“Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music” is a documentary from co-directors Questlove and Oz Rodriguez that explores the untold stories behind the culture-defining and groundbreaking musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years of “Saturday Night Live.”
We sat down with Rodriguez, who also co-edited the film, to discuss how he used Adobe Creative Cloud to bring together 50 years of archival videos, as well as unseen, raw multi-cam footage and interviews with some of the most iconic musicians and actors of our time. Since SNL also operates on all Adobe tools, Rodriguez knew it was a no-brainer to use Premiere Pro for this project: “While working at SNL, I saw the benefits of the Adobe ecosystem and how easy it was to jump to Photoshop to create a title card for a sketch, then go to After Effects to remove a boom mic, just hours before the sketch had to go live across the country.”
Learn more about his creative process below, and don’t forget to stream “50 Years of SNL Music” on Peacock.
Adobe Team:How and where did you get into directing and editing?
Oz Rodriguez: I’m from the Dominican Republic and have always loved watching every movie I came across. I was fascinated by the process once I started devouring DVD extras, but I didn’t know how to get into filmmaking at the time. My first experience was working at a commercial post house, first as an assistant to commercial editors and later tackling some local ads. It was there I was introduced to words like “timeline” and “After Effects.”
How do you begin a project/set up your workspace?
I wish I could say I do it in an organized manner. I have a template I usually use, but sometimes the chaos gods shake things up. Thank God for Nick Evans, our AE, on this SNL project, who tackled 50 years of footage and made everything so easy to access and intuitive.
Tell us about a favorite scene or moment from this project and why it stands out to you.
One of my favorite moments is the “Band Reunion at the Wedding” story. It happens to be my favorite SNL sketch, so I took extra care to ensure that part was as exciting as it could be to service Fred Armisen’s amazing and insane work. I have watched it a million times and laughed out loud every time.
What were some specific post-production challenges you faced that were unique to your project? How did you go about solving them?
SNL has been around for 50 years, meaning it’s been heavily documented, and most of its sketches are available online. The challenge was showing people new footage they hadn’t seen from the show. One way to do that was by looking at the raw multi-cam footage, not the live edit, of some of the performances, especially the moments right before the artists went on air. The moment right before they were about to sing to millions of people, and the lives of some of these musicians were about to change.
What Adobe tools did you use on this project and why did you originally choose them?
Saturday Night Live is a Premiere Pro show, so it felt important to edit in Premiere because we were going to be ingesting and working with so much media from SNL. While working at SNL, I saw the benefits of the Adobe ecosystem and how easy it was to jump to Photoshop to create a title card for a sketch, then go to After Effects to remove a boom mic, hours before the sketch had to go live across the country. That’s what led us to use all these Adobe products on this doc.
We also reviewed edits on Frame.io where we left our notes, and it was very easy to screen cuts. Questlove is a very busy man and can be anywhere in the world at any given time. It was incredibly easy to text him a link or an in-progress idea on Frame.io to get feedback.
If you could share one tip about Premiere Pro, what would it be?
I’m a big fan of the personalization aspect, especially when it comes to workspaces. I wish I could say I edited this in a comfy office with many screens, but most of this was done on my laptop as I raced to different shooting locations. So, it was great to adjust my workspace in Premiere Pro to whatever setup I happened to have at the time.
Who is your creative inspiration and why?
My parents, who are nowhere near an edit room professionally, but they love what they do and are still curious about their work to this day. Never stop learning.
What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to face in your career and how did you overcome it? What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers or content creators?
I’m from a different country, and English is my second language. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I didn’t know anyone. I made some friends and started creating sketches every week, not knowing where it would lead. Years later, I landed at SNL, which changed my career. That’s the very edited version – I skipped over many hardships and doubts along the way, but throughout it all, I had a deep desire to express myself creatively in any way I could. I made sure to keep that spirit alive every day. My advice is to do something creative every day, even if it’s just a doodle or a short story in a notebook. It’s not only great for your mental health, but it also helps your brain work through ideas. One of those ideas could be your next film, song, or documentary.