As the saying goes, you make your film three times: once when you write it, again when you shoot it and lastly, when you edit it. I wish it were only three times. We’ve done more than 20 edits of the film and while we’ve been in picture-lock since mid-November, we’ll invariably make tweaks here and there up until final mastering. No wonder many filmmakers say they never watch their completed projects. Every time I see a cut, I see not just what’s on the monitor, but any number of alternate renditions.
It’s a bit like seeing the timestream branch before your eyes without the benefit of living out any of the alternate paths. Getting to picture-lock took about two-and-a-half months of daily editing. My skillful editor, Ben Mead, known primarily for award-winning documentaries like Brutal Beauty: Tales of the Rose City Rollers, compiled the first assembly edit as we shot the film. He made great progress on it, despite welcoming his first child into the world during the shoot (not on set, mind). Subsequent versions underwent a number of changes, though all of them followed the same basic structure, closely mirroring that of the shooting script. This process involved selecting the most effective shots from more than 600 minutes of footage and reconfiguring them into seemingly endless patterns. (Btw, we used primarily one camera—the Red One—though we occasionally employed a relatively inexpensive crash-cam and for two days of intensive car stunts, actually had the luxury of a two-camera setup.) At about the two-month mark, though, Ben and I determined we needed a fresh perspective.
That’s when I asked a friend-of-a-friend, the uber-talented editor and director, Gary Lundgren (Calvin Marshall), to come up from southern Oregon for a week to apply his brand of filmic magic. Gary got his start in the industry as an editorial assistant and has been part of the editing team for a number of Hollywood productions, including Ernest Dickerson’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (uncredited, for you IMDB checkers). Working frenetically over the course of a workweek, Gary and I whacked the then-110 minute edit down to a snappy 77 minutes. I can’t say this part was easy. Absolutely necessary, yes; easy, no. There were moments when I doubted my storytelling instincts. But the end result was well worth all the accompanying emotional turmoil. Sometimes the most drastic cut can be the kindest. Gary’s beady-eyed focus on narrative clarity and momentum established a surer, leaner baseline for the film.
From that point on, it was relatively easy for Ben and me to rework the film into its current svelte, but more emotionally-engaging, picture-locked form. The 77 minute version turned out to be a mite too fast and some of the edits required additional bits to flow properly. Ben restored a lot of the essential breathing room and I added a few diary-entry voice-overs to give the lone female lead a greater, more sympathetic voice than the pared-back version allowed. I also reconvened the crew for a day of soundless pickups designed to fill in a few fleeting, but nonetheless noticeable gaps, and to ease a couple of scene transitions. (For completists, we trialed a Red Epic camera, the camera used on the most recentUnderworld picture and the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man, among other things.) The current cut is about 87 minutes without closing credits.
Now, we’re in the throes of sound design, music, special effects, color correction and all the other usual post-production activities. Every element is inextricably linked, which makes coordination a challenge. For instance, I originally intended to use a track from obscure 70s band, The Godz, over the main title sequence. When negotiations with the record company proved unduly trying, however, the composer, John Askew, offered up a score. And boy-howdy, I’m glad he did! It was a revelation that altered our initial plans about the use of score throughout the film and impacted a number of sound design elements. (We’re experimenting with tying score and sound effects together to a greater extent than typical studio fare à la David Lynch.) Fortunately for me, the post-production crew consists not only of seasoned veterans, but many of them have worked together over a number of projects, making the process relatively seamless.
We’re now looking at a March timeframe for final mastering—about seven months after the end of principal photography. Not bad considering the fitful nature of post. I’m trying not to rush it, but my anticipation is second only to the anticipation I felt during my wife’s pregnancies. It’s worse than any childhood Christmas for sure. I can’t hardly wait to show what we’ve got in store. Regardless of your feelings about the finished film, I guarantee you’ll find it uniquely compelling.
