This is part of our exclusive Sundance interview series, where we sit down with filmmakers to explore how they use technology to bring their creative visions to life.
For editor Holle Singer, shaping Sugar Babies wasn’t just about structuring a compelling narrative—it was about harnessing the power of Adobe’s editing tools to bring the story’s raw authenticity and digital-age aesthetics to life. The Sundance-selected documentary follows Autumn, a college student navigating the economic realities of rural Louisiana by running a no-contact sugar baby operation.
With a mix of vérité footage and the fast-paced, highly stylized world of TikTok, Singer relied on Adobe’s suite to seamlessly blend traditional documentary storytelling with the vibrant, fragmented language of social media. In this interview, she discusses the creative and technical challenges of editing Sugar Babies, how Adobe’s tools helped her craft a visually dynamic and emotionally resonant film, and the delicate balance of shaping a story where power, agency, and digital identity collide.
PH: What Adobe features were essential in editing your Sundance project, and why?
Holle Singer: I used Adobe’s Premiere Pro to edit Sugar Babies. The Speech-to-Text tool was incredibly helpful in transcribing dialogue, searching for specific moments, and navigating hours of footage to create the narrative. Much of the material was shot in verité, so Adobe’s warp stabilization and audio clean-up tools were very useful, and the After Effects tool made it easy to remove things like unwanted signage. Frame.io also great for posting and communication. We were able to leave comments directly on frames and import those as markers into Premiere Pro.
PH: How did your chosen gear kit, including software and hardware, optimize your post-production workflow?
Holle Singer: I don’t use a massive workstation – I often work from my apartment, or even outside on my deck, mapping out story ideas with director Rachel Fleit. I work well on a laptop, but for really intricate scenes I might use on my monitor.
PH: Were there any specific Adobe tools or plugins you relied on to enhance the final cut of your film?
Holle Singer: After Effects allowed me to remove unwanted signage from the footage. In Premiere, I experiment with mirroring and artificial glitches to reflect the characters' divided lives – one on her phone, and one in reality. I think this approach allows the audience to visually feel and understand some of her journey and I think it enhances the final cut.
PH: How do you balance using high-quality tools with budget constraints when working on an indie project?
Holle Singer: I was able to maximize what I could achieve with the tools that I had available. For example, I used After Effects for masking and tracking to remove unwanted signage instead of hiring a VFX artist.
PH: What gear or software do you consider non-negotiable for any filmmaker’s editing toolkit?
Holle Singer: A computer with Premiere-Pro.
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