Chinonye Chukwu has found that at times the most profound way into a story can be the path less--or even never before--traveled as reflected in her taking a detour from the conventional protagonist perspective in the last two features she directed, Clemency (2019) and now Till (Orion Pictures, United Artists Releasing), which is part of the current awards season conversation, most notably for Best Lead Actress Oscar consideration on the strength of Danielle Deadwyler’s tour de force performance.
You may recall that Clemency, a drama which delved into capital punishment, Chukwu as writer-director chose to center on the impact that executions over the years had on a prison warden, Bernadine Williams. Alfre Woodard’s portrayal of Williams earned BAFTA and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations for lead actor while Clemency won the Grand Jury Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Chukwu’s inspiration for an atypical protagonist POV in Clemency came years earlier when an African-American man, Troy Davis, was executed in a Georgia prison. She told SHOOT in 2019, “Hundreds of thousands around the world protested, including a handful of retired wardens and directors of correction. They wrote a letter to the governor pleading for clemency not just on the grounds of the prisoner’s potential innocence but the psychological consequences on a prison staff sanctioned to kill him. So many of us were feeling anger, frustration and sadness that I thought what must it be like for those who had to execute him. What must it mean for your livelihood to be tied to the taking of human life.”
So when she was later presented with the opportunity to tell the real-life story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old lad lynched in Mississippi in 1955, Chukwu as director and co-writer (with Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp) resisted the understandable impulse to focus on Till himself. Instead she again went with an unconventional choice, casting Deadwyler as Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Chukwu recognized the place in history for an often overlooked character.
“Without her, the world wouldn’t know who Emmett Till was,” explained Chukwu. Till introduces us to a grieving mom who takes on a sense of purpose as a civil rights activist. Through her heartfelt persistence and eloquence, she got the nation to know and then not forget her son.
Chukwu didn’t know much about Till-Mobley going into the project but when her research uncovered the mother’s commitment and perseverance, the filmmaker said she would not take on the feature unless “the story was about Mamie.” Chukwu also wanted that story to be one of hope, depicting the love and joy between mother and son, using the language of cinema to center on their humanity, to convey “a Black gaze” on what happened. Chukwu focused her energy on creating a humanizing Black point of view as opposed to the camera taking on a voyeuristic bent.
The casting of Deadwyler was key. Chukwu said that Deadwyler and Woodard have a shared bond in their talent “to communicate a story with just their eyes, to get underneath the words on the page, to command a frame, to convey more underneath the silence and pauses.” Chukwu recalled being moved by Deadwyler’s audition tape, eventually casting her as Till-Mobley and spending several months before shooting going through “every emotional beat and nuance,” making discoveries along the way. “We became real partners in this,” said Chukwu who added that by the time Deadwyler came on set, she had “a deep understanding of Mamie and her journey” and delivered a transcendent performance that “channeled Mamie.”
Assorted collaborators contributed to the end result, among them being cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, production designer Curt Beech and costume designer Marci Rodgers. Chukwu said she was initially drawn to Bukowski’s “lighting of Black people and his use of color,” the way he deployed lighting to “show rich depth and definition which was absolutely critical to what I wanted the film to look like. He understood on a deep emotional level what I was trying to do with this film in terms of humanizing Black people, focusing on their humanity, joy, love and community.”
Beech too was what Chukwu described as a “research-forward” artist. The director added that she and Beech had “candid conversations about his own white male privilege, how to challenge that in order to create, to design the sets in a way that encapsulate Blackness and Black people.” She credited Beech with being incredibly collaborative and open, eager to push himself to tell the story in the best way possible.
Chukwu had also long been a fan of costume designer Rodgers’ work, noting that she’s “detail-oriented just like I am. Her presentation to me about what she proposed in terms of costume design was breathtaking.” Rodgers had done period piece work before, is from Chicago [where the Tills are from] and has family from Mississippi. Rodgers went with “a bright color palette” reflecting “a vibrant world” that was “stunning and beautiful,” said Chukwu. “Mamie and Emmett dressed to the nines. Their clothing was an extension of their self-dignity, self-empowerment. Marci understood how to communicate that through wardrobe.”
