Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/914212
60 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2017 we did in those sections, but we did a lot. Pace was always an issue. One scene of interest that we dropped was Audrey freaking out the night before they left to be downsized. It came after the goodbye scene with her dad, the drunk guy in the bar, and she and Paul hugging their friends in the parking lot. The scene was of Paul and Audrey sleeping on a mattress on the floor of their empty house. She was crying and then explodes in anger, yelling at Paul and blaming him for his failures that forced them into the position of having to downsize. We loved it and hung onto it for a long time. It was really powerful, heartbreaking and real…but we really needed to get to the downsizing sequence quicker, so we dropped it. CM: There's also a section where they're legally agreeing to the downsizing procedure. Almost the entire scene plays on reactions instead of on the person speaking. KT: We really wanted to hold off on revealing the closer shot of the intake woman till her line, "…injury or death." So we played a huge portion of the questions on Paul and Audrey. One of my favorite moments is watching Kristen Wiig while the intake woman is reading all the warnings. The range of emotions crossing her face is priceless. We did drop a number of lines in that scene, even though we were in a locked-off two shot. We did split the screen between Paul and Audrey and, using Avid's FluidMorphs, we dropped lines and then morphed them back in sync with each other. CM: There is a long close-up on the Vietnamese woman, Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), as she talks about going to Norway. Was there traditional coverage for that? KT: This is one of those moments — at least for me — where I can't believe how lucky I am to be an editor. The dailies came in and I watched take one and was blown away by what she did! It was beautiful, weird, heartbreaking and funny all rolled into one. Take 1! I couldn't believe the power of her performance. It's amazing. Alexander shot two takes; I think he had always planned on having a dolly into a close-up. CM: The pacing of her delivery was slightly off socially, but seemed perfect for her character. KT: I think the brilliant thing about Ngoc's character is that she's actually so innocent. And the words she says don't really matter to her; they have no negative connotation in her mind. So she says these shocking sentences, but with such innocence and sweetness — and that's where the humor comes out. We really let her performance guide our cutting, trying to capture her transitions. So in some cases, that meant we let moments breathe. For example, in the moment when she asks Paul if the sex was a "love f *ck," there is a beautiful, sincere, natural transition from her being excited to confused to hurt. She does an amazing job. We just let her do her thing. That performance of hers is movie magic in my book. f