Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/914212
74 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2017 union saunters Carolina (Juno Temple), the product of Humpty's first marriage, who is drawn to reconnect with her father following a relationship with a gangster. The less-than- euphoric family reunion is observed from the perspective of a lifeguard (and would-be writer) played by Justin Timberlake, who also supplies occasional narration. "I'm really proud of this film," Lepselter comments. "It takes place in the early 1950s, and it does feel like a melodrama from that era. I wouldn't say it's a feel-good movie, but it was a lot of fun to work on." Many Allen films begin production during the summer, with post-production commencing in the fall, but Wonder Wheel's schedule was delayed until after summer to accommodate location shooting on Coney Island. "To have permission to shoot on the Coney Island boardwalks, we had to wait until after Labor Day," Lepselter says. "So we filmed in September and October." Like his first film with Allen, last year's Café Society, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC, shot Wonder Wheel digitally, bringing to an end — at least for the time being — Allen and Lepselter's longstanding routine of screening dailies. "We don't screen dailies together anymore," the editor explains. "He's looking at everything on a monitor on the set with Vittorio. When he used to shoot on film, at the end of the day for years and years, my assistants would sync dailies on film, and then we'd have a screening, but that hasn't happened in several years." But, according to Lepselter, Allen is amenable to working in whichever medium is preferred by his cinematographer on a given project. "If he has a cinematographer like Darius Khondji, who really wants to work in film and thinks that's what will best serve the particular movie, then Woody would be open to that," Lepselter says, referring to the DP who shot five Allen films, including Anything Else (2003) and To Rome with Love (2012). "Vittorio has his reasons for wanting to shoot digitally, and Woody was open to that as well." The results are a sight to behold: Far from the muted color scheme that characterizes earlier Allen films such as Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Wonder Wheel boasts a visual style that calls to mind a brightly lit Christmas tree, from the dazzling Coney Island attractions to the rich, colorful lights that bathe the bedroom of Humpty and Ginny. "There is something really magical about what Vittorio has done with the light and the color," Lepselter offers. "It's so different from so many of the films that Woody has made in the past." The film's singularly striking palette notwithstanding, the editor's working methods on Wonder Wheel did not deviate from those established long ago on her films with Allen. Although she no longer screens dailies with him, she views and takes notes on footage as it's coming in. "If he has anything that he needs to talk to me about, or wants to look at, we certainly would do that," Lepselter says. "But generally, the day after he's done shooting, he comes to the cutting room, and we start cutting from the very beginning." In an office located inside a residential building in New York — containing both an editing room and screening room — Lepselter cuts on an Avid while Allen often looks on. Like all of their collaborations, Wonder Wheel was cut in sequence. "I feel spoiled that I get to do that," she concedes. "The consistency of working from Scene 1 through the end of the film has been very helpful. You are maintaining a sense of the tone of the film from the beginning." Wonder Wheel. Amazon Studios