Sundance
-
“On Super 16 There is a ‘Baked In’ Feel”: DP Declan Quinn on Sylvie’s Love
The summer of 1957 in New York City serves as the backdrop of Eugene Ashe’s Slyvie’s Love, a story of music and romance that centers around Sylvie, a young woman waiting for her fiancé to return from war, passing the time by working at her father’s record store. However, when the charming musician Robert walks in looking for a day job to support his career as a saxophonist, Slyvie’s head is turned. They embark on a long, whirlwind romance, even as Robert books his first concert overseas. DP Declan Quinn speaks about the various musical and period influences on Sylvie’s […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
“We Wanted It to be Natural, Believable”: DP Declan Quinn on The Evening Hour
In rural Appalachia, Cole (Philip Ettinger), a health aide working at a nursing home, helps make ends meet by selling off excess pills from the townspeople to other local buyers. While Cole doesn’t see himself as perpetuating a culture of addiction, he finds himself in the center of conflict between the town’s drug kingpin when a childhood friend comes back to town and encourages Cole to assert his dominance in the local drug trade. Cinematographer Declan Quinn discusses the inspiration and technique that went into Braden King’s The Evening Hour. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
“My Editorial Philosophy is ‘Every Frame Matters'”: Editor Matt Friedman on Palm Springs
-
“We Had to Create Something Consistent Yet Genuine”: DP Quyen Tran on Palm Springs
-
“The Story Was Simultaneously Engaging, Humorous and Stressful”: Editor Joi McMillon on Zola
Janicza Bravo’s Zola is a story that was originally chronicled in 144 tweets by a woman named A’Ziah “Zola” King. The Twitter thread chronicled a high-anxiety experience that Zola had while traveling in Florida with a friend, wherein she becomes her unofficial madame, encounters her hysterical boyfriend Jarrett and finds herself in the middle of a kidnapping scenario. Bravo’s adaptation takes the straightforward yet gripping narrative of a sequence of tweets and heightens the stakes by playing with perspective. Editor Joi McMillon talks about her trajectory as an editor and what enticed her to help make Zola. Filmmaker: How and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
“It Is a Dark and Dire Reflection Without a Simple Solution”: Editors Langdon Page and Lauren Saffa on The Cost of Silence
Nearly a decade ago, 130 million gallons of oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of 87 days after a deadly explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit. During the lengthy clean-up process, workers and civilians alike were exposed to dangerous chemical dispersants, directly causing illness that no entity has been held responsible for—neither the federal government or the oil companies—and offshore drilling continues. Mark Manning, a former deep-sea oil-field diver, chronicles the human suffering and lack of accountability of this disaster in The Cost of Silence. Editors Langdon Page and Lauren Saffa detail how […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
“A Very Fine Line Between Realism and Surrealism”: DP Wyatt Garfield on Nine Days
In Edson Oda’s Nine Days, five personified souls outside of the realm of our reality compete for the opportunity to be born on Earth. A man named Will (Winston Duke), who once experienced being born, judges the competitors over the course of nine days—only one will be allowed to continue their existence, while the other four will cease to exist. Cinematographer Wyatt Garfield details the unique cinematic language of Nine Days for Filmmaker. 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 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
“The Editing Doesn’t Try to Overly Emphasize Emotions”: Editor Robert Stengaard on The Painter and the Thief
When Czech painter Barbora Kysilkova has two of her naturalist works stolen from an Oslo art gallery, she decides to attend the criminal hearing of one of the men, Karl-Bertil Nordland, who was arrested for stealing them. Instead of questioning him about the whereabouts of her paintings (which vanished without a trace), she asks to paint his portrait. Benjamin Ree’s The Painter and the Thief shifts perspectives between Kysilkova and Nordland, detailing the unexpected relationship that grows between the two. Editor Robert Stengaard explains how the film went beyond sentimental emotions in order to cleverly portray the unique perspectives from […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
Sundance 2020 Dispatch 8: Time, The Nest
In 1999, Fox and Rob Rich, desperate to shore up the finances of their business (Shreveport’s first urban clothing store) robbed a bank; she got 12 years, he got 60. The throughline of Garrett Bradley’s Time—a compact epic spanning 21 years in 87 minutes—tracks Fox’s ceaseless efforts to get her husband home. Her website describes her as a “realist speaker”: a motivational lecturer transmuting her difficult experiences for higher ends than the usual conference room guest, as well as a “prospective Nobel Peace Prize winner” who “is both a teacher and servant, entrepreneur, business owner and most of all a humanitarian.” This […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 31, 2020 -
“It Ended Up Being the Toughest Edit of My Life”: Director/Editor Bill Ross on Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Documentary filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross depict a mosaic of fleeting American dreams and the resilience of community in Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets. The film centers on a nearly defunct bar outside of Last Vegas, The Roaring 20s, as its patrons grappling with the uncertainty of a future without their beloved dive bar. The subjects often teeter between dismay and debauchery, offering glances into masculinity, vice and a culture of anxiety. Director and editor Bill Ross explains the nuances of editing a film to make an audience feel present, grappling with one’s own internalized imperfections and why this film was […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2020
