By Iain Blair
Editor Andy Jurgensen reunites with director Paul Thomas Anderson on their newest movie, One Battle After One other — a black comedy full of drama, motion and automotive chases that’s already producing Oscar buzz. Their collaboration dates again to Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread, the place Jurgensen served as an assistant and affiliate editor, respectively, earlier than making his feature-editing debut with Anderson’s Licorice Pizza.
Written, directed and produced by Anderson, One Battle After One other follows former revolutionary Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has retreated into hiding and resides off-grid in a state of drug- and alcohol-fueled paranoia whereas elevating his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). When his nemesis, now a corrupt navy official named Lockjaw (Sean Penn), resurfaces after 16 years and Willa goes lacking, Bob scrambles to seek out her, battling the implications of his previous.
Anderson famously at all times shoots on movie, and on this venture he used movie codecs each commonplace — 4-perf Tremendous 35mm — and weird — 8-perf VistaVision. The latter’s high-res picture means it may be blown up and screened in IMAX. The movie can be being launched in a number of different codecs, together with IMAX 70mm, VistaVision, 70mm, 4DX and 4K DCP.
Andy Jurgensen
We lately spoke with Jurgensen in regards to the enhancing challenges and workflow. Affiliate editor Jay Trautman joined the dialog.
This should have been fairly demanding by way of the workflow and storage setup.
Andy Jurgensen: It was. On the finish of every shoot day, the 35mm movie detrimental was despatched to FotoKem for processing, scanning and printing. Prints have been despatched again to location, and we might display nightly for Paul and the crew. After digital dailies shade grading, we obtained Avid DNxHD SQ media in P3 shade house.
FotoKem offered edge code numbers within the metadata so we might conform separate VistaVision and Tremendous 35 work prints and reduce detrimental down the road. I edited the movie utilizing Avid Media Composer 2024 on a Mac Studio with an exterior 48TB G-RAID Thunderbolt 3 array. Jay and assistant editor Colleen Murphy labored off Avid Nexis shared storage.
As soon as reels have been locked, Jay exported reduce lists for assistant editors Andrew Blustain and Tom Foligno, who conformed the VistaVision and Tremendous 35 work prints together with VFX movie outs. Slated Movies dealt with detrimental chopping. FotoKem’s Don Capoferri timed the VistaVision reply print underneath the venture supervision of Andrew Oran, and FotoKem accomplished an optical blow-up to 70mm. EDLs have been delivered to Roundabout Leisure for digital conforming to IMAX, Dolby Imaginative and prescient and DCP. Gregg Garvin carried out last digital shade grading.
Jay Trautman
What about supply challenges, given that you just needed to take care of VistaVision, 70mm, IMAX and different codecs?
Jay Trautman: The movie was shot with a mix of VistaVision and Tremendous 35, primarily as a result of the VistaVision cameras generally didn’t behave the best way we wished. They’re previous, there aren’t a lot of them on the earth, and cameras with movie can simply be a problem generally. The movie is working via the digital camera twice as quick because it runs via a traditional 35mm digital camera and utilizing twice as a lot detrimental house. As a result of we reduce detrimental shade photochemically and make our prints immediately from the digital camera detrimental, we had to determine how you can mix the VistaVision pictures with the Tremendous 35 pictures once they’re oriented 90 levels from one another they usually’re totally different dimension frames.
You’ll be able to’t simply reduce them collectively, so in that early testing, we tried all types of permutations: How do you get a Tremendous 35mm shot right into a VistaVision detrimental? Do it optically, or use a movie recorder to print it onto IMAX movie and cut back it down? Early on, Andy, our publish supervisorErica Fraumanand I labored on a chart with all these totally different strains and 11 totally different optical setups. We had this dream of delivering a VistaVision print that might be proven to audiences, however we didn’t know if that was going to be potential.
