Sundance Film Festival 2018
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“Do I Believe What I Am Being Shown?” Editor Justine Wright on Yardie
Adapted from Victor Headley’s 1992 novel, Yardie marks Idris Elba’s feature directorial debut. Beginning in 1968, when young D (Aml Ameen) witnesses the killing of his brother, the film’s action begins a few years later, when he’s now part of the trade that claimed his sibling’s life. Not only is D in deep, he starts seeing his brother’s ghost, and thoughts of vengeance aren’t far behind. Editor Justine Wright explains the difficulties of cutting together some of the film’s sprawling scenes and whittling down an initial assembly cut of two and a half hours. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“Comedy is Fast, and So Was Our Edit”: Editor Courtney Ware on Never Goin’ Back
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“Lighting for Three Different Angles at the Same Time”: DP Jasper J. Spanning on The Guilty
Winner of this year’s World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award, Gustav Möller’s The Guilty is a one-set thriller tracking a police emergency dispatcher (Jakob Cedergren) as he attempts to thwart a kidnapping in real time. A phone call from a woman being abducted by her husband sets the dispatcher on a quest to save her. Möller’s DP Jasper J. Spanning discussed the challenges of filming a one-set movie with three cameras in just 13 days. 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? […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“Living in a Culture of Heroin Production”: DP Matt Porwoll on The Trade
Expanding on the subject of his first feature, the both-sides-of-the-border drug wars documentary Cartel Land, director Matthew Heineman’s latest project is a five-part documentary series for Showtime. The first two hours premiered at Sundance. Prior to the screening, DP Matt Porwoll explained the difficulties of working on a project following both drug cartels in Mexico and stories of addiction and counter-law enforcement in the States in multiple cities. 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? Porwoll: When Matthew Heineman first […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“Editing is the Only Way I’ve Ever Paid My Rent”: Editor Zach Clark on The Long Dumb Road
Zach Clark is a familiar name on this site for his work as a director; he’s also a full-time editor. In this brief Q&A, Clark discusses his work on Hannah Fiddell’s The Long Dumb Road, a road movie and buddy comedy that winds from Texas to Los Angeles. Click here for more from DP Andrew Droz Palermo on the film’s production. 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? Clark: Hannah and I have been pals for years. She asked me if […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“The Relationship Between Fiction and Non-Fiction Genres”: Editor Kimberley Hassett on Shirkers
We’ve already written about Sandi Tan‘s Shirkers, her debut feature documentary named after the long-lost footage from her 1992 would-be feature debut of the same names. Under the mentorship of the mysterious Georges Cardona, the college-age Tan and friends embarked on making a rare Singaporean independent film; this documentary revisits that film and tells the story of Tan’s life to date while on the trail of the elusive Cardona. We’ve also already posted an interview with early project editor Lucas Celler; here, we pass on the baton to editor Kimberley Hassett, who brought the film to final cut. Filmmaker: How and why […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“I Never Saw a Shot on Anything Bigger Than a 5″ Monitor”: DP Michael McDonough on Leave No Trace
Cinematographer Michael McDonough met director Debra Granik in 1994, when they were both enrolled at the same NYU film studies class. Leave No Trace is their third collaboration, following Down to the Bone and Winter’s Bone, and also marks Granik’s first narrative feature in the eight years following the latter. Leave No Trace follows father Will (Ben Foster) and 12-year-old daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), squatters secretly living in a forest in almost total isolation. When they’re spotted by a hiker, social workers get involved and Tom is torn from the woods, entering the social world and potential friendships for the first time. Prior to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“A Mournful Look that Subtly Highlighted the Character’s Main Struggle”: DP Konstantinos Koukoulios on Pity
Greek director Babis Makridis premiered his debut feature L at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. He returned to the festival this year for his follow-up, the dark comedy Pity co-written by the co-writer of Yorgos Lanthimos’s films. The film stars Yannis Drakopoulos as a self-absorbed sad-sack addicted to the pity of others. Pity was shot by Konstantinos Koukoulios, here making his debut as a DP of features. Koukoulios spoke with Filmmaker about the influence of Edward Hopper on the movie, lighting a forest at night and his primary aesthetic goal: to make a film about sadness that doesn’t look sad. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018 -
“In the Edit Room I Found My Voice”: Editor Helen Kearns on Inventing Tomorrow
Los Angeles-based editor Helen Kearns has cuts seven documentary projects since 2013. She recently served as the editor on Netflix’s The Keepers, the tennis doc Serena and The Music of Strangers, a feature on Yo-Yo Ma’s the Silk Road Ensemble. Her most recent project as editor is Inventing Tomorrow, a doc on the students competing at the world’s largest high school science competition. The film, from director Laura Nix (The Yes Men Are Revolting), screened in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Kearns shares her thoughts below on what drew her to the project. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2018 -
“Initially it Seemed Impossible”: DP Greta Zozula on Never Goin’ Back
