By Iain Blair
Author/director Celine Music’s debut characteristic Previous Lives earned two Academy Award nominations. Her new movie, Materialists, is a bittersweet rom-com that when once more mines her personal previous life for a narrative about Lucy, a younger, bold New York Metropolis matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) who finds herself torn between the right match — wealthy and profitable Harry (Pedro Pascal) — and her imperfect ex, struggling actor/waiter John (Chris Evans).
We talked to Music about making the movie, her love of modifying and sound, and why she thinks of herself as Dr. Frankenstein through the submit course of.
Celine Music (left) on-set
You reunited along with your Previous Lives DP Shabier Kirchner and once more shot on 35mm. Inform us about discovering the glamorous however gritty search for this.
I really feel like Shabi and I are in a “lifer factor,” and we intend to make all our motion pictures collectively. We had been impressed by the story itself, and we determined to shoot on movie as a result of it’s the one factor that made sense, as a result of it’s referred to as Materialists. There’s one thing in regards to the tangibility and the “foreverness” of movie that simply felt prefer it was the right solution to seize love.
And we needed New York Metropolis to look glamorous and splendid as a result of our eyes are, in fact, drawn to luxurious. However the film additionally depicts corners of New York Metropolis that aren’t so glamorous, like a small house in Sundown Park, which is but to be gentrified. So my aim has at all times been to seize other ways of residing in New York Metropolis.
Was it robust capturing areas in New York?
Capturing in New York Metropolis is extraordinarily tough — one thing I didn’t absolutely grasp till I used to be on-set, surrounded by vacationers, paparazzi — we had a really a well known forged — and a big manufacturing footprint with plenty of vans. However, then again, this was not my first film in New York Metropolis, and I knew lots of the crew members. I might get entry to the sources there, after which extra doorways had been open bureaucratically and to personal areas. Folks had been extra open to letting me make my film in New York Metropolis due to it being my second film set there.
Once I interviewed you about Previous Lives, you stated, “Out of the entire filmmaking course of, I really feel like I’m most geared up to cope with submit due to my expertise as a playwright and modifying textual content.” Did you are feeling even higher geared up this time spherical coping with submit?
Sure, this time I felt like I might form the method the way in which I needed. There have been some issues that I needed to do sooner, or some issues that I used to be getting forward of, and I believe that coping with all that may solely come from expertise. Final time I discovered prep to be very tough, as I had no expertise. You’re promoting a dream, and also you’re spending cash based mostly on a dream of a film that you just don’t have but. So I might solely go by what different folks believed, and there was loads of uncertainty. However this time I actually loved prep and eager about tips on how to make it environment friendly and productive. Then in manufacturing days, I used to be in a position to obtain a lot extra as a result of I used to be higher ready, and I beloved coping with submit much more this time.
Let’s discuss modifying. You additionally reunited along with your Previous Lives editor, Keith Fraase. How did the method work this time? Did he come to the set, or did you ship dailies?
I don’t have editors on-set. He came around as a result of he lives upstate, the place we shot the second marriage ceremony sequence, however he didn’t work on-set. I really feel like we have to get all of the “physique elements” first. I usually consider myself as Dr. Frankenstein once I discuss submit. It’s like having a bit of casket of physique elements, all based mostly on a blueprint I’ve created. For instance, on Day 2 we could be making a finger and an ear, and every time we name “lower” and wrap a scene, it’s as if we’re packing that physique half into a bit of movie can and sending it off.
In submit, a lot of the work is about stitching all these elements collectively. Then comes the portray — music, sound design, and all of the intricate layers — till the movie begins to really feel prefer it has a soul. It’s as if the a whole bunch of people that labored on it disappear, and the film appears to have been born complete, able to be beloved. The viewers is the electrical energy that brings it to life. They’re the ultimate spark. After which the film wakes up, speaks to you, and possibly even loves you again.
That’s how I used to be eager about it with Keith. Till we had all of the physique elements, we didn’t know what sort of particular person the character — or the movie — could be. Typically we’d uncover we didn’t want that additional finger in spite of everything, or we’d be glad we had a number of completely different variations so we might select the one which felt excellent.
