‘Vice’ Splice
Good chemistry between director and editor is key to successfully paced film
Editor Hank Corwin worked with director Adam Mckay on well-paced Dick Cheney biopic
makeup and hairstylist department crew. But there’s little consistency in the way the practice is applied. Hairstylists say that at times favored nations is stated up front when they accept a job; at other times it’s offered only after some pushback.
The pay equalization measure doesn’t always apply. Day checkers — crew who come on for shorter stints — still must contend with the lower rates. Another sector where favored nations falls through the cracks: TV commercials, which are supposed to adhere to the same hiring structure as films and TV shows but follow a different pattern. Films and shows employ both makeup and hair department heads, followed by their first assistants, called the “key,” but commercials disregard that structure in negotiated contracts to save money.
Hairstylist X explains that on commercials, though there should be a hair department head, hairstylists instead are paid as makeup assistants, a practice specifically prohibited, since hairstylists and makeup artists, as two separate branches of the union, cannot be each other’s assistants. If a commercial doesn’t require a lot of hairstyling, the makeup artist or an actual makeup assistant steps in to do the job, which also violates union rules, because makeup artists are not allowed to work on hair.
If a commercial demands a great deal of hairstyling, a makeup artist will bring in the stylist and the production will pay that person as an assistant, though his or her title on the call sheet is hair department head. That way everything appears to be proper, says hairstylist Y, who adds that the practice “is not just common, it’s rampant.” Yet, there’s little recourse for hairstylists, who generally work at the makeup artist’s recommendation on commercials; pushback would mean not getting called again.
The union has a process for submitting grievances in order to police productions that don’t adhere to their contracts. But hairstylists say that any complaints they make to the union would only result in being fired and blacklisted from further commercials work — and many stylists work almost exclusively in the sector. “The union says, ‘We don’t know about it unless you report it,’ and then you report it and the [production] knows you reported it, because who else will?” posits hairstylist X.
Still, the stylist sees a potential solution. “There should be a system where they track [hiring] at the payroll companies. When they cut checks and see there’s a key makeup person and a makeup assistant and no hair, they should know.”
When Cabral-ebert is asked about alternatives for members to file grievances that would protect their identity, she notes: “There are other methods; I just don’t feel free to discuss them. We’ve got contract negotiations.” She further suggests that making favored nations status official for hair and makeup crews is “a question for producers, who are controlling the situation.”
Studios did not respond to calls and emails for this story.
Crew members are passionate about what they do and want equal pay for their labor. “We’re not businesspeople,” says hairstylist Y. “We’re artists who love our jobs.” Editor Hank Corwin has worked with a quartet of directors on most of his film projects. Vice (2018) Director: Adam Mckay Song to Song (2017) Director: Terrence Malick The Big Short (2015) Director: Mckay
The Tree of Life (2011) Director: Malick The New World (2005) Director: Malick The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) Director: Robert Redford The Horse Whisperer (1998) Director: Redford
U Turn (1997) Director: Oliver Stone Nixon (1995) Director: Stone Natural Born Killers (1994) Director: Stone hank corwin has worked with some of film’s most iconic directors — Robert Redford, Oliver Stone, Barry Levinson and Terrence Malick. He’s frequently edited earnest dramas, like Stone’s “Nixon” and Malick’s “The Tree of Life.”
But his two latest feature outings — Adam Mckay’s “The Big Short,” released in 2015, and the Dick Cheney biopic “Vice,” a Christmas release from Annapurna, took a more ironic approach to storytelling.
Corwin was surprised three years ago when his agent sent him the script for “The Big Short” because, he says, “Mckay is comedy, and if you look at my work, I’m not exactly a comedy editor.” It turned out that Mckay was looking for a replacement editor because the first individual attached to the film wasn’t working out. Corwin loved the script, started cutting, and he and Mckay hit it off. The movie went on to earn him an Oscar nomination for editing.
The two also talked about Mckay’s upcoming Cheney film, which Corwin thought would be a challenging project, partly because it focused on a living person. Nonetheless, he held out to work with the director again. “I just trust Adam,” he says.
After the project got under way, the duo collaborated in the editing suite to find the story’s emotions and “human arcs.” The result: a film that was two and a half hours long, says Corwin, “which was much more complex than what we ended up with. Initially there was a childhood section that was just lovely, and a fun musical sequence, all shot and cut, but they congested the flow of the movie. It was so difficult to give them up, but then one day we just let them go.”
“Vice” was shot mostly in Southern California; the music and post work took place in London, where composer Nicholas Britell and music editor John Finklea traveled to record the score; and at Skywalker Ranch just north of San Francisco, where Corwin mixed the music to picture. The editing itself was done at Sony Pictures on Avid systems and lasted just over 10 months.
“‘Vice’ was one of the toughest movies I’ve ever worked on.” Corwin says. “Every time we tried to editorialize, the film would spit it out. We ended up with a film I’m very proud of.”
Working with Mckay, as with all directors, was a unique experience. “They’re all different,” notes Corwin. “Oliver [Stone] was fearless, editorially. He wanted to editorialize more than any of the others. For him, the edit was inherently muscular.”
Redford, in Corwin’s words, was more “relaxed,” although he sometimes needed persuasion. “I showed him a scene on ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance,’ and he said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘It’s a jump cut, an accepted convention.’ He said, ‘Not on my film.’ It became a bit of a struggle, but the jump cut stayed.”
And Malick is “brilliant,” per Corwin. “With Terry, it’s an exercise in letting go of your conscious editorial mind. He saw God and truth in randomness.”
When asked about the hardest part of being an editor, Corwin points to screening all the footage. “There’s so much potential in a piece of film,” he says. “I go through every single take and make copious notes. Once I have everything screened and annotated, the cutting itself goes quite quickly.”