While Matthew Huber, KLN ’12, got his start in showbiz working on unscripted TV shows, the seasoned visual effects editor is now a part of the post-production team behind Severance, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning thriller that has broken records as Apple TV+’s most-watched series.  

“Severance is the biggest show I’ve worked on,” Huber said. “It’s rewarding to know that the show has attracted the attention of so many people. Seeing all the memes online and hearing all the conversations around it is really gratifying.” 

Working as Severence’s visual effects editor, Huber focuses on manipulating the show’s footage to better serve the director and story-editor’s vision. 

“Severance is a brilliant series. It’s an honor to work alongside so many veterans in the industry, like executive producer Ben Stiller and editor Geoffrey Richman,” Huber said. 

However, Hollywood is a notoriously difficult industry to break into. Huber experienced that firsthand—well before ever working on a high-profile TV series.

A kid from Collegeville, PA

When he was a senior back in 2012, Huber was accepted into Temple’s Los Angeles Study Away program – a semester-long residential program in Los Angeles, where students take academic courses related to the entertainment industry and work at internships in their areas of professional interest.

“During that time, I learned a lot and met a lot of great people,” Huber said. “I tried to get an LA-based job after the internship program ended but I didn’t land anything. So I had a big decision to make: Stay on the West Coast with no job, no money and no car or move home to Pennsylvania and possibly find a New York-based gig.” 

He decided on the latter. After graduating with a bachelor of arts in film and media arts, he moved back into his parent’s home in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. 

Still following his dreams, he decided to travel to New York City and crashed on different friends’ couches for a few days. 

“Most of my friends were former classmates who had jobs in New York. Us being Owls, we would look out for each other,” he said. “When my friends went to work, I would go and sit inside a nearby Starbucks every day, Googling ‘post-production companies in NYC’ and cold-calling these companies to say, ‘Hey, I’m a recent graduate, this is what I can do and I’m looking for a job and I can meet you right now.’ 

“Without knowing where to go or who to talk to, that was my plan at the time,” Huber said. “I went to college for film, because I always had a love and fascination for movies. And after my setback in LA, I had to make this work.” 

It did work.

In August of 2012, after a few days of cold calling dozens of companies, he was offered an assistant editing internship at a production company making $12 an hour, and after a few months it became a full-time job. He moved to the Big Apple and hasn’t left since. 

Navigating the challenges and opportunities of showbiz

Some of Huber’s early projects include editing unscripted shows like The Year in Pup Culture that aired on Animal Planet and Ruff Rules that aired on Scripps Network. He was thrilled to work on the shows and said his grit and determination were inspired by Temple’s motto, Perseverance Conquers. 

“It was an assistant editing job, which encompassed a lot of different skills, such as transcoding dailies, media backups, website updates and running on-set camera packages,” he said. “It was enough for a small loft in Brooklyn and some extra money for weekends.” 

Huber quickly moved up to a full-time position after his supervisor recognized that he was the only employee at the company who knew how to use visual effects programs like Photoshop and After Effects, so he began to fill that void. 

“Special effects are sometimes confused with visual effects. Special effects are typically practical things that are done on set in front of the camera, while everything I do is post-production, changing footage on the computer in some way,” he said. “I learned about visual effects one problem or idea at a time, each project learning new skills. I liked the challenge of it.” 

As one job led to another, Huber realized he had developed a unique skill set as a visual effects editor within the industry. “It wasn’t what my first plan was, but it was something I learned to enjoy.

“Over the years, editors kept coming to me to work with them on new projects because of my  visual effects skills, which pushed me to learn more about it. It’s both a technical and creative job and there’s a big appetite for it,” he said. “More shows than you’d think use visual effects.”

Huber’s portfolio began to grow, and he met several video editors who he maintained relationships with, “And that’s how I found more jobs as a visual effects editor.” 

He has since established himself in the field of visual effects with a portfolio that includes work on acclaimed television series such as At Home with Amy Sedaris (2017), Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters (2018), and Helpsters (2019) for Apple TV+. After finishing that project, his post supervisor then recruited Huber to work on Severance.  

Making his mark and inspiring others

Part of Huber’s job is also working with the show’s director and editors to come up with interesting ways to visually tell the story. Huber’s role is making those ideas come to life by utilizing high-end video editing software such as After Effects, Avid Media Composer and Mocha Pro planar tracker—combined with his own creativity—to make it happen. 

“What makes me proud is doing something that I didn’t think I could get done. Oftentimes, it looks very simple on screen. Most times, it’s unnoticed because the viewer isn’t supposed to notice,” Huber said. 

As a visual effects editor, Huber manages all of the different visual effects shots in an episode by tracking the different tasks. For instance, he’ll sometimes have to remove the boom mic from a shot or add the illusion of fire into a fireplace. Sometimes he’ll need to ‘paint out’ a pedestrian in the background if they are distracting the viewer. A more complex example of his work is compositing, or combining two or more visual elements from separate shots into a single shot, like when scenes are shot in front of a green screen.

Huber will also have to stabilize shots if the camera shakes. Sometimes, he’ll add a graphic to a phone or TV screen. As he’s doing all this, he’s also tracking the duration and location of each of the visual effects throughout the entire editing process. This is usually accomplished with a large database.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into making a TV show, and it involves a lot of people throughout the process,” Huber said. 

While visual effects are being developed, there are many people, including Stiller, who meet weekly with Huber and others on the visual effects team during the editing of Severance. At these meetings, they give creative and technical notes to make the shots match the team’s creative goals. 

Huber credits Temple with providing him with a foundation of both technical and interpersonal skills that he needed for success.

“You can be the most talented technical person in the world, but you won’t last long in this industry if people find you difficult to work well within a group,” he said.

Huber added that his classes expanded his view of the entertainment industry. He initially went to Temple wanting to become a cinematographer, however, his aspirations shifted after taking video editing classes.

“My editing classes helped spark my interest in post-production. Those classes are what got me off the ground,” he said. 

Huber’s advice to students: Develop a love of learning.

“Learning a set of skills in school is crucial for your first job, but it doesn’t mean that’s all you’re ever going to need. You’re going to have an interest in what you’re doing. And you will need to always want to learn more,” he said. “These days, everyone is talking about AI. It’s threatening to change how everything everywhere works, so for better or worse that’s something I’m learning about now. So my message to students is: You always have to keep developing yourself.”

Huber also wants students to keep pushing for their dreams.

“I would encourage students to network as much as you can. It isn’t as scary as it sounds—it’s just making friends with people who work in the same industry as you” he said. “Embrace doing work outside your comfort zone and do that work better than anyone else.”