Chukwu added that she took much from her experience on Till. “I saw myself in Mamie in a way I hadn’t before. That I will always cherish.”
There were also lessons from pushing herself creatively and artistically, particularly in the context of her first studio film. Though she had many more resources through studio backing, Chukwu shared that her “approach to the craft is the same.” Chukwu added, “I learned about navigating this kind of filmmaking within the studio system. Professionally it was a great education for me. I had a great experience with the studio. They gave me creative autonomy like you wouldn’t believe. That was incredible to receive. I learned a lot about the profession.”
James Gray
Unlike Chukwu, writer-director James Gray didn’t have to seek out the right unconventional protagonist. Rather, he had to look within as Armageddon Time (Focus Features) centers on a Flushing, Queens-based sixth-grader, Paul Graff (portrayed by Banks Repeta), in 1980. Based on Gray himself, the youngster is from a middle-class Jewish family who gets an education outside of school--even when he’s in school. The lad befriends a Black classmate and fellow outcast, Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb)--and then has to transition from public to prestigious private school which has its own brand of racism and hypocrisy.
American society is changing during this era as we see then presidential candidate Ronald Regan on TV warning of a coming Armageddon, Trump relatives affiliated with the private school giving motivational speeches for the students to claim their destiny as the leaders of tomorrow, and what seems in some circles a growing disdain for the already marginalized. Paul is in a family looking to assimilate as parents Irving and Esther Graff (played, respectively, by Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway) seek a better life for their kids--though they have a hard time reaching Paul. However, Paul does listen to his grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) who advises him to “be a mensch,” to push back against classmates making racist remarks, and stand up against injustices, including those suffered by Johnny. At the same time, grandpa is a stark realist, sadly noting that the last name Graff doesn’t sound Jewish and that may help them in life.
Paul and Johnny reflect society as it’s turning not for the better. Whereas Paul can skate on an offense, Johnny cannot. And the disparity is huge between their opportunities and support (or lack thereof in the case of Johnny). Still, there is a bond between them as friends and dreamers--except Johnny’s dream of a career at NASA meets resistance, if not mocking, at virtually every turn. There’s a stark relevance to today with racism and antisemitism seemingly on the rise, the chasm ever growing between the haves and have nots, and escalation of the us-versus-them mentality.
Gray paints a portrait of a moment in time, leaving us to discern its ripple effect.
For Gray the biggest challenge posed by Armageddon Time wasn’t a logistical problem or even the constraints of time and budget. Rather it was rooted in the personal nature of the film--and how personal he should make it. Gray said that he grappled with how much the film should “adhere to the facts of my own life,” not wanting that to interfere with expanding the idea of the story. “I was trying to not stay so close to my own story that the film would then become a crimped vision. I wanted it to be welcoming to a larger idea. Really that’s the key to movie directing in general--the need to accept the ideas that expand the scope of your film and reject those that get in the way.”
Also pivotal was the casting. On the adult side, Strong in particular has been singled out in speculative Oscar discussion, portraying a father with anger issues yet an all-too-keen sense of the way of the world and its injustices. But paramount in making Armageddon Time viable and credible is the casting of the youngsters. There were auditions from 650 children--watched by Gray who also presided over 25 auditions personally. The field was whittled down to five or six, with the director ultimately gravitating to Repeta and Webb, two actors whom Gray said “hadn’t already done a jillion movies.” But the writer-director found something “intelligent, sensitive and emotionally honest” about them. “I was improvising with them and they would respond in ways that were interesting and intelligent,” said Gray. “A quality in an actor quite underrated is sensitivity of their inner emotional life.” Repeta and Webb had that sensitivity and were “very precocious. We got along fantastically well.”
