Authors — Filmmaker Staff
-
“‘Slow Burn’ Was a Phrase We Used Often”: Editor Abbi Jutkowitz Lizzie
Abbi Jutkowitz has worked as an assistant editor on a number of films since 2004, including Super Size Me, The Darjeeling Limited and X-Men: First Class. In 2016 she edited As You Are, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and she returned to the festival this year with the in-competition drama Lizzie. The film tells the story of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman who was tried and acquitted of killing her parents in 1892, and stars Chloë Sevigny as Borden and Kristen Stewart as her live-in maid and confidante. Jutkowitz spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s premiere about how she got her […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“A Way to Present Multiple Truths”: Editor Joe Klotz on Monster
Joe Klotz has edited numerous films to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival: Junebug (2005), Choke (2008), Precious (2009) and The Yellow Birds among others. At this year’s festival he edited Monster, an adaptation of the 1999 young adult novel from Walter Dean Myers. The film, directed by Anthony Mandler, tells the story of an African-American teenager on trial for acting as a lookout during a lethal corner store robbery. Klotz shared his thoughts on editing the film prior to its five screenings at Sundance this week. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“What Would it Be Like to Start over from Scratch?”: Editor Toby Shimin on This Is Home
Tobi Shimin has edited more than two dozen documentary projects going back to 1988. In 2015 she cut the Sundance doc How To Dance In Ohio from director Alexandra Shiva, who returned to Sundance this year for This Is Home. The film, which won the audience award in the international documentary lineup, tells the story of four Syrian families as they move to the United States as refugees. Below, Shiva discusses the task of shaving 300 hours of dailies down to a 90 minute feature. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“The Essence of Cinema Vérité Productions Is Chaos”: Director Matt Tyrnauer | Studio 54
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? As a documentary filmmaker, my favorite approach to storytelling is through the freshness and spontaneity of cinema vérité. With Studio 54, we were presented with the challenge of telling a story built on the unique and intimate friendship between the founding partners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, while grappling with the reality of Steve’s untimely death […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“How Do You Make Sympathetic an Intentionally Enigmatic Character?”: Editor Mark Yoshikawa on The Catcher Was a Spy
Mark Yoshikawa worked as an assistant editor for a decade before he began editing films and TV series full time. This decade he’s edited three films by Terrence Malick, the first two installments of the Hunger Games franchise and three episodes of HBO’s Westworld. His latest film, The Catcher Was a Spy, tells the real-life story of Moe Berg, a professional baseball player who became a spy for a U.S. intelligence agency during World War II. The film stars Paul Rudd, in a rare dramatic, along with cast of heavy hitters: Jeff Daniels, Guy Pearce and Paul Giamatti. Below, Yoshikawa speaks with Filmmaker about […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“You Can’t Just Slash and Burn through a Cut”: Editor Michael Taylor on A Kid Like Jake
Michael Taylor has been editing the work of America’s independent filmmakers since 2004. Taylor has cut films for Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange), Rick Alverson (Entertainment) and Julia Loktev (The Loneliest Planet), to name a few. In 2017, he edited two films to appear at the Sundance Film Festival: Elvis & Nixon and Deidra & Laney Rob a Train. He returns to the festival this year having edited A Kid Like Jake, a New York-set drama starring Claire Danes, Jim Parsons and Octavia Spencer. In the interview below, Taylor goes in depth on how he broke into editing, his love of New […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“A Powerful Charge of Life in Front of the Lens”: Director Michael Pearce | Beast
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I love movies that are made with a compelling sense of design and meticulousness, when the eye of the filmmaker is laser-focused and every expressive element is working harmonically to achieve the maximum impact. When the filmmaker is in an embattled relationship with reality, protecting it from sabotaging their vision, shielding it from its inherent chaos. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“I Have No Idea How My Little Sony AS7 Camera Survived”: Director Cody Lucich | Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I was at the complete mercy of the story. There was no planning or control. I couldn’t go out and plan a shoot, or figure out when the story was over. I had absolutely no idea how long “production” was going to go for. While we battled a pipeline at camp, I shot for eight months […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“I Always Had Two to Three Cameras Rigged”: DP John Behrens on The Game Changers
Louie Psihoyos, the Oscar-winning director of The Cove, returns to the Sundance Film Festival with The Game Changers, his new documentary on the health and environmental impacts of plant-based diets. Psihoyos premiered his previous doc, Racing Extinction, at the festival in 2015. John Behrens (The Mask You Live In) served as a cinematographer on that project, and he reunites with Psihoyos as the DP of The Game Changers. Below, Behrens speaks with Filmmaker about shooting in five different countries and the influence of Natural Born Killers (of all films) on the project. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 27, 2018 -
“We Never Managed More than Three Takes on a Shot”: DP Benjamin Kracun on Beast
The debut feature from writer/director Michael Pearce, Beast arrives at the Sundance Film Festival after having screened at festivals in Toronto, London, Thessaloniki, Stockholm and elsewhere. The film takes place on a small island in the English Channel and chronicles an intense relationship between between two outcasts: Moll (Jessie Buckley) and Pascal (Johnny Flynn). Pearce hired his longtime friend from film school Benjamin Kracun to shoot Beast. Below, Kracun shares his thoughts on filming this romantic psychological thriller. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 27, 2018
