Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1055354
EDITING www.postmagazine.com 11 POST NOVEMBER 2018 "I have to say, it was astonishing to see 35mm film after not seeing it for a long time. You kind of forget that there's a difference...Film is so rich and the focus is so narrow. It was a real pleasure for me and I'm sure for Drew as well. And (DP) Seamus [McGarvey] did just such an amazing job. The dailies were just a shock to all of us — my assistants too. We had forgotten the joy of film." Was the 'the look' created in post? "Luckily, I had a first pass on my dailies, so my dailies looked good. They were as the DP intended. But the color timing was another endeavor, and I have to give 100 percent of that credit to Drew. I really felt that he took it 10 levels past where dailies ever dreamed of. The dailies were a pale reflection of what his final vision was. And he was thinking about the color timing the whole time, even though he didn't get to do it until the very end. You can see things that are very particular choices that he made, like the colors of the wallpapers in the rooms. That was something he had really thought out and made all the deci- sions that he knew he was going to make in color timing later. All those colors had meaning to the characters and to the story. "I'll never forget the change he made to the purple wallpaper in Darlene's room. From dailies to color timing [it] was night and day, and so beautiful." There are a few scenes that really stand out — one being the 'bottle' scene in the lounge, and another being the performance in front of the mirror. "Those were scenes that, in the script, were particularly memorable. It was really the way Drew shot them that took them to a whole [new] level. "What's interesting about that scene with Darlene, the one where she gets him with the bottle at the end, [is] that's actu- ally a long scene, one that we call the 'Pie Date,' because they are first meeting and getting to know each other. "That scene has several sections…we knew [the film] was going to be long, but that was the scene that was heavily tar- geted because it was a 'getting to know you' scene and because it had so many sections. It was super tempting to say, 'Do we need to see them buy the pie? Can they just be sitting down and have the pie already?' There's even a part where [Father Flynn] gets up and sits back down again. There was much temptation to just lose chunks of it. But what we found, and what Drew always knew, was that because you are lulled by that scene and are into the story and into their character, and get- ting to know them, that you really don't expect the [hit] at the end. If we made it punchy and short, you wouldn't have that. You wouldn't be so lulled. The shock of that bottle hit is one of my favorite things to see audiences react to. "It's something that is easy to forget when you are editing, and at the end of the movie when you are really concerned with taking out time. I am so glad that Drew is one of those filmmakers who keeps the 'big picture' in mind. "I really think that that impact at the end is maximized by having the length of that scene. There is so much going on...If you watch that scene again, there is nothing that is not important. He is suspicious of her and she is suspicious of him. That thing where it seems that she is just singing hymns for him? She is actually testing him, and that's how she knows that something is wrong. That's one of my favorite scenes in the movie." What about the scene where Darlene is singing in front of the mirror? It is such a long shot. "It's all live sound. That's why Drew hired someone with a very special talent that Cynthia Erivo has, because I honestly don't know who else could have pulled it off? It was difficult shooting. The opening shot of that scene is a long, 360 dolly around her. It's really difficult technically. It's difficult to focus. It's difficult on 100 different levels. And she's also live singing. It has to be perfect. "There is choreography to that scene and when things happen. We reveal Jeff Bridges behind her. And he is opening up the knife right as we see him. It's just so difficult, but that's Drew's gift and why it's so great. There is always more than one thing happening. She is performing, but we are also finding out what they are up to. I love the long takes and that was something that was definitely a part of Drew's style for this entire movie." Music plays a very important role in the film as well? "[Drew] wrote the script with these songs in mind. And the smartest thing he did was to get all of the songs he planned to use in the movie — the needledrops, the jukebox songs, things like that — cleared before they started shooting. I had actual masters of all those songs to cut with from Day 1. And I had a script that almost spelled out completely how to use each song. That was super helpful. It was great to have Cynthia live singing. When you do a pre-record, it's just different. You don't have the attention to the dailies that I got to have in this one because I got to really look at her vocal performance in every take. It's something I would prefer." What's next for you? "I'm definitely taking a break. This one was such a short schedule, I am looking forward to taking some time off before my next project." Lassek cut the project on an Avid. The feature was shot on 35mm film.