Interviews
Interviews
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“I Had Never Done a Movie Like this Before, But Who Really Has?” DP Juan Sebastian Baron on Search
How do you film a movie like Search? Taking place entirely on computer screens, the film follows in the footsteps of the 2014 horror film Unfriended, which similarly placed viewers in front of a computer and left them there for 90 minutes. Director Aneesh Chaganty hired his fellow USC alum Juan Sebastian Baron to shoot the project. To mimic the many video formats one encounters in modern digital life, Sebastian Baron shot the film using GoPros, iPhones, MiniDV cameras and the Canon 6D, to name a few of the cameras required to pull off this project. Search premieres in the […]
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“Editing Is a Process of Rewriting”: Editor and Director Jérémy Comte on Sundance Short Fauve
Montreal-based filmmaker Jérémy Comte makes his Sundance debut with Fauve, a French-language drama in the Shorts program of the festival. Comte’s previous short, Ce qu’il reste, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. Comte served as writer, director and editor on both films. Below, he discusses the art of increasing tension without music, avoiding the “overdramatic” and the invisible role of VFX in the film. 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? Comte: Being the director of the film, I had the […]
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“The Time Spent Rigging Was a Challenge”: DP Andrew Droz Palermo on Filming Hannah Fidell’s Road Movie The Long Dumb Road
How do you reinvent the look of the road movie? That was the key question for Andrew Droz Palermo while filming The Long Dumb Road, the third feature film from director Hannah Fidell. Palermo’s recent credits as DP include last year’s A Ghost Story, the 2014 horror film You’re Next and Fidell’s two previous features (A Teacher and 6 Years). Palermo spoke with Filmmaker ahead of The Long Dumb Road‘s premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Below he discusses the logistics of filming moving cars and his aim to “live up to our influences, and […] take them into a new […]
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“Balancing the Tone Between Quiet Subtlety and Flourishes of Style”: Editor Taylor Levy on Night Comes On
Jordana Spiro has appeared as an actor on Ozark, The Good Wife, Dexter and a number of other TV series. She makes her debut as a feature film director with Night Comes On, a film she also co-wrote with Angelica Nwandu, the founder of the Instagram-based company The Shade Room. The film tells the story of two troubled sisters: Angel (Dominique Fishback) and Abby (Tatum Marilyn Hall). Spiro hired Taylor Levy, an additional editor on the 2017 Sundance title Brigsby Bear, to edit the film. Before its five screenings at Sundance 2018, Levy spoke with Filmmaker about what drew him to the […]
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“I Interviewed and Emphasized My Desire for the Film to be ‘Female Gaze-y'”: Editor Catherine Haight on Puzzle
Catherine Haight worked as an assistant editor for a decade before she landed the gig to edit the pilot episode of HBO’s Girls. From there, she went on to edit for several prominent half-hour TV series, including New Girl, Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent. Haight worked as the editor on Puzzle, the new film from director Marc Turtletaub (producer of Little Miss Sunshine and Safety Not Guaranteed) and writer Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy). The film tells the story of a suburban housewife (Kelly Macdonald) who discovers a passion for puzzle-solving competitions. Below, Haight speaks with Filmmaker about the influence of Jill […]
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“We Were Using Dolly, Crane and Steadicam Under Real and Artificial Rain”: DP Federico Cesca on Dead Pigs
Dead Pigs marks the feature film debut from writer/director Cathy Yan. Born in China with an MFA from NYU’s Tisch, Yan directed three shorts (According to My Mother, Down River, Last Night) prior to her first feature. She hired Federico Cesca, a fellow Tisch alum and the DP on last year’s Patti Cake$, to shoot Dead Pigs in Shanghai. Cesca spoke with Filmmaker ahead of Dead Pigs‘ premiere at Sundance about the challenges and rewards of shooting this project. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]
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“As Irreverent as the Subject Herself”: Editor Paul Carlin on Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist
Premiering in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance, Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist chronicles the life of 76-year-old fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. The film is the first documentary feature from UK-based filmmaker Lorna Tucker. Tucker hired doc and fiction editor Paul Carlin to cut the film. Below, Carlin discusses how the project took shape, his fondness for Walter Murch and capturing Westwood’s essence “from punk to haute couture.” 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? Carlin: I think it was […]
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“Like Most Things, We Got There After a Lot of Trial and Error”: Editor Patrick Colman on Hearts Beat Loud
In 2017, Patrick Colman edited the music video for “Holding On” by the indie rock maestros The War on Drugs. Brett Haley, the writer/director behind the 2017 Sundance hit The Hero, directed the clip. The director and editor reunite on Hearts Beat Loud, a family drama starring Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons and Ted Danson. Colman previously edited Sundance titles Other People (2016) and Hits (2014). Below, he shares his thoughts on cutting the music-driven Hearts Beat Loud. 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 […]
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“The Film Began As an Experimental Skate Video”: Director and DP Bing Liu on Minding the Gap
A camera assistant who has worked on The Girlfriend Experience, Sense8 and Chi-Raq, 24-year-old Bing Liu makes his debut as a feature documentary filmmaker with Minding the Gap. The film was made with the help of production partners Kartemquin Films, ITVS and POV, and it includes an executive producer credit from Steve James. Minding the Gap‘s three leads bond in part over skateboarding, and as such the film includes extensive footage of its leads on their boards. As he discusses below, Bing used a number of different methods to “shoot skateboarding in a way that I hadn’t seen before.” Minding the Gap […]
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“The Problems of Online Censorship and Social Media”: Editor Philipp Gromov on The Cleaners
German editor Philipp Gromov has cut 11 documentary features, series and shorts since 2010. He began his career on The Other Chelsea: A Story from Donetsk, which tells the story of a small mining town in Ukraine. His latest feature, The Cleaners, premieres in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film offers a rare glimpse into the lives of digital “cleaners”: anonymous people contracted by Silicon Valley companies to scrub the internet of content deemed “inappropriate.” Gromov spoke with Filmmaker about cutting the film and why The Cleaners has inspired him to cut his own use of social media. Filmmaker: How […]
