Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
51 Q1 2018 / CINEMONTAGE by Rob Feld • portraits by Sarah Shatz O riginally intending to be an actor, Keith Fraase fell in love with behind- the-camera work while at the University of Texas at Austin. Then he thought he wanted to be a cinematographer, but eventually fell into an apprentice editor job with Sandra Adair, ACE, to replace a friend who was leaving that position on Elvis and Annabelle (2007). From Adair, he learned a work ethic, a sense of a film family and a love of editing that would serve him well after she later referred him to director Terrence Malick. Malick's productions are known for their relentless pace, with multiple editors collaborating on any given film. Fraase originally interviewed to apprentice on the iconoclastic filmmaker's The Tree of Life (2011), but heard nothing back. It would be two years before the film finally moved out of pre-production and Fraase, who had been editing corporate work in the meantime, finally got the call for the job; he was credited as "artistic consultant" on the film. Ultimately, Fraase became lead editor on Malick's next film, To the Wonder (2012), and stayed with him for seven years. The director's style of filmmaking, and the vast amount of footage it encompasses, also proved a perfect training ground for Fraase's first documentary project, Amir Bar-Lev's Grateful Dead film, Long Strange Trip (2017). Eager to work on a more classically styled film, Fraase jumped at the chance when college friends who had written the script for the upcoming Chappaquiddick approached him to meet its director, John Curran. The feature film, which opens April 6 through Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, depicts the scandal that eventually ended the presidential prospects of Democratic Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy (Jason Clarke), after he drove his car off a bridge, killing its passenger — an aspiring political strategist and Kennedy insider, Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara). Chappaquiddick, named for the island where the accident took place, presents the logistical truth of the actual events, but focuses on Kennedy, his disastrous decisions and his position within his unique and powerful family. Fraase's challenge was to maintain empathy for Kennedy as the senator makes unforgivable choices. It was an obvious challenge to be sure, but — emerging from the stylistic difficulties of Terrence Malick's films, and from a documentary that could have gone in any number of directions — one that proved far more complicated than the editor had anticipated, as he told CineMontage in an interview in January that also covers his work with Malick. CineMontage: Chappaquiddick seems a radical departure for you, both stylistically and process-wise. Both the screenplay and camera moves are specifically designed. Keith Fraase: It's actually why I took the job. Chappaquiddick was a chance to try something that was more classical. I naively went into it thinking it was going to be a walk in the park, because I had worked on stylistically more adventurous films. But just because a script is fantastically written doesn't mean it's going to play fantastically when it's all put together, or that people will perceive the film's events in a certain way. When I was reading the script, my feelings toward Ted Kennedy's character changed from scene to scene — between utter disgust to a sort of empathy for the shadow he lived under, cast by his brothers and his father. Sometimes I was rooting for him, sometimes I wasn't. Chappaquiddick. Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures