Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543327
SPECIAL REPORT - SUNDANCE tary format." During prep, the pair realized they were aligned in their love and pursuit to push documentary films in ways that challenge and express complicated feel- ings beyond just straight journalistic expression. "My background in cinematography has included a wide kaleidoscope of flavors — (from) highly-stylized work to raw grit," shares Patay. "However, a common through-line is to try and maintain a sense of authenticity, sincerity, and to establish a specific perspective or visual identity of a story." To help maintain the anonymity of the participants in Going Sane, the production created scenes with actors who would lip sync audio clips of the interviewed cult members. "This creates an interesting emotional response as a viewer that's balancing the performances and the emotions expressed in the audio," says Patay. "One great example of this is the short scene that shows a desperate phone call between a woman in the cult and her child, where we used the real audio doc- ument as actor Kate Adams acted out this brief, gut-wrenching moment." Going in, the production team knew they would need to incorporate quite a bit of low-resolution archival video alongside newly-shot footage. "We wanted our footage to not have the common polish or sheen seen in a lot of well-financed documentaries these days," Patay explains. "Our goal was to kind of blur the lines between an archival artifact and a vintage production, including imperfect camera operating, like you might find if you were trying to catch real moments, as well as the feel of manual but intentional zooming of the lens." Footage was shot using a S16 crop sensor with the Canon C500 and an 8-64mm Canon zoom lens. The idea, shares Patay, was to use a lens that close- ly resembled the type of lenses commonly used for making TV documentaries in the late '70s, and with a much greater depth of field, similar to Super 16 film. Izzo and Adam Ridley edited the project. In the Blink of An Eye In the Blink of An Eye is a new feature that follows three storylines spanning thousands of years — intersecting, making connections and highlighting the circle of life. The project was directed by Andrew Stanton and comes from the 2017 "Black List" script by Colby Day (Spaceman). In one storyline, a Neanderthal family is displaced from their home and struggles to survive. In the present day, Claire (Rashida Jones), is an anthro- pologist studying ancient proto-human remains, and begins a relationship with a fellow student, Greg (Daveed Diggs). Two centuries later, on a spaceship bound for a distant planet, Coakley (Kate McKinnon) and an onboard comput- er confront a disease afflicting the ship's oxygen-producing plants. The film was shot by director of photography Ole Bratt Birkeland and edited by Mollie Goldstein. Thomas Newman created its original music. "In the Blink of An Eye came to me through my agent, and Andrew Stanton, and I just really hit it off in the interview," recalls Goldstein. "We connected about the script, but also about how we like to work. We're both big believers in creating a safe and welcoming environment in the cutting room. I've also edited for the Criterion Collection before, and they had just released Wall-E, so Andrew asked the team there for a reference." Goldstein shares that In the Blink of An Eye followed a traditional Avid workflow. "I had two great team members with me in the edit, AE Mike Colao and ERA Nick Shaw. When the dailies came in, Mike would go through them, group any multi-camera clips — they often shot with two cameras — and pass the bin off to Nick, who would script sync them. While they worked, I would be watching the dailies and letting the general shape of the scene form in the back of my head. Once the script was ready, I would start building a cut. Script sync lets me compare all the tiny moments really easily while also following the flow I envisioned while watching the footage." For Goldstein, finding sync points between the storylines and making them echo each other across time was a huge part of the edit. "One of my biggest breakthroughs came on the day I decided to un-weave the stories," she reveals. "I watched them each individually, and suddenly I had a new perspective on how to solve each storyline's wrinkles and how I could tie them back together. Colby Day's script was a beautiful foundation, but there were whole new possibilities once there were actors and music and visuals. The story is also very spare. The film is about being human, love, loss and time. We built the drive of the final product in the edit room, and I'm really proud of it." Kikuyu Land The documentary Kikuyu Land details a Nairobi journalist's probe into a land battle that entangles the local government and a powerful multinational corpo- ration. The doc reveals both wounds and family secrets. Bea Wangondu is both a journalist and the project's co-director, along with Andrew H. Brown. For the Kikuyu people, land is identity, but a history of colo- nialism in Kenya has stripped communities of their land, leaving many to labor under harsh conditions on land that is now owned by large corporations. "I came to Kikuyu Land through my relationship with my co-director, Bea Wangondu," notes Brown, who also served as Kikuyu Land's cinematographer and editor. "We first worked together while both on assignment with National Geographic on a separate project. Over time, I saw how fearless she was in ask- ing difficult questions within her own community." The documentary leans heavily on natural sound, silence and pacing, rather than exposition, allowing moments to breathe. "One scene, captured with (a) Canon (camera), that stays with me is when Stephen and his friends run off the farm and into the world beyond the tea fields," shares Brown. "There is a sense of momentum and curiosity as they move through space that is usually off-limits, driven by the simple urge to explore. For a brief moment, the boundaries that shape their lives seem to take a backseat." Goldstein used an Avid to edit In the Blink of An Eye. Andrew H. Brown shot and edited Kikuyu Land.