Post Magazine

March/April 2025

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www.postmagazine.com 19 POST MAR/APR 2025 Endless Cookie Endless Cookie is an animated feature documen- tary from Seth and Peter Scriver. The project explores the complex bond between half brothers — one Indigenous, one white — who travel from the present, in isolated Shamattawa, to bustling 1980s Toronto. Endless Cookie is comprised of a series of vig- nettes and makes use of a handcrafted animation style. The piece is rooted in an Indigenous resis- tance to colonialism and features a voice cast that includes Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy and Kerry Condon. Sydney Cowper edited the documentary, having worked with the produc- ers a number of times in the past. "Endless Cookie had a pretty complex post workflow that required someone who was familiar with the more technical aspects of post produc- tion," Cowper explains. "I had a lot of experience in that realm, and I came on-board originally for six months, just to help get the animation out of Adobe Animate and the sound out of Adobe Audition/Logic Pro, and laid out into Adobe Premiere. One thing led to the next, and I found myself really loving the project. I came on- board as picture editor very quickly and have been with the project for over three years until we finished." Cowper says she worked closely with director/ animator Seth Scriver and producer Alex Ordanis. "Due to the nature of the project, we came up with our own workflow for data management and onlining to the 4K masters, which left us with virtually no need for a picture turnover when we locked the film," she explains. "We took advantage of Dropbox as a server and chose Adobe Premiere for its data management systems to achieve this." Endless Cookie is structured around one scene in which the main character is trying to tell a trap- ping/hunting story while being interrupted and side tracked by other characters and their own wild stories. "The challenge was weaving many narratives to- gether, jumping back and forth in time, and moving the story forward in the trapping scene while try- ing to keep the audience grounded and following along," Cowper shares. Jimpa In director Sophie Hyde's new feature Jimpa, Hannah takes her nonbinary teenager Frances to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather Jim, who is lovingly known as Jimpa. Frances' desire to stay abroad with Jimpa means that Hannah is now forced to reconsider her beliefs about parenting and finally confront old stories about the past. Olivia Coleman plays Hannah, with John Lithgow taking on the role of Jimpa. Frances is played by Aud Mason-Hyde. Bryan Mason cut the feature and says it was his fourth narrative collaboration with director Sophie Hyde. "Sophie and I have been together and have been working together since 2002, making a wide vari- ety of projects, from TV series, short films, music videos, documentaries, all the way to features," shares Mason, "As such, we are well versed at working together. We have a 19-year-old child, Aud, and they play a fictionalized version of themselves in the movie — the character Frances." Mason says the project presented a challenge in that it closely mirrors their own personal expe- rience, so finding the line between fiction and nonfiction was, at times, tricky. "Sophie's process with actors is beautifully collaborative and she managed to elicit strong performances right across our international cast," he explains. "It's her superpower, really, and meant that the challenge in the edit was refining the material and not getting too attached to every moment and scene." Matthew Chuang served as the feature's di- rector of photography. The first block was shot in Adelaide, Australia, and then the production moved to Amsterdam for a longer block before finally returning to Adelaide for a final block, which included all of the remaining flashback material. "This final shoot took place part way through our post process," Mason recalls. "As such, it was strongly informed by the material which had been shot and cut so far. The actors coming in, to play younger versions of the main cast, were able to watch versions of each of the scenes the flash- backs were to be cut into. This meant the manner- isms and nuances of performance from the main cast could be studied, learnt and adopted by the young cast. It was really nice to see this process take place." Jimpa was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro and features original music by composer Nick Ward. Mason points to a sequence in which the family heads to Amsterdam to see Jim as one of the more interesting edits. "They arrive at his apartment sodden, after get- ting caught in one of Amsterdam's downpours," he reveals. "The ensuing greeting scene between them all and Jim's assistant Richard (Eamon Farren) is one of my favorites. It's quick, busy, cheeky and a lot of fun, and captures a great version of how it felt to be around the real Jim."

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