“Wicked,” Jon M. Chu’s maximalist “Oz” extravaganza, was full of tonal shifts to navigate for go-to editor and Ace-nominated Myron Kerstein. But that was part of its allure, along with picking the best performances of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda to fit the tone.

“I love films that have a lot of tonal shifts,” Kerstein told IndieWire. “My first film with Jon was ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ and I loved how it started with a romantic comedy and, by the end, it’s like a big melodrama. But this was so much bigger.

The first thing Kerstein did was take a crash course in editing VFX-intensive movies with the aid of editor Wyatt Smith (“The Little Mermaid”). He learned about previs and postvis, talked to animators about world-building and creature work, and built a roll of selects reflecting the best acting performances, camera moves, and...