From an editorial standpoint, no two films are as different as Burst Drummer and City of Philharmonic, though also by director Damien Chazelle.
While both films feature musical performances, Philharmonic City is based on smooth, well-choreographed music, while Burst Drummer is driven by blockbuster cutting techniques. Editing director Tom Cross also won the Academy Award for Best Editing for "The Drummer."
Tom Cross
Editing directors Tom Cross and Damien Chazelle said in interviews: "'Burst Drummer' requires us to always maintain a certain level of cruelty, tension, suspense and speed. They also admit: "We didn't really pay attention to Philharmonic City at first. ”
While "The Burst Drummer" seems to require more editing, according to director Chazere's setting, the film is a relatively simple process. On the other hand, "Philharmonic City" is a work that requires a lot of experimentation and a longer period of preparation.
"City of Philharmonic is trying to cross two different tones and find a harmonious middle ground," Chazere says, "all of which arises when faced with the problems of rhythm, tone, and structure, because it's unusual to build a musical world while trying to combine two things that don't normally coexist." ”
Tom Cross said finding the right calibration method is like trying to land an airplane on a very narrow runway, and if it's not aimed, it will crash and burn out. One of the unique challenges was that Chazere shot all the music tracks with carefully choreographed long shots.
The highway scene at the beginning of the film was filmed for two days by the entire crew. The dancing scene looks like there is only one shot, but it's actually made up of three shots, with two hidden clips in between, and depending on the shots, each shot is shot almost fifteen to thirty times.
"Those long shots are the most romantic scenes and moments in the film," Cross said. "Always talk about emphasizing these moments by making the film's editorial style different in other scenes."
To construct these moments, Kroos would use more angles to cut, or speed up the tempo so that the clip felt like it was hitting, or faster, to counteract the floating notes.
The film's biggest challenge was to create a structure in which well-designed musical clips could breathe, which meant trying not only how to cut the scenes around those key moments, but also to change the structure of the film.
Chazere said, "Actually, we've tried to cut all the music tracks before." In fact, the film's popular opening song, "Another Day of Sun," did not appear in the film for some time. "Another Day of Sunshine" is themed after a large dance with traffic jams on the highway in the background.
Editor Kroos also said: "Because of the existence of this element of music, it makes editing song and dance films more challenging." Usually, editing is based on a series of different factors to decide how to edit: such as emotion, story, continuity and structure, and so on. When the theme is a song and dance film, not only to consider the above factors, but also to ensure that the camera switching and music can be smoothly connected. ”
"The director was meticulously prepared when filming 'Philharmonic City', including every shot and position in the film. When it comes time to cut, it also needs to be refined or refined, and sometimes it is necessary to highlight certain parts of the scene. Sometimes, it may be necessary to make improvements to the shooting scene due to the imperfect footage captured by the camera's motion capture, and so on. In short, it is my responsibility to "organically" cut the material together to make the story smooth and emotionally natural, while also perfectly integrating with the music. ”
"When editing Philharmonic City, we worked closely with composer Justin Herwitz. Sometimes, he would modify the music to match the film. However, some tweaks can't start with the music, as it will make the music sound weird. Therefore, you can only change the film by cutting to match the music. ”
Kroos also added that while City of Philharmonic was carefully curated and designed, it was a big challenge to transition the film to a "moment of emotional purity" in old-fashioned Hollywood magic and balance it with the film's modern realist elements.
"When you're making this movie, whether it's the prep or editing phase, sometimes you want to bang your head against the wall and you can understand why people don't make musicals very often, because it's so hard." Chazere said.
With 21 years of experience in the field, Tom Cross and Damien Chazere have collaborated on a number of works, winning the Academy Award for Best Editing in 2015 for "Burst Drummer" and being nominated for an Oscar again in 2016 for "Philharmonic City".
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