Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/637797
33 Q1 2016 / CINEMONTAGE important to contextualize what was going on in the country and what the stakes were because so much of what these people do is an abstraction," Corwin explains. "I used the 'Money Maker' song by Ludacris to demonstrate that this was a culture of inveterate greed. These little things became like time capsules. We just decided to make it fun and to make it a ride." Sixel, who also won the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) and was runner-up for the LA Film Critics Best Editing Award, in addition to being nominated for a BAFTA Award, had the great advantage on Mad Max: Fury Road of being director George Miller's wife. Indeed, even though this was her first stab at the dystopian road picture and they have different sensibilities, he wanted her sense of rigor, fluidity and elegance. "As George's editor, I am in a unique position as I can be honest without fear of being fired," Sixel says. "But he has taught me that if I am going to be critical, I should offer up a solution. So I never criticize unless I feel I have a better way of doing something. I have become a good problem solver." This trait came in very handy during a difficult two-year post period when Warner Bros. wanted to see if the filmmakers could make the film work without the studio's help. But Sixel conceded that they couldn't. As a result, for the first year of post, they didn't have the opening and closing Citadel scenes. "Most days, we would get between eight and 20 hours of material," Sixel recalls. "Endless footage of vehicles travelling, at the most 40 kilometers per hour [25 miles an hour], and you have to turn it into a thrill ride. It was a delicate balancing act — to neither shortchange sequences nor exhaust the audience. It was tricky rhythmically going from intense action to slower, more poetic moments. The music also helped to tie them together so they didn't feel odd. "I gave each moment its best shot," she adds, "and only once I had a very refined cut did I feel justified in dropping material." However, pushing back the release date gave Sixel a second wind and the stamina to keep plugging away. "There was pressure to cut the film down to 100 minutes, but I didn't want to cut too deeply and brutally, where logic and the musicality of sequences were sacrificed. I was always conscious that the third act was to be an 18-minute chase/race sequence and didn't want the audience to be tired of cars smashing into each other right at the climax of the film." It turns out that that last year's Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), was merely a dress rehearsal for The Revenant for director Alejandro González Iñárritu and his crew, including editor Mirrione, also an ACE Eddie and BAFTA nominee. It was shot in sequence (200 hours worth of material) mostly in the Canadian Rockies (with and without sufficient snow), and there was very little dialogue to anchor the narrative. And because of the wide lenses and vast landscape, a lot of the stunning camera work by Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC, was on cranes, which changed the rhythm. "You're figuring it out as you go along, and you're discovering things and making adjustments," comments Mirrione, who has been Oscar- nominated twice before, winning for Traffic (2000). "And that takes a lot of time to do in a sensitive, thoughtful way so you're staying true to the DNA of the piece." Margaret Sixel. Stephen Mirrione. Photo by Wm. Stetz