Having made its world premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Freaky Tales–from writers-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden–hits theaters nationwide today (4/4) as a Lionsgate release. The feature marks a reunion for Boden, Fleck and editor Robert Komatsu, ACE. Their prior collaboration was the limited series Mrs. America (FX Networks), which dramatized the battle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), delving into how the proposed constitutional amendment for women’s rights was blocked in the early 1970s. Mrs. America earned Komatsu his first Emmy and ACE Eddie Award nominations, specifically for the episode titled “Phyllis.” Komatsu not only cut “Phyllis,” the first episode of Mrs. America, but also “Betty” and “Bella,” the fourth and seventh episodes, respectively. Boden and Fleck directed “Phyllis” and “Bella.”
While the editor and directorial duo’s second collaboration, Freaky Tales, is a feature film, it consists of four chapters so there’s an interconnected episodic dynamic of sorts remotely akin to Mrs. America. Freaky Tales is a genre mashup set in Oakland, Calif., Fleck’s hometown, in the 1980s. Its ensemble cast includes Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Dominique Thorne and Normani. The directing team describes it as a personal fever dream fantasy incorporating Fleck’s youthful obsessions from sports, movies and music.
The four interconnected tales span teen punks defending their turf against Nazi skinheads (Chapter 1 which is titled “Strength in Numbers: The Gilman Strikes Back”); a rap duo seeking hip-hop fame (“Don’t Fight the Feeling”); a weary henchman getting a shot at redemption (“Born to Mack”); and an NBA All-Star settling the score after an on-court triumph and an off-court tragedy (“The Legend of Sleepy Floyd”).
The film had been percolating within Fleck for some 30 years, springing from his childhood experience in the 1980s with influences ranging from basketball to hip-hop to punk rock. Fleck at one point called the film a mix of “real and hallucinated memories” shared over the course of a four-chapter movie.
While SHOOT recently connected with Fleck and Boden to discuss Freaky Tales (3/14 SHOOT>e.dition), we now catch up with Komatsu for an editorial perspective on the film and his collaborative relationship with its writers-directors.
Komatsu noted that ever since Mrs. America, he, Boden and Fleck have stayed in contact. The editor recalled, “I was working on another project when I received an email from Ryan that asked ‘When are you done with your show? Asking for a friend.’ The three of us had a phone call shortly after, where they explained the whole crazy concept but also said it was early days and that we should keep in touch about my availability as things progressed. Later on, I got an offer for another show I was interested in, but I turned it down on the pure faith that Freaky Tales would happen, and thankfully it all worked out.”
Thanks to their experience on Mrs. America, Komatsu felt he had “a good rhythm and shorthand” with Boden and Fleck. “I remember being a little nervous when I first started Mrs. America, not only because I would be working with new directors, and two of them, but because Anna had edited many of their previous films herself. But I found them both to be so easy to work with and open to suggestions. And we built on that history at the start of Freaky Tales, evolving our working relationship even further.
“And specifically to Mrs. America, when shooting Freaky Tales, I would recognize certain shooting styles and immediately know the best way of putting them together. For example, Anna and Ryan used a lot of handheld camera for shooting the punks, similar to how they shot the feminists in Mrs. America. I edited the footage in a documentary style, taking advantage of camera pans between characters instead of cutting between them, and if a camera panned to a character after their line already started, all the better to simulate more of a punk documentary aesthetic. We also created a split screen sequence that was unscripted, and we based the style on what I had done on Mrs. America.”
In the big picture, there was the task of differentiating the four interconnected tales while at the same time unifying them. Komatsu shared, “In terms of differentiating the chapters, I just used my instincts on how to cut each scene within each chapter, for the most part, except for Chapter 1, ‘The Gilman Strike Back.’ In that one I tried to use as many of the handheld cameras as much as possible, over smoother camera moves or stationary shots. It just seemed to fit the punk rock aesthetic more.
“And we worked hard to unify the tales. It’s a pet peeve of mine when I see a flashback in a film or television show that uses a different take with differences in the dialogue from what was originally shown. In Freaky Tales‘ four chapter structure, where what happens in the background in one story is featured front and center in the next, obviously we’re not using the same takes and performances, but we made sure to pick performances that were as similar as possible, sometimes even putting the audio performance from one chapter into the picture of another chapter.”
At the same time, Komatsu noted, “We also tried to not hit people over the head with the interconnected elements.”
The process
Regarding the process in terms of how Komatsu worked with Boden and Fleck on Freaky Tales, the editor related, “It started months before shooting. Okay, that’s not really true, but we had a conversation about music in the film, different punk rock bands, and the influence of film scores by John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream. And then I spent the next few months doing a deep dive to create a very detailed music database for the show. This saved so much time during the shoot and post, because I could do a search for whatever flavor of music I might need for a scene and come up with possible options for temp scores within minutes to start trying. And of course everyone spent so much time trying to find the right needle drops for scenes. I know for a fact that Ryan spent hours every weekend looking for songs. During prep, there were a few occasions where I cut together auditions to test chemistry. And there were some discussions about which ‘container’ to use that our different aspect ratios would live within, 1.85, which they chose, vs. 2.39.
