by Rob Feld
Michael Berenbaum’s editing career took root in a basement. Long before he became a two-time Emmy-winning editor, Berenbaum was making Super 8 movies at home, using his father’s camera. While his friends were playing street hockey, he was corralling them into making movies, directing scenes on the fly and learning the art of editing by cutting in-camera.
By the time he arrived at NYU Film School, Berenbaum was already deep in his own filmmaking education. An internship at Kaufman Astoria Studios placed him on the set of “The Cotton Club,” but when politics relegated him to office filing, he quit. Not long after, he scored a gig as an apprentice in the Brill Building, organizing trims and hanging out in the hall. It was here, in the social hive of Sound One, that opportunity knocked. “The Cotton Club” happened to be cutting there, and his slim prior association seemed reason to task him to it. He was hired as a sound apprentice for $350 a week, which seemed to him a fortune.
While traversing film and television, Berenbaum has spent nearly three decades shaping the rhythms and emotional core of the “Sex and the City” franchise and its evolution across screens big and small. What began in 1997 as a four-week editing gig on a pilot turned into a career-defining collaboration that included all six seasons of the groundbreaking HBO series, both feature films, and now the HBO Max sequel series, “And Just Like That…” The new chapter follows Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte as they navigate the messy, meaningful complexities of friendship and identity—not in their 30s, but now in their 50s. A trusted member of the “Sex” family, Berenbaum continues to bring a deft editorial hand to the franchise’s reinvention, balancing new voices with the iconic tone that helped redefine television storytelling.
CineMontage: Is there a mentorship experience that stands out for you from those early days at Sount One?
Michael Berenbaum: I learned the ins and outs of an editing room at Sound One—trims, labeling, coding, what people do—but while working with Joel and Ethan Coen, I learned the most about editing that I didn’t already have in my back pocket from making movies myself. I started out standing over Michael Miller’s shoulder on “Raising Arizona,” but on “Miller’s Crossing” and “Barton Fink,” I was like the third brother. I was with them constantly, watching them get a scene on its feet, realizing it wasn’t quite working, then quickly analyzing and fixing it. This is too slow. He’s taking too long with that line. Let’s cut away and tighten the pause. It was fun—almost like a game. We had Sharpies and grease pencils hanging from rubber bands on the ceiling, so you’d just grab one, mark the frame, and let it go. That’s why you’ll find a credit for Senior Greaser in their films—it came from that. Joel would build the scene on the KEM next to us, we’d screen dailies, they’d take notes, and I’d break down the film. That was a great learning process. I still think back on those days—what would those guys do?
CineMontage: Was there a methodology you could identify?
Berenbaum: I think of them often, but there’s no template. Every day and every scene is different. You watch something, sense it’s not working, and figure out how to fix it. When I’m putting a scene together, I ask, What does the scene need to say and what’s the most concise, interesting way to tell the story? There’s no right or wrong.
CineMontage: Let’s talk about “Sex and the City” and its lifespan. You’ve literally grown up with it.
Berenbaum: It’s true. I’m going on year 28, which is remarkable. It started with a call: “Hey, I have this four-week job. Are you interested in editing the pilot of ‘Sex and the City’?” I didn’t have an agent at the time and was doing a lot of indie films in New York. I’d worked on a pilot for ABC called “Dear Diary,” directed by David Frankel and produced by Barry Jossen. It didn’t get picked up, but Barry had the idea to show it as a short in theaters. It won the Academy Award for Best Short Film, after which the Academy changed the rules so a film had to be made for its intended medium. The producers of “Sex and the City” liked the style of that film and reached out. I met with Susan Seidelman, who directed the pilot. We had a good meeting and she hired me. Susan shot the pilot over five or seven days. I was on set the first day with all the HBO execs. I worked with Susan for a few days, then she was off, as is typical in TV. Darren Star came in and we recut it. Susan had gone for flowing, cinematic shots, while Darren was focused on the jokes and the words. That became the rule: it was all about the pacing and the jokes.
CineMontage: How did the style develop from there?
Berenbaum: When we showed it to HBO, they weren’t sure how to handle the man-on-the-street interviews and Sarah Jessica talking to camera. We experimented—split screens, her head in a box with a freeze-frame behind it, floating boxes. HBO kept saying, “Try something else.” So, we kept tweaking it. But they didn’t pick it up for almost a year. I cut the pilot in ’97, and they spent time test marketing it. They finally shot the rest of the season in ’98. We made a few adjustments, and I cut the main title sequence, which went straight to air—no test screenings or anything. We were about three-quarters through finishing the season when the show premiered. As the series went on, our delivery schedule got tighter and tighter. By the end of the run, it got pretty nutty.
CineMontage: Did you find the show evolving as it became a hit?
Berenbaum: Darren left after the second or third season, and Michael took over. The way he shaped the show—his instincts for storytelling and character relationships—that’s when it really took off. The production scale changed a lot. Early on, we shot every episode in five days. By the end, it sometimes tripled. It got crazy, but we never changed how we worked. I still approached every scene the same way: put it together and ask, “How’s this going to play?”
CineMontage: What would you say characterized the cutting? Did you get lots of coverage, or was it fairly restricted?
