What’s the first step in the production of this film?
Sally: I just get on with it, and what I find is that a lot of my friends are always telling me you need to focus! So, I’m like, if you’re going to tell me you’re going to focus on your friends, I’m going to follow you. I don’t know how much I want to focus on your friends, but I think it’s a good thing to do. What’s been interesting for me is that it really has been about learning from each other, talking to each other, letting down our guard a little bit, and then we’ll start making choices. We’ll get back into editing, and then the next thing is to be in the editing shop, and then the next thing is to be on set, and then the next thing is to post. I think it’s really about learning how to live in a collaborative way. It’s about going into those kinds of moments, and having them together. It’s really about the camaraderie that occurs during that time.
We always have three weeks with a day for three weeks before we shoot, and that has been so helpful. It’s not like we sit around and say, “I want to do this on weekends.” It’s about all the activities that we have in the three weeks, and the creativity that we have together. And this is also about how to work together: We have to stop and think about the way we want the film to be. When I go into the editing shop for an edit, it’s not just editing in Photoshop or InDesign, it’s about figuring out how to use the editing tools and the color pallets that I have in order to be really effective and communicate what’s going on in the film. Because it’s so intense on set, it’s a really great tool for understanding how everything works together and understanding what’s important, how everything can be used in a cohesive way. This is a very collaborative process, and I think part of the way I know is because of my friends. I had a long-time editor named David Fincher at Paramount when I was working on the film of The Bourne Identity. And his advice was, “Don’t think about it like you’re the editor. I’m the director, and he’s the director of photography. Just go in and tell me what you think.” And that was a big deal to me. He said, “That’s what I
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