame One, Pedro and his team of assistant editors were able to create a new structure they could tailor for Season 2. With the ability to seamlessly expand their storage pool, The Jinx team had access to all footage in one place. Pedro recalled, “Having all the footage accessible on remote workstations was a huge advantage. It made our jobs much easier.”

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Embracing Remote Flexibility

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The shift to Frame One allowed the production to take advantage of a new geographic freedom, which proved critical for assembling top-tier editorial talent. Instead of being limited to editors based in one city, the production could now tap into a global pool of talent. Pedro Vital worked from his home in Madeira Island, Portugal, while other team members were spread across Los Angeles, New York, and beyond. This flexibility made it possible to attract the best collaborators for the job, regardless of location.

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As Kyle put it: “We expanded the geographic footprint—we added people in Portugal, the UK, and Brazil. It was amazing because we could really cast a wide net for staffing, and that meant getting the best talent available, not just the best talent local to us.”

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Living on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, Pedro found that editing on Frame One allowed him to continue working even while commuting at sea. “I’d work on the ferry between islands. That flexibility was priceless, and it’s something we couldn’t have done before, especially with this amount of media,” he recalls.

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Technological Challenges and Triumphs

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Transitioning to Adobe Premiere for a show of this scale was not without its challenges. Pedro and Lead Editor Sam Neave both mentioned the learning curve, especially in terms of Premiere’s Productions workflow and metadata management. “There was definitely an adjustment period,” Sam said. “But as we learned the system and optimized how the projects were organized, it became a non-issue.”

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The technical support from Frame One proved invaluable. Pedro praised the collaborative approach of the Frame One support team, highlighting their joint efforts in troubleshooting issues, “It wasn’t just support; it felt like a real partnership.”

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For Sam, who was also a writer and producer on this season, one of the biggest advantages of using Frame One was the freedom it provided to focus on the creative storytelling process without being bogged down by technical limitations.

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“Story-wise, it was a beast to structure,” he reflects. “We were constantly getting new material and it was essential to be able to pivot quickly. Frame One made that possible. Instead of worrying about how to access footage or deal with drive logistics, I could focus entirely on shaping the story.”

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A Hybrid Workflow That Supports Creativity

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One of the strengths of Frame One was its ability to support a hybrid remote workflow. Just because the team could edit from home didn’t mean that they couldn’t also edit together in a traditional suite.

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“In 2023 a couple of us started working out of a post house in New York,” Sam explains. “The other editors would be given a certain storyline or episode and we were sort of the brain of the series in the sense that we were the ones working across multiple episodes. Being able to bang our heads against one another in a room was very helpful,” he recalls. “But we could also seamlessly continue working remotely, which meant I could edit from home if needed, or even connect from a shoot location.”

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The opportunity to focus on the details of the edit remotely but brainstorm in-person proved to be a valuable combination. “I'm a believer in being in the room together. The conversations you have at lunch are often what leads you to solve the issue in the edit,” Sam shares. “This was the ideal model of a hybrid workflow.”

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A True Collaborative Experience

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Ultimately, The Jinx - Part Two became more than just a successful editorial experience; it became a testament to the power of modern workflows. Reflecting on the experience, Kyle Martin emphasized, “Frame One is now my default workflow when I'm budgeting. The ability to bring together editors, producers, and assistants from all corners of the globe, while still fostering in-person collaboration when needed, was game-changing.”

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For Sam, the power and flexibility of Frame One’s centralized infrastructure felt like the logical future of editorial. “It seems like a no-brainer that this is the way to do it,” he says. “I would recommend it fully.”

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The series went on to receive three Emmy nominations, underscoring not only the success of the team's creative efforts but also the power of a truly collaborative, hybrid workflow.

The Jinx - Part Two, the highly anticipated six-part documentary series from Andrew Jarecki, is streaming now on HBO Max.

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‍About Frame One

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Frame One is a next-generation remote editing platform. It blends the cloud's resilient, highly available infrastructure into a custom, bare metal post-production environment to create a one-of-a-kind editorial experience with unparalleled reliability, security, and scalability.

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With data centers in Los Angeles, New York City, and London, Frame One enables production companies, universities, and enterprises to edit collaboratively across North America and Europe with low latency and dedicated post-production support.

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