Gray also enlisted DP Darius Khondji and production designer Happy Massee. Gray had worked with both previously on several films, including The Immigrant. “He knows what I like. I know what he likes,” said Gray of Khondji. “He doesn’t want to show how great he is at lighting or through great shots. He is very willing to just serve the film, to serve the story. That’s rare actually.”
Gray cited production designer Massee’s “incredible eye for color,” noting that like Khondji, “Happy can hear the first half of a sentence from me and then complete it.”
Gray also brought editor Scott Morris on board Armageddon Time. Morris had served as an additional editor on the Gray-directed Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt. Prior to that Morris had assisted on a couple of other Gray films. “He helped me on Ad Astra which I was trying to wrangle into shape. I thought he had the talent to make for a fabulous editor,” said Gray who afforded him that opportunity with Armageddon Time.
Overall Gray found the experience on Armageddon Time to be rejuvenating. “The first thing I take away from it is how rewarding it is to work on a film that is this personal where the actors care so deeply. It’s not a piece of business for them. It’s not about their image. It’s not about any of the noise past the work itself. I rediscovered a beautiful experience where actors were giving me their best. It was all about the work. I could express myself without fear of having things changed or having to argue for what I wanted. It renewed my faith in film. I rediscovered my love for cinema again.”
Claudio Miranda, ASC
A Best Cinematography Oscar winner for Life of Pi in 2013, four years after he earned his first Academy Award nod for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda, ASC is once again in awards contention for Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures), a blockbuster record-setting box office hit which reunited him with director Joseph Kosinski.
Miranda first worked with Kosinski on a commercial back in the day, leading to their collaborating on the director’s debut feature, TRON: Legacy, the first of five movies they teamed on--the other three being Oblivion, Spiderhead and Only the Brave.
David Fincher, who directed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, initially brought Miranda and Kosinski together. Fincher at the time was with Anonymous Content for commercialmaking representation as was Kosinski. Fincher introduced Kosinski to Miranda for the alluded to TV spot they teamed on. (Fincher and Kosinski are both now with RESET Content for commercials and branded fare; Fincher is a co-founder of RESET.)
Miranda felt an immediate rapport with Kosinski. The DP conjectured that his affinity for “trying to get things in camera as much as I can is why I think he [Kosinski] likes me. We both work to get as much in camera as possible.”
Among the balancing acts that Miranda had to navigate on Top Gun: Maverick was realizing a modern take on the elite aerial squadron while retaining the feeling of the original, beloved Top Gun (1986). Towards that latter end, Miranda reached out to Jeffrey L. Kimball, ASC who shot Top Gun, directed by the late Tony Scott. Kimball provided Miranda with some cinematic insights, and the original feel was attained partly thanks to digital film grain put in during the final grade by colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3. Miranda helped by imparting his sensibilities relative to the Tony Scott feel of the grade.
Scott loomed large for Miranda who served as a gaffer on three films for that revered director. Acknowledging that it may sound a bit too sentimental, Miranda said he was worried about doing a movie that Scott would be happy with. “It was more an emotional thing for me. What I got from a lot of people who knew Tony and came to me directly is that they felt Tony would have been happy with this movie. That kind of made me feel like we had done something special in a way.”
As for breaking new ground, Miranda knew that would be the case when he had a hard time finding visual movie references for the ambitious new Top Gun. “We couldn’t really find a great flying reference, which underscored that in a way we were trying to do something that hadn’t been done before,” observed Miranda who recalled “this oddball movie called Paths of Hate, an animation-style film that had a pretty amazing sequence. In animation you can do pretty much anything and that provided a bit of a reference for what we were aiming for.”
A major part of that goal was to take aerial cinematography to new heights, putting viewers in an immersive experience, giving them the feel of being in those fighter jets in flight.
Helping immeasurably on that front were the film’s aerial coordinator, Kevin LaRosa Jr., aerial cinematographers David B. Nowell, ASC and Michael FitzMaurice, and the United States Navy, including the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, aka NAVAIR, which provided modified fighter jets, technical and logistical support. Miranda related that the popularity of the original Top Gun with the U.S. military community translated into it providing stellar cooperation for Top Gun: Maverick.
