Hamnet | The Process - video Dailymotion

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00:00i find the editing process very healing don't you think because you sort of get this human

00:06condition that is so confusing and then you like try to make meaning and sense of it

00:11hi i'm chloe jiao i'm here with the process to discuss the editing of emnet and i'm with my

00:28co-editor fonzie yes that's him yeah alfonso i'm sorry fonzie is it true you know everything about

00:42a person by touching the man not everything

00:45i personally don't think about editing when i when i read the script but going to as a director

00:55until all the footage is shot so we have to talk to the director and have a conversation to figure

01:00out what exactly she's looking for and then you can understand the story but you there's nothing you

01:05can do to read to see the footage yeah and this was different too because chloe's process in every

01:11one of her films in this one she does the first pass herself so there is when i came in there was

01:19already the film was already cut and then we talk about how the process is going to be once i join

01:25chloe i watched a couple of times and we talked we had a conversation and i said i had some ideas i

01:31wrote down just like go for it and i was trying and uh trying to catch up with her to like watching

01:37all the footage and then that was it then we watched what i had done together and from that

01:43point on we just became this back and forth yeah and then we go scene by scene it's like let's do this

01:47let's write that what do you think of that yeah yeah he was the first person who saw the

01:51directors you know that that that my first pass and i remember i was in japan i was so nervous

01:57no one's seen it i said but but how is it yeah it's good could be better

02:04he said we'll make it better yeah we'll make it better yeah yeah yeah no i mean it's very

02:10nicer way of saying could be better well i think he thought the bones were there but there's a lot

02:14work to do yeah but i mean it was already very moving i think also because the in the process of

02:20of during the first cut you already had music you had some design you had stuff like that because max

02:25and and johnny was already contributing during that time but i would say one you know i knew

02:30found this work i knew your work and really well and we have common friends and i always just like

02:37maggie o'farrill's book when i watch films that found the cut i can feel that there is a heartbeat

02:44there's a rhythm that is very similar to mine it's in the book as well which is really magical

02:51and they're her favorite filmmakers one car way there's a rhythm to the editing that is something

02:56you can't really like tell people i rationalize it so if you don't have someone who already

03:04have that natural rhythm with that matches yours it's just going to be uphill battle yeah so i knew

03:11this was going to be not a very easy process but it's just about how deep and how present we can be

03:18right and so it's so important i didn't even want fancy to watch dailies yeah until he sees that first

03:25rough cut because when we ask our actors i don't talk to them about character arcs and what they should

03:31be doing they come in they're asked to be as present as they can be moment by moment and i think with us

03:39it's the same we we try to bring that way of working into a process that feels like has a lot of control

03:45but i think control is an illusion just because we the footage there we have the keyboard i still believe

03:54there's a soul it's a life we have to humble ourselves and listen what wants to come through us

04:01as well there's a mutual respect between us and the footage and that's what i think fangzi does

04:06naturally like philosophically how he worked so when those things aligned the rest of the process is

04:12very natural and i think what it works so well between the two of us is like we would be in the

04:17cutting room together and clearly hasn't i have an idea i think it's easier instead of telling you how

04:22to do it let me take a let me do it so there's a there's like it's so we were so open i could say

04:29okay i have this idea it may work or not but i'm going to do it anyway and then it was always that

04:34open we all we both have avids we both could work at any point and anything we did we just show it to

04:40each other we were our for the first basically the very first audience was us yeah anything that

04:46happened oh yeah i mean we had tracy that our our amazing assistant was there too but it was always

04:51between me and chloe we sat down in the room and and then we talk about the the music with max and

04:57and the sound design with johnny but it was always it was super exciting to have that to be like okay

05:03but i have this idea and let me try and then it can be like yeah yeah i'll i'll go try and i'll send

05:09it to you and he's like two doors down and then i'll be like how is it it's good but let me show

05:18you then you would then you will work on top of that and send it back to me it was like oh yeah that

05:22is better so much easier than talking about it to just physically do it in the cutting room she

05:28thinks as an editor not as a director because she thinks in terms of pace in terms of rhythm and

05:33things it's always like story beats it's very sensitive because i was really worried you weren't

05:37going to do it because because you know that director is going to edit her search films it's

05:43because i shoot so loosely so i don't stick to the script at all and so i almost like i have to do a

