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“It Was an Ambitious Project From the Get-go”: Editor Bryan Mason on Jimpa
John Lithgow and Olivia Colman in Jimpa Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde), a non-binary teenager, falls in love with Amsterdam on a visit to her beloved grandpa (John Lithgow), who she affectionately calls Jimpa, in Sophie Hyde’s film of the same name. Deciding that she wants to stay with Jimpa for an entire year, her mother (Olivia Colman) wrestles with her parenting instincts and the idea of what’s best for her child.
Editor Bryan Mason discusses cutting Jimpa, shedding insight on his recurrent collaboration with Hyde, the question he always asks himself before embarking on a project and his background as a skate video editor.
See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here.
Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job?
Mason:Jimpa was directed by long-term collaborator Sophie Hyde. We have worked together on three previous Sundance titles (52 Tuesdays, Animals, Good Luck To You Leo Grande), so when it came to the post on Jimpa I was very happy to be asked to take hold of the edit reigns. It was an ambitious project from the get-go, with many eras, characters and storylines.
Filmmaker: In terms of advancing your film from its earliest assembly to your final cut, what were your goals as an editor?
Mason: My goals as an editor are always pretty simple and start with this question, what is the best version of the story we can tell with the material we have? (Within the scheduled time.)
Filmmaker: What elements of the film did you want to enhance, or preserve, or tease out or totally reshape?
Mason: The rough cut on this film was long but held quite an emotional weight, so the challenge was to preserve as much of that feeling possible as the film inevitably shaped up and slimmed down. There is extensive use of flashbacks in this film both as backstory glimpses and further to help illustrate some of the eras and times the characters are exploring and discussing. Knowing there were lots of these to include and work with (approx 70) there was a period of discovery which started on day two of the edit and really kept live and active until picture lock. How many, how often and in what context the flashbacks were used in the film was explored, imagined and reimagined many times through the edit process. Sophie was tenacious in this exploration and led us and the film to a great place with these storytelling elements.
Filmmaker: How did you achieve these goals? What types of editing techniques, or processes, or feedback screenings allowed this work to occur?
Mason: Mostly a process of trial and error with input from our producing team, investors and close collaborators led us through many iterations of the flashbacks and their use and ultimately helped us land where we did.
Filmmaker: As an editor, how did you come up in the business, and what influences have affected your work?
Mason: I started in the mid ’90s filming and editing skateboarding videos. Just a skateboard a camera and a bunch of friends, this experience instilled a deep love of making films and i have been lucky enough to be able to keep doing it for the last 30 years.
Filmmaker: What editing system did you use, and why?
Mason: We cut on Adobe Premiere. I have been working with Premiere for 10 years now and it is really become second nature, I work predominantly with timeline editing and premiere is versatile enough to enable you to work in many different ways, this suits me well. I feel like I make it up as I go and the open interface of Premiere enables this.
Filmmaker: What was the most difficult scene to cut and why? And how did you do it?
Mason: There is a scene with six people around a table in a cafe (well two, actually), with lots of overlapping dialogue and eyelines, such scenes are always challenging and these were no exception. We had two camera coverage which helped, however just to navigate the takes and plot our way through it was time consuming, the first version of the first of these scenes is one of my favorite scenes I have had the privileged to cut, it is funny and heartwarming and really represents the themes of the film in such a great way.
Filmmaker: Finally, now that the process is over, what new meanings has the film taken on for you? What did you discover in the footage that you might not have seen initially, and how does your final understanding of the film differ from the understanding that you began with?
Mason: Really the biggest journey in terms of my understanding of this film and its storytelling has come through the evolution of the flashbacks and visuals. Sophie had a vision with these and it took me some time and experimentation to help find the balance. When we did, it surprised me just how much depth and richness they offer the world of the characters in Jimpa.