Miranda deployed Sony VENICE cameras on Top Gun: Maverick, including some outfitted with the Rialto system--which enables the camera’s sensor block and lens to be separated from the body, with an extension cable maintaining the connection. This made the VENICE more compact and easier to fit into limited spaces to capture the desired imagery.
While he enjoys a close-knit collaboration with Kosinski, Miranda related that the director also lets him “go off on my own and see what’s possible in a jet.” This enabled the DP to figure out the number of cameras needed, and the lenses--which turned out to be spherical akin to Kimball’s approach in the original film--and other assorted nuances that would do full justice to the action and the story.
By the way, the collaborative history between director and DP will be added to--creative freedom and all--as Miranda is slated to team with Kosinski on a Formula 1 racing feature film starring Brad Pitt for Apple Studios.
Paul Rogers
Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24), the genre-bending absurdist sci-fi action comedy/family drama written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka The Daniels, marks the first feature that editor Paul Rogers has worked on for both helmers. However, Rogers is no stranger to collaborating with Kwan and Scheinert. Rogers edited The Death of Dick Long, which Scheinert directed solo. And Rogers also cut music videos, a short film as well as a Facebook commercial for The Daniels. (The directorial duo take on spots and videos via production house PRETTYBIRD.)
Rogers’ roots with Kwan and Scheinert are also a bit absurdist in nature. In 2013, Rogers had moved from Birmingham, Alabama--where he worked in public television for seven years--to try his luck in Los Angeles, initially serving as an unpaid intern. On the coattails of a friend, he went to Scheinert’s birthday party at a roller skating rink. When Rogers didn’t have the money on him to rent skates, Scheinert paid the editor’s way into the party. “I thought ‘what a generous guy,’” recalled Rogers. “These are good guys who would make good allies.”
Rogers next encountered The Daniels at a weeklong free summer camp where a number of leading directors teach kids how to make music videos. Rogers wound up cutting the kids’ videos at the free camp where Kwan and Scheinert saw his work.
“They told me about this silly music video they were doing,” said Rogers. “They had never worked with an editor before so they gave me a shot. I had been cutting documentaries for public television. I had never cut music videos before.”
Rogers took on the “silly” music clip which then led to his cutting a short film and then a couple of more music videos for The Daniels--and later the feature for Scheinert and then the acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Rogers described the nature of his collaboration with The Daniels on Everything Everywhere All at Once as a healthy give-and-take, back-and-forth process. “They are super adept editors in their own right,” said Rogers of Kwan and Scheinert. “We were constantly passing video back and forth, idea after idea. It was like making something cool with your friends in your dorm room. Ego flies out the window, It felt in a way at times like ‘how can we make each other laugh.’ We were constantly trading ideas.”
This exchange of ideas was done remotely as editing took place during the throes of the pandemic. And there was a method to the madness. While it sounds like an inspiring lark to swap idea after idea all over the place, Rogers affirmed that he and The Daniels in the big picture had to do justice to the emotional journey of the characters. “You risk this ending up to be a family drama where cool stuff happens around it. But the family drama can’t come off as a gimmick tying all these parts together. The family is the heart of the film, a beautiful story of a mother, daughter, husband, wife, father. That was the focus of the editing.”
Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Wang, a laundromat owner prepping for an IRS audit. She is struggling with a dissatisfied husband (Ke Huy Quen), her critical father (James Hong) and an openly gay daughter (Stephanie Hsu). It all goes topsy-turvy when a different version of the husband appears claiming to be from another universe. Evelyn winds up jumping through the multiverse, picking up talents possessed by her counterparts in other worlds. And somehow things get even crazier but there’s an emotional grounding to the outlandishness.
Rogers observed that working under the conditions of the pandemic may have helped him and his colleagues keep the emotional core of the film intact from an editing perspective. “We were all coming at this film from a place of emotional vulnerability, loneliness and longing that everyone was having during this period. We were isolated in our homes, away from family and friends. A lot of my friends drew very close during that period. We had to make more of an effort being apart. We leaned hard into that--maybe harder than if we were just having fun and there was no pandemic separating us.”
