Rubyanne Moley
By Rubyanne Moley
He makes it look effortless: the swift deflections, the sharp punches, and the gear shifts landing right on beat. Then comes a clip of Will Smith saying “that chick crazy”, perfectly overlaid with the Ye’s lyric “that s*** crazy” – so seamless a splice you would think Smith really said it.
This TikTok edit, captioned “LET’S RACE,” is one of tens by the self-taught film editor Pukatz that have amassed millions of views and likes.
His work flawlessly pieces together movie clips in a way that is addictive. Not a move, word, or transition is off beat, as if the music plays for him. It’s so ingenious that commenters can’t stop asking, “What are they feeding these movie editors?”
This past month, Pukatz secured his first commission with Sony to promote the now-released film “Caught Stealing,” a crime comedy inspired by Scorsese’s “After Hours.” He is part of the first wave of recreational TikTok editors commissioned by media companies for their internet-native style, a great accomplishment amongst the editing community.
To his 441,000 TikTok following and the rest of the digital world, he is @_pukatz_, and frankly, he prefers it that way.
“I’m not much of a want-to-be-famous kind of guy. I’m more of a lowkey, behind-the-scenes kind of guy,” said Mamea.
But personally, he is Mason Mamea, and his discovery of editing is rooted in his own journey as a football player. Before moving to Salt Lake City, Utah for new opportunities, Mamea grew up in American Samoa, spending his teen years toying in the sandbox of video post-production.
“Trust me, my high school team, they suck. We could never get a win, maybe every five years. But that’s why I got into editing, making Football highlights. I usually edit the NFL,” said Mamea.
Mamea’s NFL edits, which were first published on a now-deactivated YouTube channel, were for his own enjoyment. It was only after his siblings pushed him to post on TikTok that Mamea started to expand his horizons.
Edits started off with high-intensity, action films, of which Mamea still finds his niche, with franchises like John Wick, Fast and Furious, and Marvel. But everything changed when Mamea started editing “Baby Driver,” the 2017 action thriller starring Ansel Elgort as a lovable getaway car driver.
“The first baby driver edit I made, I didn’t realize it would blow up that quick. And I keep on making it, and people are asking ‘Why are you still making it? Well, it’s the reason why the account is still going up,” said Mamea.
The creator’s most popular edit of the film, coined “THE baby driver edit” by followers, currently has 2.9 million likes and 14.8 million views. Gunshots pop, engines rev, and Lily James’s captivating voice mesh perfectly to “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G. To this day, TikTok’s algorithm continues to reward Mamea’s Baby Driver edits with views.
Mamea’s creative process for designing his melodic edits relies predominantly on sound, which was first inspired by Sony Pictures’ “TeKillYah” trailer. The trailer blends the film’s diegetic use of The Champ’s “Tequila” with a remix, creating an adrenaline-pumping preview of “Baby Driver.”
To get in the creative zone, he will play songs and scenes on repeat, listening for the perfect sound sequences. Most of the process, Mamea can’t even explain, as his brain seems to effortlessly create the edits for him.
“Sometimes my creative process just flies out and then comes back,” Mamea said. “I usually listen to the songs that I’m going to use before I edit. Then I hear the songs at what moment I should use them. I add markers, like where a girl asks for Baby’s name or Jamie Fox does an engine sound with his mouth. I usually hear the sound and imagine the edit in my head first, then I do it.”
The edit starts as early as watching the film, watching for punchy scenes with purposeful sound effects.
As for the technicality, Mamea starts in Adobe Premiere Pro to piece together a bulk of the clips. Then, he moves over to Adobe After Effects, where he adds sound effects, his special touch that makes Pukatz edits the addictive watches they are.
“Even if the clip doesn’t have sound effects in it, I will still try to add it,” Mamea said. “I have to individually find each sound effect like footsteps, punches, the air, the car engine.”
In addition to sound effects, Mamea strengthens the clips’ visuals by tweaking the color and vibrancy to reflect trailer styles, making sure to cherish the original movie’s aesthetic.
But anyone can edit like him, as he has demonstrated that using CapCut on your phone is enough to make a montage.
“People think they need high-end software to do it, but I used to do these edits on my phone,” Mamea said.
In traditional filmmaking, trailers follow requirements on runtime, structure, and pacing. On social platforms, these rules collapse, leaving room for editors like Pukatz to beat out production companies in gaining audience attention. Kesleigh Dougherty, Video Editor and Southern Methodist University Editing Professor specialized in short-form edits for social media, has observed this preference towards social media trailers in the last five years.
“I believe that’s how people are seeing things today—we’re streaming everything, we’re chronically online, which is good and bad,” said Dougherty.
Dougherty, who has edited professionally for blockbuster films like “Suicide Squad” and “Scream VI,” recognizes that the art of social media shortform has become “so accessible to the point where I have to dumb it down,” she said. “I’ve literally been told ‘This needs to look more like a fan cut, like take it down a notch.’ It is kind of cool to see the two things colliding.”
Mamea’s work successfully draws audiences that otherwise reject long-form trailers by breaching what Dougherty calls the “3-second rule.” The concept refers to the amount of time editors have to hook a viewer before they scroll, and his action-based edits grab them from the first punch.
It appears the trend of TikTok editors is only continuing, and Mamea has been able to monetize off the craze. He sells film packs, participates in the TikTok creator fund, and now receives commissions from media companies like Sony, which he hopes will continue.
“I would love to edit full-time instead of working my daily job. The only reason why I still have this job is because it’s very stable in case this editing thing doesn’t work out. It’s a fun hobby, and it would be nice to work full-time editing with other companies,” said Mamea.
Mamea’s commission for “Caught Stealing” was a hit, enough that they reinvited him to collaborate on edits for the upcoming releases like Wuthering Heights. Though outside of his traditional high-action genre, he’s willing to take the leap as long as the sound is right.