What had been the largest modifying challenges?
It was all about our perspective and the way we needed to satisfy the characters. That was the basic factor. We had some choices for the way we needed to depict them. Was it going to be in a two-shot? Or was it going to be in a close-up? We talked so much about what every scene was after which labored on attending to the underside of it — a lot in order that the reply grew to become clear. I believed that a lot of modifying was like dramaturgical work. What sort of story was being informed right here? The opposite large problem — which sounds foolish — was coping with the smoking and cigarette continuity. That was laborious work to get proper and a really technical problem that, surprisingly, required some submit VFX work.
I do know you like working with sound design and mixing. How was it on this movie?
I did the sound at Harbor in New York, and we combined for 2 weeks. I realized a lot from the expertise of engaged on the sound for Previous Lives and I’m fairly obsessive about it. I set myself as much as actually take into account what course of would work for me and my obsession with element. A few of it was about speaking these items with my supervising sound designer, Daniel Timmons. He got here into the modifying room early on, and we’d speak in regards to the sound plan for months, not simply weeks.
In fact, Keith was the primary sound designer of the film, in a approach, as a result of he was doing a few of that work whereas he was reducing image. The three of us labored so intently all through submit that by the point we had been doing the ultimate combine, I handled it like a manufacturing day, the place we had been making an attempt to attain completely all the things we needed to in these 12 hours. We had all of the items ready, after which we aimed to nail it. The aim was to make the sound design really feel fully easy. When a sound got here in, or when music snuck in, I needed it to really feel like we didn’t even discover when it occurred.
Clearly, there are some visible results, together with for cigarette continuity. What was concerned?
The Artery in New York Metropolis did all of them. We would have liked VFX for the cave folks sequences firstly and finish, since we shot in Durango, Mexico, and needed to take away roads, energy traces, and different trendy parts to make it look untouched.
We had the cave work within the caveman sections so we would have liked VFX for the handprints and the artwork above them on the cave partitions. These VFX had been actually the primary factor. Then, in Harry and Lucy’s breakup scene within the kitchen, all of the home windows are greenscreen. It’s an actual location, however the outdoors view in actuality was of a wall. So, we put glass on it after which created a stupendous cityscape and reflections with VFX.
The opposite good factor is that submit and VFX are nice for reducing a line out or reducing a pause or letting the pause linger a bit longer — we used loads of fluid morphs to maintain the tempo up or gradual it down. A lot of that’s about massaging the performances.
I believed the movie regarded very stunning. Inform us in regards to the colour grade.
We did it at Harbor with colorist Damien Vandercruyssen, who’s unimaginable. A lot of the look of the movie got here out of the romance, and I keep in mind when Damien and Shabi first talked for hours in regards to the silver look they each needed, and being so nerdy about this visible language of the colour silver, which in fact Damien then present in each body.
We realized that each single piece of bijou that Lucy wears is silver, so within the DI, Damien used this course of referred to as ENR, which helped spotlight all of the silver. The end result was good and delightful.
Is it true you based mostly the story on a real-life expertise?
Sure, it was impressed by the point in my twenties once I labored as a matchmaker with the intention to pay lease. It was my day job — I couldn’t make a residing as a playwright in New York Metropolis. I solely labored as a matchmaker for about six months, however I believe I realized extra about folks and what’s of their hearts than I did in some other a part of my life. I at all times thought, even after leaving that job, that I used to be going to inform a narrative about it and the way in which that we discuss courting.
And naturally, courting is a sport that we play in pursuit of affection. I’ve been making an attempt to determine tips on how to inform a narrative about it for 10 years. I lastly bought the chance after ending submit on Previous Lives. I used to be in a position to sit down and crack the story. I needed it to really feel as sincere and as actual as I can think about about courting, love, relationships, marriage and the way all these issues really feel in 2025. So, it’s a contemporary love story, before everything.
Business insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the largest administrators in Hollywood and all over the world for years. He’s a daily contributor to Selection and has written for such retailers as Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Instances and the Boston Globe.