The editor received some cogent advice from a friend, Matt Hannam, who earlier cut Swiss Army Man for The Daniels. “He helped me get through the overwhelming nature of this film by telling me to concentrate on each scene on my first pass--to concentrate on what I was doing, to live in the moment and not be overwhelmed,” said Rogers, by the vast ambition of the movie.
Rogers said he was blessed by the high caliber acting performances which gave him much to choose from. “How lucky I was that everyone was operating on such a high level on set, including the actors who made my job so easy and so much fun. We could have cut another version of this film with completely different takes and it would still be just as incredible. There were so many surprising options, such great improvisation.”
Helping to get such optimum performances, continued Rogers, were the approach and mindset of The Daniels. “They are so caring about the people they work with, making it a really fun experience for everyone.”
The experience on this film caused Rogers to rethink the idea he had for years that “the intense push of long hours and an intense commitment to the work made it better. This was one of the first projects I did where a work-life balance, a kindness to ourselves was emphasized from the top down by Dan and Daniel. There were no crazy hours. No raised voices. That made the work better. I’m taking that forward with me--in my life and my career.”
Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, who won the Best Editing Oscar in 2021 for Sound of Metal, returns to the awards season discussion for his work on The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight) from writer-director Martin McDonagh. While Nielsen was overjoyed to collaborate with McDonagh for the first time, the editor at the same time was saddened by how the opportunity emerged--the passing of McDonagh’s go-to editor Jon Gregory in September 2021.
“Jon was supposed to do the film,” related Nielsen who felt the deep need to honor the late editor. Gregory’s work made “a big imprint on me when I started editing,” continued Nielsen, citing Gregory’s collaborations with writer-director Mike Leigh in the early and mid-1990s, including Naked and Secrets & Lies. And of course, Gregory earned a Best Editing Oscar nomination in 2018 for McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Nielsen recalled Gregory’s work being “all about the characters, finding the truth in each character.” Nielsen felt compelled to do the same for The Banshees of Inisherin, and noted that he benefited from the support of McDonagh and his close-knit group of collaborators to help make that happen. “They are a family that’s been working together for many years and they welcomed me in.”
Set on a small fictional island, Inisherin, off the west coast of Ireland, the film introduces us to Pádraic (Colin Farrell), a kind-hearted man who lives with his sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon). Though seemingly mundane, life is good for
Pádraic who’s content to enjoy the companionship of his sister, care for his donkey, and to meet daily at a pub with his best friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson). But one day, Pádraic discovers that Colm no longer likes and doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. This sea change is unprovoked--and maddening to Pádraic who can’t fathom what he did to deserve this. Thus begins a downward spiral of self-doubt, depression and anger, in essence a waking nightmare for Pádraic which impacts others as well. But in the torment there is also humor just as kindness occasionally emerges from mean spiritedness.
“I never worked with material like this before,” said Nielsen about the mix of comedy and drama, light and darkness at times in the very same scenes. “It was interesting to try to find the balance of that.” The editor likened a McDonagh script to “a piece of music. You read it and then know you have elements that will require you to play all these instruments--the actors, pace, balance and tone.”
What helped was that McDonagh had written the script for the actors specifically whom he knew so well. McDonagh, Farrell and Gleeson, for instance, teamed on the director’s feature debut, In Bruges, some 14 years earlier. “You sensed there was something in the material that connected with the actors,” recalled Nielson who wasn’t aware at the outset that the script was penned with them in mind. Now that he knows that, Nielsen in retrospect said it makes perfect sense given how the performances by the cast seemed to have an extra dimension to them as an unpredictable story unfolds.
At the same time, Nielsen was conscious of another dynamic in McDonagh’s story--the island of Inisherin as a character. Thus use of music, bringing in scenes of nature, the countryside and animals were essential during lulls between dialogue.