Berenbaum: It depended on the director and producers. In TV, the director only gets a couple of days in the editing room—after that, it’s the producers and showrunner who run the show. Directors are expected to get a certain amount of coverage. Nothing frustrates a showrunner more than being locked into a shot they don’t like. Some directors got just the basics, others got tons of coverage—but very specific coverage—and those ended up being the best episodes. A few directors shot it like a movie, which drove the crew crazy with long hours, but it made the material better. We approached each episode like a little movie. No commercials. That’s one of the reasons I got the call in the first place. Besides “Dear Diary,” I’d been cutting indie films in New York, and they wanted “Sex and the City” to feel cinematic. Ironically, years later, after doing a lot of TV, I was told I couldn’t get a movie job—I was seen as a TV guy. It’s crazy how studios and producers pigeonhole you based on your most recent work. Editorially, the guiding principle was always: be on the close-up for the punchline. It’s not brain surgery—it just seemed obvious. Sometimes a producer would say, “No, we need to be on that person for that line,” but that was the rhythm. And of course, everything was built around Carrie Bradshaw’s voiceover. That was the skeleton of the show. It was written into the script, the assistant director would read it on set for timing, and then Sarah Jessica would re-record it later. We built the picture around it. A director unfamiliar with the show would sometimes ask to cut a line I knew was important for a future episode. I’d say, “That line pays off later,” and they’d say, “I don’t care, it’s too slow.” So, we’d cut it out, but I knew it would go right back in after they left. In the end, it was just gut instinct—putting it together, making sure it worked, that it was paced right, and that the emotional moments landed.
CineMontage: Let’s get into the “Sex and the City” movies. Was there a different workflow?
Berenbaum: Not so much. It’s mostly about the politics. The first movie came about four years after the series ended. I think they’d tried to get it going a couple of times before New Line picked it up around 2008. It had a big budget, maybe a 70-day shoot compared to 12 on the show. Everything was bigger. The series was shot Super 16, 4:3. Now we had widescreen, and we were really fleshing out the four characters’ stories. I got to direct some second unit, which was fun. I cut an early version of the wedding sequence—where the wedding doesn’t happen—and showed it to Michael Patrick King. He watched it and said, “Great. This movie’s going to work.” That gave him a lot of confidence.
CineMontage: How did you work together on the film?
Berenbaum: Because we’d worked together for so long, he didn’t want to see anything while we were shooting. He said, “Just put it together, and I’ll watch the movie when it’s done.” I find that works well—not just with Michael, but other directors too. If you get into the minutiae while they’re still shooting, it’s hard for them to see the film as a whole. They remember every take and line, and it clouds their perspective. Directors have told me they’d rather not see anything until it’s all cut so they can react to it fresh. Not everyone works that way, and that’s fine. I can adapt. But I’ve found it’s a good approach when time allows. On the movies, Michael would shoot, and I’d show him the first cut a week or so after wrap. It would be fully built out with music and polish. Then we’d get to work. The first cut was about 2 hours and 40 minutes—Michael tends to write long scripts. We whittled it down to around 2:10. The studio wanted it shorter, of course. After their input, we hit that mark. Later, the extended cut came out on DVD—basically our pre-studio version. The big difference between TV and film isn’t the process—it’s who’s in charge. On a film, the director is there the whole time. On a show, directors come and go, and the showrunner is the constant.
CineMontage: Did the big screen aspect ratio change the way you cut?
Berenbaum: It affected how the DP shot it and how Michael directed it more than how I cut. You can’t play a whole movie in coffee-shop closeups. The world opened up. You become more reserved about using closeups—they carry more impact on a big screen. When I’m watching dailies, if something’s working, I let it play. No reason to cut away just to cut. The goal is to tell the story in the most compelling way. If someone’s captivating, let them be. In film, you can hold those wider shots, build in geography, and really use the environment—especially in New York, which everyone called the fifth character. Now we had a chance to show it. So we did. Pacing does feel different on a bigger screen. We made slight adjustments—letting moments breathe more so the audience could take it in. You don’t want it to move so fast that you miss what’s happening. You’ve got to give the eye time to settle.
CineMontage: Then comes the new series, “And Just Like That…” Tastes change, styles change. Everyone has widescreen TVs now, which they didn’t with the first series.
Berenbaum: Yes, it’s widescreen now. The characters are older. One didn’t come back. When it first came on, people were expecting “Sex and the City” season seven, and that’s not what we were doing. This is a different time of life with different situations. Some people weren’t ready for that. The biggest lift was getting audiences on board with the new characters. The original show was built around a foursome—now we have seven people. Our job was to say, “Here’s our world now.” These new characters exist within and around the original group. Still, I approach every project the same: one scene at a time. You get the dailies, cut the scene, and build out the show. There’s no “editing trick number two” to apply. Every scene is different—someone’s got the fork in the wrong hand, someone flubs a line, continuity’s off. You’re constantly solving problems, making thousands of decisions. That’s what keeps it interesting.
CineMontage: Job security is nice but you didn’t have to come back, of course. You have other options. What is it about this show?
Berenbaum: I’m so honored to be part of something that was groundbreaking and iconic. It’s amazing to have been part of television history. But what really draws me back is the people. They’re brilliant, supportive, and so appreciative of what I bring to the project. As long as they keep asking me, I’ll keep coming back. It’s just fun to continue the story with these people. It’s incredible to think this started as a couple-week job 28 years ago, and I’m still here. That’s rare. Most of us were in our thirties when we started, and we’ve all grown up together. It’s like a family. When I go to set or a table read, I know everyone. There are only a handful of us left from the beginning—but it’s extraordinary.