Two years in the past, we knew we wished to be in IMAX on movie and we might make a 70mm movie print, and all of these pictures would want to in some way get put onto that new detrimental. Finally, we have been capable of simplify it fairly a bit, however I feel we nonetheless ended up with three totally different optical setups to transform from one format to a different. Warner Bros. discovered a movie recorder that might be altered to report our visible results again to VistaVision movie as a substitute of getting to print them to another format after which optically cut back them. So it was actually sophisticated and took a variety of testing, and it wasn’t till proper earlier than the movie got here out that we had a 70mm print that we have been pleased with.
Paul Thomas Anderson on-set with Leonardo DiCaprio
What was the method to enhancing with Paul Thomas Anderson? How does the method work?
Jurgensen: I went on the street to all of the totally different places. We arrange a VistaVision movie projector in a screening room, and on the finish of every night time, we might watch dailies. It’s extraordinarily uncommon to work this fashion, particularly with the VistaVision projector. It wasn’t just for Paul and me to evaluation takes; it was additionally for the digital camera crew to take a look at any potential technical points.
VistaVision is an previous movie know-how invented by Paramount within the Fifties, whereby 35mm movie goes via the digital camera horizontally reasonably than vertically. Two frames of regular 4-perf 35mm equals one body of 8-perf VistaVision. It’s a higher-resolution detrimental, which allowed us to explode the picture for the IMAX format. It’s such an ideal bonding expertise for the forged and crew to observe dailies collectively. Actors usually got here by to take a look at their performances. Grips, lighting division and different crew dropped in to see the way it was all coming collectively. It’s an integral a part of Paul’s course of. He’d additionally play music after we have been watching dailies so we might get a way of a great track to make use of or a attempt a brand new piece of rating from composer Jonny Greenwood. I had a bunch of notes by the tip of the shoot, and I’d even be assembling stuff on the facet through the day once they weren’t taking pictures.
This film was distinctive as a result of we had a hiatus of some months in the course of the shoot. Throughout that hiatus, we assembled many of the footage we had already shot. We knew we had the start and the tip, and the prologue was principally completed. We then screened that a couple of occasions, which helped us work out what the pacing of the remainder of the film wanted to be.
Jay, have been you on the street as effectively the entire time?
Trautman: I used to be not. I used to be right here in Los Angeles coping with the photochemical course of at FotoKem and the prints for the dailies. If there was a problem, both I or Erica Frauman might go over to the lab at FotoKem earlier than the movie acquired shipped again to wherever the set was. There is likely to be a couple of days’ delay, so when Andy stated they watched dailies on the finish of the night time, it was one thing that had been shot two or three days prior. It was totally different than most films in that we weren’t ready for yesterday’s footage to reach within the morning with a purpose to get it prepped and despatched to Andy. It was extra about ensuring the every day screenings have been going the best way they wanted to. We additionally had to make sure that each shot made it via the lab and that we had all of the footage the digital camera division turned in. Then we needed to put together one thing for Andy to make use of as his street map for what that every day screening was going to be.
We additionally did shade work throughout manufacturing to streamline our shade correction workflow. It wasn’t till perhaps 4 or 5 days after one thing was shot that I might get materials into the Avid. It was after they screened the dailies of the movie print. Andy would have a look at the primary go of the colour from the dailies colorist and perhaps go in and watch the print once more to ensure it was trying the best way we wished it to look. That media would get rendered for the Avid and despatched to me, and I might begin getting ready the builds and sending Andy footage to chop with.
What have been the primary enhancing challenges?
Jurgensen: Clearly, there’s a tempo to it, and it’s relentless in methods, however you additionally want moments when the viewers can simply sit. It was about discovering the peaks and valleys and ensuring individuals aren’t exhausted by the tip of the film. We needed to reduce it down from over three hours, so we needed to discover methods to trim stuff and transfer the story alongside. There are such a lot of totally different characters in several places that you just don’t wish to lose sight of 1 storyline when you’re following one other two or three. That was an enormous problem. Paul and I experimented loads with simply shifting items round till it felt proper.
What was essentially the most troublesome scene to chop and why?
