CineMontage

Q3 2020

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28 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E heavyweights—Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, and Marlon Brando. "It was a real advantage to me, trying to build this multifaceted career, that this was Frank's next choice," Pearson said. "I think that displayed to others that, 'Oh, maybe he can do different types of things.'" In a sense, Pearson's eclectic resume prepared him for his eventual entrance into comic-book-derived pictures. For example, his experience working on the effects-heavy comedy "Men in Black II" helped make "Iron Man 2"—his first com- ic book feature—an easier experience. "I really like working in that sandbox where it's very malleable," Pearson said. "You can say, 'Well, if it's not this, it could also be this. You could fly from here to here,' or whatever it is." When Patty Jenkins was searching for an editor for "Wonder Woman 1984," she turned to her collaborator from the first "Wonder Woman," Martin Walsh, as well as producer Charles Roven—both of whom had worked with Pearson on "Justice League" and sang his praises to the director. "I think that people don't realize how incredibly important editing on these kinds of movies is," Jenkins said. "It has to be meticulous, but it needed to happen from a completely emotional place." Pearson was thrilled to get the nod. "She was kind enough to give me a try," he said. T h e n t h e w o r k b e g a n . A l t h o u g h Pearson traveled with the company from location to location—including stops in Washington, DC, London, and the Canary Islands—the editor and director did not work all that closely during the long, grueling, 128-day shoot. "During production, I'm very singularly focused," Jenkins said. "You have to work on post to a certain extent, but I'm like: 'We'll edit it when I get there. I have to just focus on shooting for now.' Particularly because he and I didn't know each other, I didn't have a shorthand with him and I didn't have time to put attention into investing in the future." Pearson anointed himself what he called a "lighthouse captain"—if he saw something wrong, he'd let her know, but otherwise, he'd keep plowing through the material. "I said, 'Unless I see something coming toward the rock, I'll just keep going,'" he said. Unbeknownst to Jenkins, though, Pearson was already in sync with his director. When Jenkins sat down to view the editor's cut, she was astonished—not by the things she wanted changed or tweaked, but by how much she liked it. "It's always the worst day of your life, watching the first cut of the film," Jenkins said. "But I did not have that experience. It was working for me, and there were surprises and delights, beginning to end, and I cried through the end of the movie and had all these emotions on something I had nothing to do with the editing of." "It was a real sweat for me, because that could've been my last day on the job," Pearson said. "Fortunately for me, she was very, very happy, and then we moved into the post process." Jenkins found herself in agreement with most of the takes Pearson had selected, but even when she had a different idea, she recognized what he was trying to do with a scene. "When I would want to change something, my direction to him would be just like my direction to the actor," Jenkins said. "Instead of saying, 'I want Take 35B because that's what I circled,' I would say, 'Oh, I see what you were going for. You were trying to be funny and it's his point-of-view, but I thought it would be funnier if we were in her point-of-view and she was surprised by what happened.' I'd walk away, boom, totally new scene would come back—per- fectly done." In effects- dependent movies like " Wo n d e r Wo m a n 1 9 8 4 ," n u m e r o u s scenes have already been previsualized. "I began incorporating live-action foot- age into the previsualization, sometimes using the VFX editor to help me compos- ite live action into a previs plate," said Pearson, but that didn't stop him from experimenting—even with action or effects scenes. "I was struggling in one set piece where a young actor needed to move from point A to C. As prevised and shot, the B transition point wasn't really working. I had the VFX editor, Tino Brodt, mock up a bit of digital set extension and an "actor" to help communicate to Patty and Dan Bradley, the second-unit director, what that beat could possibly be. It was a very helpful tool and ended up being the solution for that problem." Jenkins was appreciative of Pearson's resourcefulness in manipulating digital Pearson's home work space. P H O T O : C H R I S T O P H E R F R A G A P A N E

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