Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1151081
55 Q3 2019 / CINEMONTAGE proper reactions by Wayans playing opposite himself to match sequences together. First assistant Richard Saulnier explains that Marra devised "a cool system of color-coding clips for each character [with his own designated color] so that we could tell what was Marlon as one character versus Marlon as another character — versus Marlon's double in the same clothing. We had to separate all characters, as well as doubles, because we couldn't use any of their off-camera dialogue." HELLO, TECHNODOLLY A major aspect of the work was the fact that the filmmakers used a Technodolly from Pacific Motion Control to capture motion-control shots of Wayans improvising as different characters on set. One of the benefits of this approach was that editorial and visual effects could more efficiently stitch disparate elements of multiple characters from different takes together, according to Jordan. "We could put Marlon as up to seven different characters in the same shot," says the editor. "Unlike earlier films that have had the same person playing multiple characters, the director utilized the Technodolly [for motion-control work] to make it as dynamic as possible." It also made the editorial process "more detailed than I've ever experienced," Jordan attests. "Because on this show, we might have wide shots where there are seven characters, and we are creating all the dailies, all the possibilities, switching out a line or a take of one person, but not the other. And then you multiply that by seven, and you have a frightening number of different possibilities for the shot. "The timing for the ensemble is created in editorial," he continues. "If the camera is locked off at a certain point, and we have seven characters in the scene — like we do at the end of the movie — you can be rolling a character forward and backward to get a reaction at a certain place in time. That's what made it painstakingly detailed, more than usual, but it also gives you a lot of control." Jordan credits Marra with developing the methodology for tracking material coming out of the motion-control or visual effects processes. "One of the things that Jose set up was the use of group clips to be able to access all takes of a character in a motion-control or static shot," explains the editor. "He would group a clip with multiple performances of Marlon as each character. I would throw those groups into the source monitor, and then the director and I could see everything we had that could possibly work together. It was a way of utilizing grouping in our particular situation, and it was tremendously helpful." Marra elaborates: "For regular takes, we would put in the markers and type in the line. For motion-control groups, they are saying different things at the same time in different takes. So we grabbed the markers and would put in pink a [character's name] and the line, but we also had to put what take it was. That let Larry sort it by timecode and see what everyone said in chronological order. Or he could sort by color, and see everything the character said on a particular take. That was a simple tool we adapted to our needs. The Avid isn't really designed for this, but we made it work that way." Given the improvisational nature of the story and Wayans' preferred way of working, the movie involved a huge amount of laborious script-sync work, which is where assistants played crucial roles. Atlanta-based second assistants Sara Bennett and Jenny Lindamood handled a large chunk of that chore, along with marking up dailies and labeling all markers with first lines of Jose Luis Marra. Larry Jordan.