Known for what Adweek describes as "saucy advertising," online clothing retailer Bluefly nudged at the boundaries again this year with a spot directed by Tony Goldwyn and shot by Janusz Kaminski. Depicting an amorous evening and the morning after, "The Catch" culminates in the timely arrival, via mail order, of a fresh change of clothes. (You just have to see it.) Scott Gaillard at Outside Editorial first cut a two-minute version of the spot, then nudged it down to 30 seconds for his client and agency McCaffery Gottlieb Lane. It was eventually broadcast in :90, :30, and :15 versions that edit the narrative, with increasing economy, to the bare bones. We asked Gaillard about cutting sexy, HD deliverables, and why Outside's color work is migrating from the telecine to the Flame suite.

Watch all three versions of the spot, starting with the :30 and finishing with the :90, below.

F&V: Is it unusual to work on a spot that has a steamy undercurrent? And does it affect the way you approach your job as editor?

SCOTT GAILLARD: It is unusual in commercial post-production ‘ at least in my career. But it doesn’t really affect your approach. It just makes it interesting to try and bring out the dynamism in the performances. Bluefly wants to be a little provocative. It makes it enjoyable to work on a project ‘ not only that it has good performances with good-looking people, but the way this one in particular was directed there was a lot within the performances I could go to, and not much of it didn’t work. Most of it worked very well in the edit.

Were there questions about different angles in certain shots, or lengths of takes?

There were some things in the closet scene, where they were undressing each other, that we cut out. There was a scene where she unbuckles his pants that we thought was going a bit too far. But the choices that Tony Goldwyn made in shooting that – along with his DP, Janusz Kaminski – were really right on. There wasn’t much else that was left out of there. They shot it in a way that made it more dynamic than just a medium-shot sex scene. Most of the footage was shot in the sushi bar scene, and the performances were great. Tony shot almost 14,000 feet on this project, which is a lot for a spot, and almost all of it was ad-libbed. Tony would guide the conversation into different subject matters and the actors would go for it. And the actors weren’t actors ‘ they were models. He got some very natural performances out of both of them, and their interaction was great.

For a spot, the narrative in this one is a little bit tricky.

It was challenging to articulate this story in the shorter forms. It’s three locations, there’s a logistical shift when the guy gets the phone call and go into the closet – working it into a :30 and then a :15, you have to find the essence of the story and concentrate on those high points and articulate the idea so when the girl gets the package at the end you’re left with the humor or the irony that’s supposed to convey. Along with the product name.

In terms of editorial style, the :90 feels more fluid, with the edits playing against the music and different segments moving at different speeds. At :30 and :15 there’s more urgency. I don’t know how it would have seemed if I hadn’t seen the longer version first.

As we went through the cuts, we showed the shorter version to people who hadn’t had the benefit of the :90. The client was one of them. I cut the long version myself first, then cut it to a :30, worked on that with the agency, and they presented it to the client before the longer version was ever discussed. That way you’re not colored by knowing the story of the longform or being primed by that kind of pacing. It really has to communicate in the shorter formats because that’s what they’re concentrating on with their media. They were running the :90 on some of the cable channels, which was great. And the :90 certainly has a life on the Internet.

That’s got to be an interesting side effect ‘ your work gets this alternate life.

It’s nice, actually. Clients say, “Gee, we really have a life beyond a 30-second broadcast format. It’s inexpensive and we can get more life out of this footage by running it on our site or putting it on YouTube.” Typically those longer edits have something special that you weren’t able to put in the shorter versions.

Did you deliver it in SD or HD?

This is SD.

How much of your work actually is delivered in HD? Is that changing quickly?

It’s changing. We’ve been doing HD for years in very select cases. Over the last year and a half it’s started to shift. We’re easily 15 percent HD and that percentage is growing. For more and more clients, especially the ones that run internationally, problems are much more easily solved by initiating in HD rather than trying to do two finished masters. Since the U.K. and some other countries are mandating 16×9 broadcast formats, it really helps to start from that. Once you’re in HD you can go to theater more easily and mix standards much more effectively while preserving the image quality. Also, some of the auto clients will run at their auto shows on very large screens, and it really helps to have a HD source to show.

What do you edit on?

I’ve been working on Avid since Avid first came out. The workflow is fairly traditional within that realm. We digitized the [Bluefly] footage at DV resolution, I worked on an Avid, we went to an outside house for telecine and then went to our Flame here. Our facilities have also utilized Final Cut though I don’t really work on Final Cut. And we have done a great deal of final color work in Flame for Jaguar. That’s becoming more of an interesting workflow ‘ utilizing the Flame with HD flat-pass footage to do very intricate color treatments.

All of our Jaguar work over the last two years has been done in Flame. The creative director on the account really has a very strong knowledge and sensibility for final color. He’s able to sit with our Flame artist and isolate the hood or the side panel or the wheels and give them different levels of reflectiveness or depth of color and track those throughout scenes. They are able to shape the commercials in ways I’ve never seen before. It takes a long time, but what they come out with is extraordinary.

What else are you up to?

I just finished up a Kraft campaign that started running a few weeks ago. It was a really great experience with the agency and the director, Bruce Van Dusen, along with DP Frederick Elmes. It’s really nice visual storytelling that’s rebranding their mayonaisse and salad dressing products. I’m gearing up for an insurance spot with Bruce, and a few other things are in the works. This week I’m doing company management – which has been neglected the last few months! I’m happy to jump back in.