Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
Charlie Greene. 48 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E This Thing On?" was released on Dec. 19 by Searchlight Pictures. To manage the film's unique tone and sometimes raw style, Cooper turned to first- time solo picture editor Charlie Greene, a longtime assistant editor who most recent- ly served as the first assistant editor on "Maestro," a biopic of composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein edited by Michelle Teso- ro, ACE. Having developed a rapport with Greene on the earlier film, Cooper tapped him to move up to the editor's chair on his new movie. C i n e M o n t a g e r e c e n t l y s p o k e b y phone with Greene and Cooper about their work together. CineMontage: Charlie, talk about working on "Maestro" and how you got the chance to edit "Is This Thing On?" Charlie Greene: I had worked with Michelle [Tesoro] for quite some time. She is one of the best editors working, in my opinion. I've learned so much from her, and I continue to do so. Bradley is very collaborative. Everyone comes to the table. He welcomes opinions. There's a constant dialogue with the team. I've been fortunate to have that experience on other projects, so it wasn't completely foreign to me when the director asked for my opinion. [With Bradley], I felt very free to do so. He doesn't want to surround himself with people who are saying, "Oh, yeah — it looks great. I love it." He wants to hear your honest, honest take on something. With the dialogue that we had on "Maestro," when this project came up, he thought of me. CineMontage: Bradley, what was it about Charlie and his contributions on "Maestro" that led you to offer him this chance to move up? Bradley Cooper: Michelle is incredible. We were so lucky that she agreed to come do "Maestro," and she brought Charlie with her. I got to know him very well on that mov- ie. This movie is very low-budget, relatively speaking. [We] were shooting in New York, and it seemed like a real opportunity to ask people to step up. I asked Charlie, and he seemed interested. … Right away, I thought, "Oh, I think this would be a perfect oppor- tunity for him," and he agreed to do it. The team he assembled: Gil [second assistant editor Gil Seltzer] and PK [first assistant editor Phillip Kimsey] — the whole editorial team — is just incredible. CineMontage: Charlie, had you been looking for an opportunity to move into the editor's chair? Greene: I had been, but not too actively, because with a family, the time commit- ment to make the jump, not to mention the opportunity... it's rare for the stars to align. I've had many good experiences working with Michelle, as a first assistant and a vi- sual effects editor — but it was really hard to say no [to "Is This Thing On?"]. I had a good rapport with Bradley and a sense of what this might be like. I think he appreciated my work ethic. CineMontage: Bradley, the film has lots of oners and is very committed to the hand-held look. How did you settle on the aesthetic, and how did it inform the way the film was edited? Cooper: It certainly helps, because there wasn't much to be done other than reorga- nizing. … The scenes were what they were going to be because there was no coverage. I wanted the movie to feel the way I experi- enced New York, living here in the late '90s. Downtown is like a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. It's vertical. It's square. Greene: I think, with that style, every- one has to be on board. Not only is Bradley directing, but, in addition to the other camera team, he's also shooting it. There is this realness that happens and an intimacy. CineMontage: What's it like to work with that sort of material? Greene: As an editor, we had a lot of op- tions at our disposal for scenes, but there's always that sense of: "Oh, that's the take — that's the one." Despite the fact that there are a lot of oners, it was very freeing to be in the moment and let it roll. There is the Zen of just letting something play and seeing where it goes. …There were moments with an improvised line or an improvised look, and then it's, "Oh, wow, that's just magic — that just lends itself to the moment." Also, I think Bradley wanted the actors not to always consider the scripted material, and just go with it; if this feels like real life, go with that moment. The artifice melts away at a certain point. We h i t t h e g ro u n d r u n n i n g d u r i n g production. I was assembling, and after a couple of weeks, we were already reworking scenes. He would call me from set every day. There's the moment when Alex is in the bathroom after his set, and he sings, "Ole, ole, ole." We didn't always have that in there, but we knew that we had it. When I saw that take, I mentioned it to Bradley on the day. I said, "Oh, that was incredible that he did that." We had takes of him looking into the mirror, considering what had just happened to him — that he'd gone up and performed. But as we neared the end of the edit, we knew we had that take [of him singing]. And when you look at the film holistically, and the arc of the characters, this is our guy. CineMontage: Charlie, talk about the basic process of how you and Bradley worked together. Greene: During dailies, we would check in with each other every day. He would give me the heads-up about what's coming down the pipe, if there was anything that stood out to him — "Look for this moment where this happens" — things like that. We would start putting together assemblies and deliv-