Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541878
House of Dynamite is a new po- litical thriller from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow. The film is set in Washington, DC, where various levels of the Department of Defense react and respond to an incoming missile that's due to reach a major US city in less than 15 minutes. The film is presented in three chapters, each reflecting the view of a respective level of intelligence as they become aware of the threat. As each chapter concludes, the clock is reset and the story begins again from another perspective. Idris Elba portrays the President of the United States, and is joined by a cast that includes Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee and Jason Clarke. The film was edited by Oscar winner Kirk Baxter (Gone Girl, The Social Network), who previously worked with the film- maker on Hollywood in Your Pocket, a long-format commercial for Apple that touted the capabilities of the iPhone 13 Pro. Baxter began work on the new fea- ture back in December of 2024, working from the "shed" of his Suffolk County home on Long Island, NY, before moving into space in Tribeca, just blocks away from where he and Bigelow live. Baxter recently took time out from his work on an upcoming David Fincher film to shares insight into his editing process on A House of Dynamite, his collabora- tion with Kathryn Bigelow and some of his favorite scenes. How did you come to work on this feature? "I did a commercial with [Kathryn] for Apple called Hollywood in Your Pocket. That was a big commercial, like three minutes long, and we got on great during that. I think that sort of put me in her Rolodex. And then the same produc- er that was involved — where Kathryn's represented for commercials — that producer called me up and said, 'Kathryn wants to talk to you about a movie.' Greg Shapiro, who produced A House of Dynamite, set the whole thing up and got me the script. I read it, loved it, instantly got on the phone with her, and that was that." You always seem to be working. Was it good luck from a scheduling standpoint? "Yeah, I mean, more and more, everything interests me, but Dave Fincher has been pretty prolific and I've kept myself avail- able for him. And then I have Exile, which is a commercial editing company that keeps me very busy in-between movies." What about this film did you find appealing? "I was attracted to it for many reasons. I love the notion of the same story being told three times, working its way out through the layer of government. I thought that would be complicated in a fantastic way for an editor. And that was a big attraction. Kathryn Bigelow was a big attraction, but the structure of that script was a massive attraction as well. I liked the way it's a thriller, because it was a page turner for me reading it, and I knew it would be that way when we made it. I had a sort of picture immediately in my head that you wanted to put it together very rapidly, moving at a breakneck pace. I love thrillers. I love watching them. I like making them. But I also enjoyed that this was a sort of more of a higher message than just entertainment." Were you cutting as the dailies came in? "I didn't come on until they'd finished shooting, due to scheduling, so that's how I started on my own in December, cutting the first chapter. And I got to work in story order, which was a dream for something this complicated. That, to me, was almost a bigger gift (than) the actual project itself — getting to work (in) story order. Then we built a cutting room in Tribeca, like two blocks from where I live — three blocks from where Kathryn lives — with Kathryn popping in and out the whole time, and it was won- derful. She was so excited to be sharing the material with me. She shoots this sort of three-camera setup that's so organic. It's different every time, like a documen- tary in a lot of ways. They don't block it out for actors. (There are) no rehearsals. No marks. So I would sort cut with multi- ple cameras and sort of do these pre-ed- its, and slowly sift down selects and bring Kathryn in and say, 'Watch these. I really like this one.' We just excite each other, and because we were doing story order, we were so excited to watch the movie we were making. We very much galloped through the process of making it, and then I knew that I would go back and do a more diligent pass that was sort of based on more editing neuroses of, 'This is the exact piece of dialog that the President says at the end of the film. And I'm not going to know what that is until I cut the end parts.'" What are you using for your editing setup? "I've been using Premiere since Gone Girl." Do you have an assistant helping to manage the material? "Oh yeah! There's like four of them!" Was the material unique to its respective chapter, or could you pull from different sections? "There was a lot of head scratching from the assistants. Jennifer Chung, who has assisted me on a bunch of movies with Fincher, she was the first assistant on the project and came out from Los Angeles to New York to do this with me, which I was very grateful for. We had a conversa- tion and she's like, 'I'm not quite sure how you want to do this? How do you want me to break this down?' Because, let's say scene 6, there's like eight different things we could cut to, and all these different locations. And I said, 'Just put everything in each folder that I could possibly go to.' And I would select and organize and work it all out. I think the blurry nature of that meant that we were a bit free to go anywhere at any point, A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE BY MARC LOFTUS EDITOR KIRK BAXTER CUTS KATHRYN BIGELOW'S POLITICAL THRILLER A EDITING www.postmagazine.com 28 POST NOV/DEC 2025 Director Bigelow and editor Baxter.