Why Dune Editor Traveled to Budapest But Wouldn’t Go on Set

This story in regards to the enhancing of “Dune” first appeared within the Beneath-the-Line Situation of TheWrap’s awards journal.

For movie editor Joe Walker, one of many oddest elements about making “Dune” got here unexpectedly. The movie was his fourth with Denis Villeneuve, after “Sicario,” “Arrival” and “Blade Runner 2049,” and he’d spent the primary three of these sitting to the left of the director as they edited collectively. However “Dune” was partly edited in the course of the pandemic, and the 2 males collaborated from separate areas through video hyperlinks screens.

“He sat to the fitting of me for six years, on and off — and to be sincere, the right-hand facet of his face is just like the darkish facet of the moon to me,” Walker stated, laughing. “The strangest factor is that I needed to get used to the entrance of his face.”

“Dune” had components that each distinguished it from their earlier initiatives and tied it to them. “It felt in some ways like a continuation of the work we did on ‘Arrival,’” Walker stated. “In ‘Arrival’ and ‘Blade Runner,’ characters have visions of some variety. It’s fairly delicate in ‘Blade Runner’ as a result of it’s about implanted recollections, however in ‘Arrival’ it’s a really profound a part of the narrative.

“And in ‘Dune’ it simply goes loopy — it turns into a thread that helps you perceive the inside lifetime of a personality (Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides). And it’s fascinating that the majority of that stuff got here later. It was written within the script, nevertheless it was undeveloped, and we knew that we’d have to seek out it in submit. Denis all the time stated to me, ‘We’re going to have to seek out what to do along with his visions later.’”

That looseness, he added, has lengthy been part of the material when he and Villeneuve collaborate. The storyboards are typically detailed and exquisite, however the strategy of enhancing is “tremendous intuitive” fairly than meticulously deliberate. And whereas a lot of the work occurs as soon as the shoot is completed, Walker additionally traveled to Budapest whereas the movie was taking pictures in order that he may put together tough cuts and present them to Villeneuve throughout manufacturing.

Thoughts you, he traveled to Hungary to be near the shoot however then stayed away from the set itself.

“I’m just a little superstitious about really happening the set,” he stated. “I attempt to see what they’ve shot fairly than what I imagined they’ve shot. And if you stroll on a set and see what they’re doing, it’s actually arduous to chop issues out after you’ve seen how a lot work goes into getting a shot. So I attempt to avoid anyone I would upset.”

For “Dune,” the important thing was the heartbeat operating by way of the movie. “One of many issues we have been attempting to get on this movie was an incredible sense of rhythm,” Walker stated. “My background is in music, which all the time kind of made me really feel like an imposter as an editor. However this movie made me not really feel like that, as a result of I really feel like we actually received one thing between departments. Hans (Zimmer) is striving for one thing that works together with my edit, and my edit works together with the sound results and all of it really works together with the rhythm of the actors.” 

Learn extra from TheWrap’s “Dune” bundle right here:

Making ‘Dune’ – Right here’s How Denis Villeneuve and His Workforce Pulled Off Sci-Fi Epic (Video)

Why ‘Dune’ Manufacturing Designers Constructed a ‘Visible Bible’ Earlier than Day One in all Capturing

‘Dune’ Costume Designers Have been Impressed by Every thing From Balenciaga to Tarot Playing cards to Bugs

‘Dune’ Cinematographer Nonetheless Finds Sand in His Baggage 2 Years After the Shoot

The Sound of ‘Dune’: The Large Worm Was Onerous, however the Magical Voice Was Tougher

Why ‘Dune’s’ Greatest Visible Results Problem Wasn’t the Worms However the Sand

‘Dune’ Composer Hans Zimmer Reveals the Notice That ‘Tore the Enamel Off My Tooth’

Learn extra from the Beneath-the-Line Situation right here.