Moviemaker - CA (2019 Summer)

MOVIEMAKER.COM SUMMER 2019 23

HOW THEY DID IT

“I really didn’t know what to

expect, but it ended up being

one of my favorite screenings

of the film we’ve ever had.”

—mAtt Spicer,

writer & Director ,

Ingrid Goes West

“Impressed^ and^ completely^

worth attending.”

—Joe petriccA,

Dir ector , w riter , pr oducer

SubmiSSionS open

July 15 th

ViAFilm FreewAy

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since we could now shoot our stunt actors—

not dummies—jumping off of it on wires.

Of course, we spent a lot of our budget mak-

ing all of this achievable, so it was ultimately

very safe. But actually, our main actors did

step up to the precipice, too... again, on wires,

but it was very brave of them. (I could’ve done

it in solidarity, but I didn’t.)

HERE COMES THE SUN

The biggest challenge of the ättestupa

scene—of the entire shoot, in fact—was main-

taining continuity. Since every shot of the

scene is sequenced, we needed to make sure

that even though we were jumping around

our shot list, we were shooting directionally.

First, you’re shooting shot one, then shot

24, and then shot 43—in that order, because

that’s where the sun is as you’re relying heav-

ily on the weather with an outdoor shoot.

Asking your actors to be able to compart-

mentalize a scene that’s broken up into so

many parts is always tough. On some days,

you’re shooting 10 scenes in one day and

you don’t have time to linger. On other days,

you’re shooting one scene over the course of

the entire day and in the beginning, the sun

and shadows are over here, and by the end,

they’re over there. There’s no hope of evading

100 percent of continuity lapses if you’re

shooting on a tight schedule outdoors every

day. A cloud might come in as you’re shoot-

ing a scene, and it might be a tiny cloud, but

if it’s coming toward the sun, you have to get

what you can before the cloud hits that sun,

and then you stop until the cloud has passed

through. You might stop for an hour and 20

minutes, but it’s necessary in order to get

your shots to match.

SETTING HOUSES IN ORDER

In your planning, you should shot list in

a way that anticipates these problems. To de-

velop a clear vision of the movie in my head,

I always write my shot list on my own before

GUT REACTION: TO CONVEY THE GUT-PUNCH THEIR CHARACTERS FEEL IN MIDSOMMAR’S ÄTTESTUPA

SEQUENCE, STARS JACK REYNOR, FLORENCE PUGH, WILLIAM JACKSON HARPER, AND VILHELM BLOMGREN

(L TO R) TIMED THEIR REACTIONS TO ASTER’S CLAPBOARD

DROP-DEAD LIST: WRITER-DIRECTOR ARI ASTER

(L) AND DP PAWEL POGORZELSKI (R) PLANNED

MIDSOMMAR’S CRAZED CLIFF-JUMPING SCENE

WITH METICULOUS SHOT-LISTING