“Finding the simplicity” was Nielsen’s self-described approach to delving into each character, including Inisherin itself. Nielsen observed that the island and Pádraic’s sister Siobhan were “the sanity” of the story. In many ways, observed Nielsen, “she was the heart of the film.”
A prime lesson learned by Nielsen from The Banshees of Inisherin sprung from the challenge of finding a balance or rhythm between comedy and drama. He discovered that inherent in that challenge was a dynamic that helped him connect with viewers. Nielsen observed that when sitting in a theater, the audience feeds off of humor. With each laugh, “little by little you open yourself up a little bit more” to other things, including drama. You connect and then when the story gets darker, you still have that connection.
Florencia Martin
Earlier this year, Florencia Martin earned her first Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award nomination as a production designer--in recognition of her work on Licorice Pizza. However her big break and debut as a production designer--after having first establishing herself as a set decorator--came on a film, Blonde (Netflix), which was recently released, well after she received the ADG nod.
An adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ fictional portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Blonde--written and directed by Andrew Dominik--stars Ana de Armas as the tormented actress who’s depicted as sacrificing so much, including arguably her body, mental and physical health, and very soul for fame and ultimately status as an iconic persona.
Whether all too real or at times taking liberties to paint this portrait, Blonde is buoyed by artistry across the board, including the cinematography of Chayse Irvin, costume design by Jennifer Johnson and production design from Martin.
The production design necessitated historical accuracy in terms of re-creating scenes from Monroe’s films ranging from the trailer for Niagara to the live ruckus caused by her billowing dress over a NYC subway grate in The Seven Year Itch. But beyond capturing such imagery that’s indelibly imprinted on the public consciousness, Martin had to be true to a period piece spanning the 1930s to the ‘60s in the context of a life’s chronology while also contributing to a tone and feel underscoring an existence marked by trauma, juxtaposing the vivacious Monroe we thought we knew with a woman who in reality was often victimized and exploited.
Martin closely collaborated with Dominik and Irvin, forming a core team with art director Peter Andrus and set decorator Erin Fite to stitch together a portrait that is historical as well as marked by tone and mood, lending a 360 view to a legendary star and her private purgatory which went all the way back to her childhood, being raised by a mentally disturbed mother (Julianne Nicholson).
Martin recalled an entire office complex with seven huge walls all collaged full of photographs from top to bottom of every single scene in Blonde--not only of images they were trying to re-create but reflecting the tone, style of photography and the environment. “Whether a stark environment or overexposed--or a moment where we were trying to show the complexity of what she was going through by her messiness or tidiness--we could walk through the movie from left to right with the art department and visually see what our goals were,” said Martin, noting that this helped ensure that she, her team, Dominik and Irvin were all “on the same page.”
Martin added that she spent a lot of time scouting together with Dominik and Irvin. “That’s an important part of my process--to be in a space together with collaborators. It’s pretty amazing when you get to the shoot and you see the final film. Our scouting and framing during our scouting, the images essentially formed the skeleton of what was ultimately made. Sculpting a film like that [and laying the groundwork for the set construction] with the director and cinematographer was a joy and the way I love to work.”
Martin affirmed that much was accomplished with a fairly limited budget and a slightly under 40-day shoot spanning color and black-and-white photography, “It’s no surprise to me what the final look and style of the film is. I’m proud of the work that Chayse, Andrew and I did to create this film. All of that dialogue and creative process we put into making the film is really exciting to see on the big screen. To trust that process and give into that process was really rewarding.”
In addition to Blonde, Martin could make another awards season splash with her production design on director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, which is slated for release on Christmas Day.
Martin’s achievements as a production designer add to an awards pedigree as a set decorator which includes a pair of Emmy nominations--for Feud: Bette and Joan in 2017 and Twin Peaks in 2018--and multiple ADG nods including for Birds of Prey, Us and Manchester by the Sea.
(This is the first installment of a 17-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies and on SHOOTonline.com, with select installments also in print issues. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. The 95th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023.)