Personal View site logo

How Do You Keep a Film Moving When Your Protagonist Can't?

Written by Josh Ethier, ACE The title page of T.J. Cimfel and David White's script held an ominous challenge for an editor. In huge, bold, black letters. DON'T MOVE. As an editor it's our job to keep things moving, to give the audience the necessary information for emotional impact but to also make sure that no one gets too far ahead of the film. My challenge was multiplied by the fact that at some point during the credits, "Produced by Sam Raimi" was going to be on screen. Everyone who loves genre films knows that Sam Raimi movies don't move slowly. Added to that, I hadn't yet worked with directors Adam Schindler and Brian Netto. They were familiar with my work on films like Bliss, Gretel and Hansel, and Orphan: First Kill, but this felt like something completely different. It felt closer to films I grew up loving, like The Hitcher or The Vanishing. I have to admit that title page was intimidating.In the film, Iris (Kelsey Asbille) returns to a place of trauma in her life, swallowed whole by grief. After a chance meeting with Richard (Finn Wittrock), she's attacked and subdued by a killer who preys on women. The killer injects her with a paralyzing agent which gives her 20 minutes of failing mobility before she's ultimately unable to move. Through the course of the film, she has to fight to survive using only her wits and the minuscule movements she's capable of as the drug takes hold....

read more...

Published By: NoFilmSchool - Tuesday, 29 October

Search News