When working with a director like Paul Thomas Anderson, it’s vital to be able to pivot to no matter will work finest for the scene. As a frequent collaborator of Anderson’s, and the earlier editor of Licorice Pizza, editor Andy Jurgensen is aware of learn how to finest be “fluid” in his work to match his director’s sensibilities.
One Battle After One other follows Bob, performed by Leonardo DiCaprio, an ex-revolutionary on a journey to rescue his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) from an previous enemy. With a mixture of genres making up the movie, Jurgensen had his work minimize out for him to stability every part and create the suitable tone for the satirical darkish comedy.
Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘One Battle After One other’
Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Assortment
DEADLINE: At what stage of the method did you become involved? Did you see the script earlier than you began, or had they already begun filming?
ANDY JURGENSEN: We had been truly doing digicam checks earlier than I even learn the script. We had been taking pictures on these VistaVision cameras, simply testing the technical capabilities of the cameras. [Paul Thomas Anderson] despatched me the script, didn’t actually inform me a lot about it, and he additionally didn’t actually inform me the tone both, he simply handed it to me. I keep in mind I learn it twice as a result of the primary time, I didn’t fairly get the satire straight away. I suppose I used to be anticipating it to be extra severe, particularly with the way it begins, however then studying it once more, I used to be in a position to really feel the totally different genres that he was going for. And I keep in mind the following morning, sitting at his kitchen desk and simply chatting about all of the loopy characters.
DEADLINE: How do you stability all the totally different tones and genres within the edit?
Chase Infiniti in ‘One Battle After One other’
Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Assortment
JURGENSEN: Effectively, you’ve simply received to belief your intestine. You’ve received to only really feel it. There’re moments the place you are feeling like, we have to have fun right here, or it is a actually tender second. The characters are actually connecting emotionally, so we’ve received to go for extra of the emotional core for this scene. A variety of that has to do with Paul’s directing, however you’ve simply received to lean into what the scene is telling you. It was simply discovering these peaks and valleys of the film as a result of it’s transferring at a quick tempo and there’s quite a lot of power, however you additionally have to have these moments the place the viewers can breathe and catch their breath. We did screenings, and what you do is you simply see the way it feels within the room, see the place the laughs are. You see the place individuals are leaning ahead of their seats and you then simply form the film from there.
DEADLINE: The automobile chase on the finish of the movie was unimaginable, are you able to discuss piecing collectively that scene?
JURGENSEN: It was shot over numerous days and there actually weren’t storyboards for it, they simply had concepts for the start, center, and finish. It was actually a matter of taking pictures the automobiles from the totally different views, like in entrance of and behind Willa’s automobile or Tim Smith’s (John Hoogenakker) automobile, after which Bob as soon as he will get concerned… We simply had to ensure we had all of the items. I did a string out of all of the totally different views as we had been taking pictures the scenes in order that we made positive that we had good moments from all of the angles, then it was discovering the perfect bits and beginning to assemble. It was only a lengthy sequence going via all of Willa’s pictures of her eyes, taking a look at each the rear-view mirror and the aspect view mirror trying behind on the reflections… You’re simply slowly form of whittling down the perfect suits.
Then we despatched that lengthy sequence to the sound division and so they constructed a tough sound design, which helped our feeling of what the sequence goes to be, as a result of utilizing simply manufacturing tracks wasn’t as robust. We would have liked the sounds for the three totally different automobiles to form of act as characters, after which from there, I imagine Jonny [Greenwood] despatched one thing as an concept for the music, which was actually extra of a percussive really feel. After which simply ensuring the ending was as dynamic as doable as properly with the crash.
They did such an excellent job discovering these superb areas. This was a scene the place Paul didn’t actually understand how the chase was going to be shot, and he went to the placement and located these hills and form of got here up with the thought as we had been on location that the chase needs to be in these rivers of hills. So, the entire sequence was form of impressed by the placement, which I like, and the entire manufacturing was in a position to pivot to make this work. You concentrate on Marvel films the place every part’s so pre-visualized, and Paul doesn’t do quite a lot of visible results. We needed to paint just a few issues out, however there’s no inexperienced display or something like that. That’s all the true background within the automobile home windows. Whenever you’re in a position to be fluid and the crew is keen to be fluid, you possibly can simply actually get some superb issues.
