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Editor Adam Gough explains that for all the slippery perspectives in psychological thriller Disclaimer the truth is lying in plain sight.
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Psychological thriller Disclaimer carries its own disclaimer in the opening minutes of episode one which warns the audience to beware of narrative and form. “It can bring us closer to the truth, but also has the great power to manipulate" intones the voiceover which of course is what director Alfonso Cuarón attempts to do over the seven-part Apple TV+ series he adapted from the novel by Renée Knight.
Two storylines are told in the present day. The first
revolves around Catherine (Cate Blanchett) and her affluent family — husband,
Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee) —and the second
follows Stephen Brigstocke, a widowed, retired teacher portrayed by Kevin
Kline. A third storyline plays out in the past and is predominantly expressed
in the form of a novel that Stephen sends to Catherine that seems to document
events that transpired over 20 years ago.
Each has a different perspective on those events with the
truth lying in plain sight.
“The narrative form is not Rashomon-like in which
everyone is lying,” says editor Adam Gough, ACE, BFE in his second
collaboration as editor with Cuarón following Roma. “I think viewers
would take a lot away from a second watch because all the detail is there. What
it plays into most is the additional perspective of you, the viewer. The way the
story is presented allows you to make your own choices and feelings on
characters as the chapters unfold.”
The viewer’s perspective
To balance the structure and shape of the first episode and
therefore of the series, Gough pulled in scenes that were originally intended
for episodes two and three.
“It took a lot of time to get the arc of the first four
chapters in place,” he explains. “It’s not until midway through the second
chapter that the timelines start linking up. At the beginning we deliberately don’t
tell the story in the correct order. We trust the audience a lot with this.
There was a note that came through from Apple at one point about wanting to put
time lines on screen to make it easier for the audience to follow. We pushed
back on that. The point is that it’s meant to be a little confusing so the
audience has to work to unravel the truth.
“It’s more satisfying as a viewer when you make that
connection. You learn while watching rather than being told. If we provide
enough intrigue, we can keep their attention. What was important was not making
the audience feel cheated. The information is there to be found even if it's
incredibly minimal.”
Towards the end of the editorial process they introduced an
iris-like transition to help differentiate elements of the story which are told
via the novel. “There was a little bit of a confusion between some of Stephen’s
flashback and what the novel is telling us so sometimes put in a hard cut or a
little bit of black to resemble an iris to help define that.”
Dark and intimate content
The story presents several fairly explicit sex scenes and
also gets considerably darker in content and tone towards the end. Intimacy coordinator Samantha Murray was
brought on board to ensure that the pair of actors involved (Louis Partridge and
Leila George) had the additional support they required.
“We invited Samantha into editorial because it was important
that we created a professional environment for dealing with this footage,”
Gough says. “If anyone felt uncomfortable we wanted them to have an open
conversation.”
That includes Gough himself who knew from his experience
cutting Spike Lee’s docu-series NYC Epicenters about the black lives
matter movement researching the deaths of men at the hands of the police, quite
how affected he could become by the material.
“I was very fortunate that my crew was majority women,” he
says. This includes additional editor Caitlin Squyres, associate editor
Stephanie Tighe, assistants Natalie Hume and Chloe Laing, second assistant
Ellie McDonnell and trainee Zainab Alhameed.
“I have a very good relationship with Alfonso when it comes
to heavy content. I remember when we edited the still birth sequence in Roma,
we did so in silence. It was pretty much looks and nods between ourselves when
we were going through the dailies. On Disclaimer there was a very
professional tone in our room of just how we were communicating.”
The dailies lab were forewarned that there would be nudity
or other challenging footage coming their way. “It was very important for me to
have this structure and professionality in place on this project. For Leila it
was important. She was going to be doing ADR and would likely be in a suite
surrounded by men watching scenes of her nudity during the recording. We felt
she might be more comfortable if those scenes were modesty blurred.”
It's the first time Gough had cut sex scenes. “There were
moments where I'd have to loop breaths. That's surprisingly difficult when
you're focusing on a tiny little detail, trying to make sure that when someone
is orgasming the rhythm of the breaths builds up in the right way.”
Cutting all seven chapters
Unusually for episodic drama, director and editor took the
lead on every episode. It was a tough assignment that stretched over two years.
