Interviews
Interviews
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“I Initially Didn’t Think I Would Be the One to Cut This Film”: Director/DP Luke Lorentzen on Editing Midnight Family
In Mexico City, there are only 45 publicly operated ambulances for a population of nine-million-plus, creating a need filled by private labor. Luke Lorentzen, whose first feature New York Cuts premiered at IDFA in 2015, embedded himself with one privately operated ambulance run as a family business, tagging along night after night. Operating as his own shooter for Midnight Family, Lorentzen’s sophomore feature is a formally controlled, sympathetically embedded portrait of multiple instances of economic inequity (with car chases!). Via email, Lorentzen spoke about his work on the editorial side. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? […]
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“With Animation I Can Reach Beyond What’s Just in Front of Me”: Writer/Director Geoff Marslett on his Sundance Animated Short The Phantom 52
A restless trucker (credited as the titular “Phantom”) tugs his wheels across the highway and calls out to fellow drivers over his CB radio. No one else is on the road and no one reciprocates his cries via electronic airwaves. Eventually, the endless road gives to an endless ocean and the big rigs of the freeway morph into the whale varieties of the water. Whale calls, clicks, and songs reverberating over long distances in the ocean stand in for the Semis CB radios. But our Phantom’s whale calls out at a 52hz frequency, and no whale hears at 52hz, so […]
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“We Decided to Start Editing from Scratch”: Co-Writer/Editor Don Bernier on Always in Season
For her feature debut, Jacqueline Olive examines the death of Lennon Lacy, a black 17-year-old who was found hanging from a swing set in his North Carolina home town. Though his death was quickly ruled a suicide by the authorities, his mother, Claudia, was understandably suspicious, given America’s long, far from resolved history of racialized violence. Editor and co-writer Don Bernier (whose recent credits include Charm City) spoke via email about how he worked on the project, which he first learned of in 2014 but didn’t officially join until last year. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor […]
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“Picture Wrapped in Early November and We Had a Cut by Mid-December”: Editors Marina Katz and Brian Goetz on The Brink
Tracking “economic nationalist” and Deplorables-rouser Stephen Bannon from summer 2017 to fall of last year, The Brink follows Bannon as he tries to rebrand himself, post-White House, as a unifier of the European alt-right, culminating in the defeat of his preferred candidates on Election Night 2018. Director Alison Klayman shot the film and edited alongside Marina Katz and Brian Goetz. Via email, the latter two editors spoke about the challenges of assembling the documentary on a tight turnaround. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
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“One of the Most Harrowing Scene Headings to Read in a Script For a Low-Budget Film is ‘EXT. WOODS – NIGHT'”: DP Brett Jutkiewicz on Them That Follow
The first feature from Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, Them That Follow is a gothic drama set in rural Appalachia, grounded in the unusual context of a Pentecostal church with a heavy emphasis on snake handling. Following its premiere, the film—which stars Olivia Colman and Walton Goggins—has been acquired for worldwide distribution by Sony. Via email, DP Brett Jutkiewicz (Daddy Longlegs, Men Go to War) spoke to his work crafting the film’s visual language. 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 hired for this […]
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“I’m Often Filming in Dusty, Dirty or Wet Places, and Changing Lenses Would be Difficult and Risky”: Director/DP Kim Longinotto on Shooting the Mafia
One of the UK’s most acclaimed documentarians, Kim Longinotto has been working steadily since 1976, serving as her own DP the whole time. Unusually for Longinotto, who favors a direct cinema, observational approach, her latest is an archival-based film, examining the life and work of Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia, famed for her work documenting (at great risk) the Sicilian mafia. Via email, Longinotto discussed why she only uses one lens, what her all-time favorite lens is and the challenges of making an archival documentary look like an observational doc. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your […]
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“Those Four Frames Made the Difference Between That Interaction Being Funny and Not at All”: Editor Zach Siegel on Quarter Life Poetry
Samantha Jayne’s Quarter Life Poetry began life as a Tumblr and Instagram, transforming her millennial 20something experiences into doodles and poems. Now it’s an ambitious series set to premiere on FX Networks later this year, brought to life with director Arturo Perez Jr. helming all ten episodes. Via email, Zach Siegel gets technical about the difference ten (or even four) frames can make when timing a laugh, invisible VFX work and learning how to edit during the boom of branded content. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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“The Film is 99% Handheld”: DP Bryan Koss on Mope
Lucas Heyne’s feature debut Mope is based on the lurid case of aspirant porn star Stephen Hill (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and his best friend, whose porn name was Tom Dong (Kelly Sry). In 2010, Hill went on a rampage with a machete, a story is told in this LA Weekly story from 2011, forming the basis for this porn-milieu drama. Via email, DP Bryan Koss discussed taking visual inspiration from The Wrestler, shooting 99% of the film handheld and working with a complete set of all 12 Cooke Speed Panchro primes. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were […]
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“We Mostly Didn’t Shoot Traditional Coverage Because We Knew the Edit Points”: DP Drew Daniels on Quarter Life Poetry
Samantha Jayne’s Quarter Life Poetry began life as a Tumblr and Instagram, transforming her millennial 20something experiences into doodles and poems. Now it’s an ambitious series set to premiere on FX Networks later this year, brought to life with director Arturo Perez Jr. helming all ten episodes. Via email, cinematographer Drew Daniels addressed the challenges of crafting their own visual language and using a jib for a shot it wasn’t intended for. 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 hired for this job? Daniels: I’ve […]
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“Make This Conversation in a Small Room with White Walls Work”: DP Anna Franquesa Solano on The Farewell
Acquired by A24, Lulu Wang’s sophomore feature The Farewell is one of the breakout films of this year’s Sundance. Adapting a story from her own family (previously told as an episode of NPR’s This American Life), The Farewell takes off when Billi (Awkwafina), a Chinese immigrant who’s lived in America since she was a child, returns home when her grandmother Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhou) gets a fatal lung cancer diagnosis. That’s the unlikely starting point for what’s been described as one of the festival’s funniest film, in a story that gets stranger and stranger as it goes along. Via email, Wang’s DP Anna […]
