Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/928269
www.postmagazine.com 15 POST JANUARY 2018 FILMMAKING the building across from him and beats up on the guy. That was always intended to be a one, unbroken-take, which is what we achieved, but that took a fair amount of preparation and meetings." A self-described "perfectionist," McDonagh explains that, "after the shoot, I'll go through every single take and make notes on pretty much ev- ery single line of dialogue, which takes about a week or two. During that time, I let Jon get on with a rough cut. Then we just go right back in and dismantle the whole thing and try all these seem- ingly perfect lines to see if they work as a coherent whole. I find the editing very much fun and detailed and reassuring somehow. It's beautiful when something just comes together. Sometimes that can happen when you add a song or a piece of music – because I always have a list of songs that I want to try and then Jon comes up with songs and then I'll let Jon go away and completely dismantle a scene and show me something brand new and I enjoy that side of it, too." Gregory, who cut the film on an Avid, was on-location for two months during the shoot and then finished the cut back in the SoHo section of London. He adds that during the time McDonagh is making his notes on the lines of dialogue, "I don't really say a great deal at that point be- cause I want to know the director's take on the film and on all the performances and not mine. When we get to the end of that part of the film, it's really quite amazing the way it all comes to life. He's got the performance in his mind, almost, and that's quite brilliant to be quite hon- est. Then, once we've got that, then it's a matter of pacing it and losing scenes which we don't think we need and then moving other scenes. "The main scene in the film where we have the flashback, in the script, it came right at the end of the film. Then we felt that the audience needed to know why [Mildred] was so tormented to actually go and burn the police station down. If you don't know the way she left her daughter, the conversation, it makes the burning of the police station seem quite extreme. But knowing how she left her daughter, it all makes sense. So, that was the major adjustment to the script that we made. To be honest, it's just a matter of going through it, finessing it, making sure every single shot counts. It's not a very glamorous process — it's almost like watching paint dry (laughs). It's very nerdy. You're sort of having this angst over frames, then you go through it until the end of the process, until you make a film out of it." According to Gregory, one of the big- gest editing challenges for him was how the film turns quickly from quite dramatic to humorous in a matter of moments. "I think the biggest thing that we had to think about really was the timing of the jokes — so the laughter didn't step on other jokes." For McDonagh, his biggest challenge in post was trying to figure out how one of the key sequences would play out. "I think the scenes where Woody's character reads the letters — there were so many different options for how those scenes would play out. For instance, when Sam reads the letter in the build- ing toward the end, how to time that, how to make sure the images didn't get in the way of the words and vice versa, because you really needed to hear what Woody was saying to Sam and also have time to see Sam's reaction. At the same time, there was this whole crazy dynamic from Frances' side (laughs), so that was a lot of work. There was a version of that that was twice as long, but it didn't work. Then there was a shorter version, but it didn't capture the sadness of what was going on. So that was purely something we had to find in the edit. Something you don't ever really know at the script stage or at the filming stage. That's something you find in the edit room." As for how well the film's been re- ceived by both critics and moviegoers alike, Gregory says, "We knew when we were doing it that it was a good film, or a really interesting take on a situation, but you can never really tell just how it's go- ing to go. But it's amazing the way peo- ple really love it and how it's doing really well. I'm not surprised, but delighted." "I think [the film] turned out better than I expected," adds McDonagh. "The performances just knock the whole thing out of the park — Woody, Sam and Frances — they just take it to a whole other level. "I think it's a beautiful film that's not just performance based — the humor comes across. And the balance of the humor with tragedy, we weren't sure was going to work or the audience would accept it. We were happy with it and we knew it was a good movie — but you never know how an audience is going to take it. But people seem to love Frances and the characters and want to go on her journey." Editor Jon Gregory The film was shot on-location in North Carolina.