“During shooting, I sent scenes early to Anna and Ryan, to make sure we were on the same page. And there were times, especially when a scene was shot over the course of several days or weeks, where I’d send them work in progress sequences, so we could discuss what additional coverage might be beneficial, or what planned shots were no longer needed.”
Komatsu continued, “Once principal photography wrapped, we screened my editor’s cut and had a discussion of the film as a whole. Then we dove in together from the beginning, Reel 1, Scene 1. We already had a head start because my editor’s cut incorporated revisions based on their notes on scenes I sent during the shoot. And just like on Mrs. America, they encouraged me to have differing opinions from them and to present other options.
“After a few passes of the film, we started to have friends and family screenings for feedback. We continued this process until the end of the directors’ cut. And we would take wild swings at structure, experimenting to see what could improve the film. As we continued, we started to involve our sound team, composer, and visual effects, and Ryan and Anna made sure I was involved creatively in all those decisions.
“Because Ryan and I live in Los Angeles, and Anna lives in New York, we used a combination of working together and working remotely. There were weeks when Ryan and I would fly to New York and there were weeks when Anna would fly to Los Angeles.”
Challenges
The biggest challenges posed by Freaky Tales, said Komatsu, “weren’t dissimilar to every film. Although the four chapters of this film were scripted, we experimented with the structure within each, even moving certain sequences outside of their chapter. There were scenes we tried lifting out to see if it helped the overall pace, or if it took away from the experience. There were scenes that were meant to be intercut that we experimented with keeping as a whole or others scenes that we did split up.”
Several fun challenges arose, noted Komatsu, who also talked about the evolution of certain visual elements in Freaky Tales, including:
–The Visual Style of the Film
“Originally, after each chapter ended, we would cut to the next chapter’s title card with a black background. This would then cut to the first scene of that next chapter, sometimes revealing a new aspect ratio. During our directors’ cut, we made the chapter title cards with colored backgrounds. This gave us an opportunity to transition from one aspect ratio to another. At the end of Chapter 1, we irised out on Lucid [portrayed by Champion] and Tina [Yoo] with a purple background in 1.33:1. The purple expanded to 1.85:1 as the next chapter title came on screen. Later, we had the idea to use the animated versions of Lucid and Tina to pop out of the closing iris and have them push the edges of the 1.33:1 open to 1.85:1. And once we came upon the idea of using animation at the end of the chapter, we put them at the beginning of the chapter as well, as they put graffiti on the title card. When we freeze frame on Clint [Pascal] at the end of Chapter 3, the screen turned orange and we squeezed down from 1.85:1 to 2.39:1 anamorphic. And freeze framing on Clint gave us the opportunity to make it look like a paused VHS tape, complete with scan lines. And that gave us the opportunity to start the chapter on a VHS freeze frame, then start the motion, with VHS glitches along the way, as if someone pressed play. And finally, once we established that VHS look, we used it for our opening logos and prologue as well.”
–Punk Fight evolution
“The structure of the punk fight stayed the same from the initial edit, but we kept evolving the style throughout. I put in the speed ramps in my editor’s cut. At the start of the directors’ cut, Ryan and Anna wanted to try adding strategic freeze frames on impacts, with the actor frozen, but with blood continuing to spurt and fly. Later on, Anna brought up the idea of ‘action lines,’ graphically representing a hard hit or impact. I had an idea for what that could look like and sketched it and showed her. She liked it so we started comping those in. We then started adding text to the impacts, such as ‘BOOM’ and ‘AAAAAARGH!’”
–Title Sequence
“As we were editing, we would have friends and family screenings and eventually recruited audience previews. We didn’t have credits yet, but I wanted to try something, in all my free time! I mocked up an end title sequence using the rough storyboards from the Punks vs. the Nazis fight, and also from Sleepy’s big fight in the finale. I color tinted the storyboards and used them for the main crew positions, starting with the directors and ending with casting. For the main actors, I did a quick montage of selected shots featuring them, and then froze on an iconic image with their names. Anna and Ryan liked it and we used it for our screenings. Eventually, they hired an artist who created fleshed out illustrations of our original storyboards and this artist also created new images based on Anna’s and Ryan’s direction. I’m very proud to have started that ball rolling.”
Biggest takeaway
As for the biggest takeaway or lessons learned from his experience on Freaky Tales, Komatsu shared, “By far, what I’ll remember most are the people I got to collaborate with. Anna and Ryan of course. But also, my involvement with our producers and executive producers, Jelani Johnson, Poppy Hanks, Jillian Share, and Jen Gorten, was so collaborative and harmonious. And when working in person with Ryan and Anna, meals together in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto were always fun. The three of us would sometimes bike from the hotel to the mix stage.
“And creatively, experimenting with scenes and the structure as a whole, trying to break it, to see where it would take us, is what I’m left remembering most. We left no stone unturned. You do that with every film, but I felt that with this film’s four act structure, and the room for visual experimentation, we really pushed the boundaries.”
