February 12, 2012

Darren Aronofsky Wrestles With Andrew Weisblum

by Andrew Gnerre | Published December 19, 2008

(Page 2)

Cutting this assembly together so quickly and efficiently was made possible by a few key choices made in terms of equipment. To fit the movie’s naturalistic tone and cinematographer Maryse Alberti’s documentary approach, the moviemakers decided to shoot on Super 16 and then went digital for dailies and editing. “We cut on [Avid] Media Composer,” says Weisblum. “We had a full system with a full Adrenaline and a Unity storage system during production. My assistant loaded and digitized and synced up everything in that system. I had, separately, a MacBook Pro with portable Firewire storage and I would use that during production. Stuff would get synced up and then media would get topped to that drive.” Almost every day of production ended with Weisblum at Aronofsky’s home looking at dailies, ensuring quality and coverage.

Thanks to the DNxHD36 codec that was loaded onto Media Composer, the whole process was efficient and straightforward. “It allowed us—with minimal equipment and expense—to work in HD through the whole process,” says Weisblum. “It was great because our dailies were HD so we got to see everything we needed to see; if there were any focus issues, etc.”

Mobility was also a factor. “The file size for the DNxHD36 was small enough that I could have seven or eight days of stuff on one 300 GB hardware drive that I could take anywhere,” marvels the editor. “Because of the setup and how mobile it was, I was able to come [to the set] and, in between setups on something else, go over things with Darren. We could experiment and try stuff and make sure that Darren was happy with what we had and that we didn’t have any issues that we needed to go back to while we were still in production. Having this setup helped us do that. It was so portable and easy.”

“And it was nice because it meant I didn’t have to go to the editing room, if an editing room actually existed,” laughs Aronofsky, “which it probably did. We could just take care of it over lunch.”

“The mobility and the quality—just those two things coupled together are kind of unbeatable,” adds Weisblum.

But, of course, no amount of technology can compensate for a lack of creativity or conviction. Luckily for The Wrestler, Weisblum and Aronofsky are lacking neither and the two minds seemed to have struck just the right balance between trust and hierarchy while holed up in Malta, cutting the picture. Says Weisblum, “Darren’s direction for me was, ‘I want to see your take on everything because we have so many options here and it’s important to me to have someone else’s point of view in the room to feed off of at first.’ And with all those options, that seems the logical way to go.”

Continues Weisblum, “The key to any good director, which Darren has in spades, is [the ability] to be decisive. That’s really the whole job of the director, but that umbrella is huge. What was important was to clear that path to analyze what we had and make decisions.”

The decisions made seem to have been the right ones, as The Wrestler has rapidly turned into an awards season heavyweight, a catalyst for Rourke’s revitalized career and a stunning achievement in moviemaking. Weisblum may not get all the press, but Aronofsky certainly recognizes the editor’s supreme contribution. “Andy’s really tough,” praises the director. “He’s got very strong opinions and that’s great. That’s what you want from an editor.”

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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by kral oyun on 5/01/10 at 2:42 am: Attribute her success to tenacity and talent all you want-but Claire Simpson will tell you it’s really all about luck!
Comment by hongrie on 2/25/11 at 10:37 am: Andrew Weisblum is a film editor and a visual effects editor. He has collaborated frequently with director Darren Aronofsky.