Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1203636
54 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E tight close-up of Gordon's face, and all the audience hears is the sound of Gordon taking slow, deep breaths. Th e re w a s s o m u c h fo o ta ge s h o t for the scene that Sanders said he and Cretton elected to utilize a more stylized approach than what is used in most of the film. Cretton said Sanders captured the spirit of the scene in his first pass and then the two worked together to refine it. "We wanted to really show the pro- cess so there was no gray area about what happens in an execution, but we weren't looking to sensationalize anything," Sanders said. "It was about trying to keep the emotion and intensity building and create the most impact with that scene that we could. "In that last moment, the shot was so beautiful that it became really clear that we wanted to stay there with [Gor- don]," he said. "So, we decided to go into more subjective filmmaking and fa d e d d ow n a l l o f [ t h e] e l e m e n ts i n order to make it feel like you were going inside [Gordon's] head." The Final Cut Sanders and Cretton spent months perfecting the film before showing it to the film's producers and then to Steven- son himself. "Bryan was incredibly busy, so when he did come out to L.A. to watch the rough cut for the first time, we were obviously really nervous to show it to him." Sanders recalled. "I remember sitting in our bun- galow waiting for his feedback on the cut and he did have incredible insights into the film that we really valued." Audience test screenings were also invaluable to the editing process, Sand- ers said. "Because it was a legal drama, I was looking for people shifting in their chairs to find where the film was dragging, w h e re i t wa s to o l o n g o r a s k i n g to o much," he said. "We focused on two areas to trim and found a 15-minute run without score; so we found places to add score. When we showed it again, the shifting stopped." After editing "Just Mercy" and an intense series of films beginning with Barry Jenkins' Academy Award-winning "Moonlight" (2016), Cretton's "The Glass Castle" (2017) and Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk" (2018), Sanders said he was ready to shift gears. So, when Cretton asked him to join him on his cur- rent project, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" it was an easy "yes." It's Marvel Studio's first Asian-led s u p e r h e ro m o v i e, a n d Sa n d e rs s a i d he's looking forward to taking on a fun, action-packed genre. He is co-editing the film with Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir ("John Wick") with production scheduled to begin early this year. "I have been happy working on the projects I've been a part of the last sev- eral years," Sanders said. "Working with people like Barry and Destin and working on films that are really important. " T h i s w i l l b e a re a l c h a n ge f ro m the serious dramas I've been doing," Sanders said. ■ Laura Flores is a freelance writer in Los Angeles. Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx in "Just Mercy." P H O T O : W A R N E R B R O S .