Jurgensen: The massive finish chase was difficult to determine. We had a variety of footage from a variety of totally different angles, and I needed to methodically make sequences from all of the totally different factors of view and set up them in my thoughts. We picked selects from there, after which we might construct the scenes and ramp up the motion for the ultimate sequence. On high of that, we shot over totally different days, and there have been some shifts in lighting. You need it to really feel seamless since we had stitched collectively some totally different places. And also you don’t need it to be too lengthy, however you don’t need it to be too quick, so there was a variety of noodling happening.
Did you employ a variety of temp sound?
Jurgensen: For positive, however not a lot for the music as a result of our composer, Jonny, would write and ship stuff to us all through manufacturing and publish. We had a variety of materials to work with music-wise. However we did a variety of temp sound-design work. Jay reduce a bunch of sound for a few of the automotive chases. We did ship sequences to our sound group, who would do preliminary passes and ship stuff again. Since we had some inside screenings, we had to ensure it at all times sounded skilled.
What about VFX temps?
Jurgensen: There are some VFX, but it surely’s principally some de-aging on Sean and Leo for the prologue — so not an excessive variety of visible results, surprisingly. Paul doesn’t love to do them as a result of it permits us to remain within the photochemical realm. There’s no greenscreen, and all of the automotive stuff is actual and carried out virtually. They used a digital camera automotive or hooked up the digital camera to the facet of the automotive.
Trautman: Nothing’s created in CG; it’s simply portray issues out, like booms and so forth. The manufacturing design crew does a very nice job of protecting issues up so we received’t should go in and contact something. However with the additional motion within the automotive chases, there have been pictures the place you can see the digital camera automotive from one other angle, or you can see one other digital camera on the facet of the street, so we needed to paint that out. There have been in all probability fewer visible results on this movie than in a typical TV episode.
That is Anderson’s first IMAX function movie. Did that have an effect on the best way you narrow?
Jurgensen: Probably not. We did a Netflix quick movie known as Anima again in 2019, which was a music movie with Thom Yorke.
Paul Thomas Anderson on-set
We shot that with some VistaVision cameras and introduced it in IMAX, so I feel that gave Paul the concept that he might do that. It was at all times behind my thoughts that we might ultimately be screening this movie in IMAX. We simply needed to think about it on the massive display and hope for the most effective.
Trautman: However we did do a variety of test-shooting due to the VistaVision cameras, and we didn’t know the way issues have been going to work technically with the workflow. We went to IMAX headquarters with some take a look at footage Andy had reduce collectively. We didn’t have scenes or quick chopping, but it surely was a manner for us to see how the VistaVision footage would look on an IMAX display. That put everybody relaxed. We have been capable of deal with it the identical manner you’ll usually deal with chopping a film.
Anderson famously doesn’t do take a look at screenings, however I heard you probably did some for this.
Jurgensen: We did a couple of. I feel we simply wished to check the general stream of the film and the humor. The film’s additionally a social commentary and has political parts, so we wished to see what the reactions could be in several components of the nation. The take a look at screenings didn’t drastically change the reduce or the tone of the film. It was extra for our personal private analysis.
Trautman: Typically a variety of that’s simply to determine how you can discuss in regards to the film with individuals. What’s an viewers choosing up, and what’s it not? Typically it’s for advertising as a result of they should know what audiences are responding to with a purpose to do their jobs. I didn’t see a variety of editorial adjustments, and the screenings confirmed that individuals acquired the black comedy ingredient.
What did you assume while you first learn the script?Jurgensen: The very first thing I assumed was “Tarantino film meets Inherent Vice.” It has motion and larger-than-life characters. It actually excited me as a result of it’s such a loopy story that goes in so many alternative instructions.
You’ve labored with Anderson on so many movies. The place does this charge by way of inventive satisfaction?
Jurgensen: That is undoubtedly essentially the most daunting of all of them. We shot for 100 days, which is loads, however seeing Leo and Infiniti’s performances and their dynamic, we knew we had one thing particular. What’s so attention-grabbing and thrilling about working with Paul is that each one his films are so totally different.
Trade insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the most important administrators in Hollywood and around the globe for years. He’s a daily contributor to Selection and has written for such shops as Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Occasions and the Boston Globe.