05:49rewriting process in the edit each day i try to be as present as possible as a director so then i'm a

05:55different person at the end of the shoot than i was writing the script so what do i want to say

06:01right and and our actors contributed things that we never a nature contributed things life

06:06contributed things so then now i have a different i'm a different director i'm a different writer so

06:12i kind of had to go through that process i actually find that process so important as integration

06:19for me to come off a shoot that is so dense that actually helped me source through some emotions i was

06:26going through find that editing process very healing don't you think because you sort of get this human

06:31condition that is so confusing and then you like try to make meaning a sense of it which also like

06:38which was great like you have the script and the script but it was never something we use as reference

06:43no the reference was the film which would make it easier made it easier for us okay the scene is here

06:49but let's what if it's would change things around yeah this thing is not happening here but it's happening

06:54here what so it becomes this loose because we understanding sort of like the the the movie

07:00had a life for its own and we just had to kind of re rethink it there was not about the script

07:06it was about the story it was about what the book has and the story but it was something

07:10it was something different and we kept discovering by changing by reducing by moving things around by

07:17taking lines out and then at the end of the process like oh wait let's put all of that back back in

07:23because the film that all of a sudden has a different meaning yeah like all this stuff with

07:27with paul that scene yeah yeah like when when she says just go back and then we kept adding that it

07:32was like oh my god that is the reason why he does his family he does this stuff we discover like all

07:37this stuff that is a great example to give you so to like a hail mary because i would say like last

07:43minute yeah thing so i like test screenings i like testing early because there are two things i think

07:50we both look for clarity and pacing we had like 600 cards from both la and london and there was

07:57this one and that card right at first we're like just just one but it stuck with me all this time

08:03and i keep telling that joke so everyone will listen when you're holding on to something like that it's

08:08because there's some truth to it that that triggers you last couple days of editing yeah and i think

08:14there was some sound issue we were like is there better dialogue for him can we look so we went

08:20back and started looking at his extra dialogue yeah and then we forgot because it was cut really early

08:27on yeah that will answer that one person's card and we did and we actually recut the entire scene yeah

08:34which always worked beautifully we're like wait a second this is actually because what then it became

08:39not about that scene it became about the whole rest of the film and we sort of sat there like

08:45you know 11 p.m or something good and go what how could how did we not you know and and that's

08:52i like it you know it's you you just trust the process that it will always come back to you

08:59you just have to make sure you keep your heart open ready to receive first and foremost you cut the

09:05film based on performances they are leading us and then you start trying to understand because

09:11even though it's a film that it inherently is a slower pace a quieter film you need to lean on

09:18the quietness there there has to be quiet because it's so in their minds that you need moments for

09:24them to have to have that experience so you need to kind of like it's always the balance that it's very

09:29fine balance of try try to keep the film moving just to like enough of of information that you need

09:37to move to the next scene or come in or come out in the sun but also have think about we we need to

09:43slow down here we need to speed up here i mean it's true to every film but this one it's a quiet film

09:49so yeah you can't make everyone happy i'm much more interested in having elasticity right so okay

09:58here's a bit slow but then it goes boom you know and then it goes fast like i'm much i think that will

10:04give more feeling of weakness aliveness than if everything just a bit more okay it's fast enough

10:11but the overall runtime that's why testing is important that's why showing it to other people

10:17and and we have gotten feedbacks you know someone likes to like he loves steven spielberg who say

10:24chloe just this area is there any chance you guys can figure out to take some stuff out and we did and

10:30we i he killed some darlings and those darlings it was around the time steven really pushed for

10:40before after hamlet's death before will and annius is seeing like you know that that scene of of their

10:48relationship falling apart that period before start seeing him rehearsing for hamlet stuff that period

10:56the great the grief the silence of the grief so much of the book is about that and we shot so much more

11:02there so much more and so many things that i absolutely adore there's so many great scenes and so

11:09so many audience reactions yeah yeah so steven was very gentle but he said if you could get us there

11:17i'm just i'm just promising you chloe like just please trust me like speed it up and it was every

11:23week i was waiting to let go of one little moment i remember that i'm like a common fancy i'm ready to

11:31like that one going oh yeah okay great good and then finally is what you got solved but i have to say

11:37maybe it could be indeed lead the sinks it was a rising to do

Hamnet | The Process

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