“When Alfonso said he wanted me to edit everything I was very
aware of what the demands are for episodic TV,” Gough says. “I suggested having
another editor working with me, but Alfonso insisted he only wanted to interact
with me. If that's how the dynamic was going to work I knew I’d just be
spending a lot of my time delegating so I felt it was easier for me to work
directly with him.
“In the beginning there was definitely this element of ego -
of me loving the idea of doing all of it and then very quickly realising it was
a stupid mistake. Even Alfonso would agree that committing to directing all the
episodes was too much hard work. What I do appreciate is the consistency that
we found in the narrative, the style, the grammar and the stylistic elements.”
Sound of the fridge
Cuarón’s attention to detail extends to sound design. Gough
edited in 5.1 in part to help the viewer navigate the geography of scenes
featuring panning shots. Stephen’s apartment, for example, features a
refrigerator the ominous sound of which was written into the script.
“I immediately knew this is important to Alfonso. I got in
contact with [supervising sound editor] Craig Henighan before we started
shooting to give me ideas for the rattle and hum of the fridge. I want
it in the edit as soon as possible. We went 7.1 at the end because we were
finding we needed more clarity in the surrounds when panning and to enhance the
noise of the refrigerator.”
Gough explains that he likes to try and get the sound
working early on in editorial so that directors do not have to design
everything on a costly mixing stage.
“My process in the cutting room with a director is that when
anything comes up on screen be it sound, music, VFX, I'm always noting those
ideas down, getting them to the right departments and trying to get some update
on those quickly. Developing ideas as soon as we can in the edit allows more
time to experiment. I'm incredibly proud of the sound design in Disclaimer.”
Gough is currently editing the feature Klara and the Sun
for writer/director Taika Waititi.
Lighting for dual DPs
Cuarón took the unusual approach of working with two
cinematographers, Emmanuel ‘Chivo’ Lubezki (in their seventh collaboration
after work including Children of Men and Gravity) and Bruno
Delbonnel, a regular collaborator of Tim Burton (Big Eyes) and Joel Coen
(The Tragedy of Macbeth).
His idea was to develop a visual language for the storylines
told from the points of view of Catherine (shot by Lubezki) and Stephen (lensed
by Delbonnel).
To avoid ‘pollution of ideas’ both cinematographers worked
in isolation, never filming in tandem on set.
Delbonnel says, “For Stephen’s point of view, in terms of
lighting, Alfonso wanted something quite raw, reflecting the working class
neighbourhood where he was living. Since it’s always Stephen’s point of view, I
tried to focus on his face as if he was always the centre of everything. To
achieve this I tried to get a big fall off of the light. Sunlight never fully
lights the interior of the house, it’s always dark behind him.”
To establish continuity they had to be clear about the times
of the day, as many scenes happen linearly, cutting from character to character
and from and to different points of view.
“If it rains outside what is the light inside the two
different houses?” notes Delbonnel. “Being a Parisian, a city where it rains a
lot, my feeling is that the light never really penetrates, interiors are dark
and gloomy, the sky is low and grey. But was it the same for Chivo? If not, how
can we make the two scenes work in order to avoid the audience being lost.”
While natural light unites both Stephen and Catherine’s
story worlds, it may surprise that Disclaimer was shot almost entirely
on sound stages at Enfield Studios. Building the illusion of sunlight required
large exterior light panels diffused with cloth that were strong enough to
penetrate the set windows and reach the actors inside.
On set Lubezki used every set decoration light — from desk
lamps to ceiling fixtures — to maximise the light opportunities. Sets were also
constructed with shifting walls, and in place of green and blue screens outside
the windows, gray screens were used to reduce bounce and enhance the natural
feel. Production designer Neil Lamont created panels in ceilings that had a
partial paint coat on them to allow light to permeate through to give the room
a general glow whilst retaining a ceiling.
Cuarón was intentional about the spaces inhabited by
Catherine and Stephen because they say something about their social strata and
character. Catherine resides in an affluent area of Notting Hill with exteriors
was filmed at a Georgian property on Notting Hill’s Elgin Crescent. The outside
of Stephen’s property was a red brick Victorian terrace house on Dresden Road
in Archway.
The production also filmed in Cape Town; Pisa, Venice and
the Tuscan seaside town of Forte dei Marmi, for the flashback sequences.
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