Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/637797
45 Q1 2016 / CINEMONTAGE by Rob Feld portraits by John Clifford T o be birthed from the world of director Robert Altman and his legendary editor Geraldine Peroni, ACE, is a unique experience for a young editor. Such was the gestation period as an apprentice editor for Dylan Tichenor, ACE — an environment of multi-character storytelling, which lent itself well to his own sensibilities and would apply to much of his future work. Tichenor came to edit some of the more notable work of a who's who of directors with starkly identifiable styles, like Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, Mike Figgis, Ang Lee and M. Night Shyamalan. He recently completed his second film for John Hillcoat: Triple 9, which opens February 26 through Open Road Films. The film is a dark noir, which follows the storylines of an Orthodox Jewish Russian mafiosa (Kate Winslet) who runs her bloody operation out of a kosher butcher shop; a cop (Chiwetel Ejiofo) who is part of a murderous ring of corrupt police officers and has a child with Winslet's character's sister; a tough, incorruptible rookie to the group (Casey Affleck); and his cynical cop uncle (Woody Harrelson). There's a lot to track, a less-than- visual MacGuffin, and a challenging rhythm to maintain between explosive action and expository dialogue. It's obvious why Tichenor would be a good choice for the job. CineMontage: Your background is a rare one, beginning under Geraldine Peroni for Robert Altman. What did you take from that experience? Dylan Tichenor: I remember early on getting her approach to performances. It was a wonderful environment and I was fortunate to have fallen in with them. Gerri cut from her gut: "What's my emotional reaction to this moment from this person?" And I naturally understood why she picked moments she did. We both looked for the extra moments that were not necessarily present, but that could reveal a little more depth and add some contrast or other harmonic of emotion to the scene. Those things can create a more interesting depth and tension. Maybe it's something I got from her. Gerri was working on Brokeback Mountain when she passed away, and Ang Lee asked me to take that over. I didn't want to do it because it felt really emotionally charged. I didn't know how to deal with it. Ang was very open about it and said, "You should come try it. At a certain point, it's just going to be about the work." Truthfully, it turned out to be the best way to spend time with Gerri — thinking about her life and personality. In a funny way, we were working together. It was very rewarding and I never would have expected it would be anything other than a painful thing to do. It was also quite comforting and educational. The work turned out well [it earned him ACE Eddie and BAFTA Awards nominations] and it was a good feeling. CM: Keeping emotionally open to the footage you watch over and over again, do you try to make intuitive, quicker decisions before the feeling dulls with redundancy? DT: I try to identify those moments that I respond to when I'm watching dailies early on, and make a lot of notes that are very specific. Then I try to remember that feeling I had when I refer to them because, after you put it together, you're trying to make the rhythm of things work. At that point, the storytelling has to become lean and effective, and a lot of those moments that were intriguing have no place in the scene anymore. So I try to start with Unafraid of the Obvious Editor Dylan Tichenor Dials in 'Triple 9'