By Peter Tonguette
Image editor Tia Nolan, Ace, knows comedy.
Nolan was introduced to the trick of cutting comedy, the surgery was directed by later-stage picture editor Richard Marks, who assisted James L. Brooks at Nora Nora Ephron’s “You Have Mail” (1998) and Mike Nichols’ “Which Planet Are You From?” (2000).
As a picture editor, Nolan is in such things as Ephron’s The Dewitched (2005) and Diane English’s The Women (2008) Works in films such as films and works in films such as director Will Will Gluck showcases his dexterity. Benefits (2011), “Anne” (2014) and 2023 hits “Anyone Beyond You”, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell.
Nolan knows how to cut a scene around gag or in one breath, but she also knows that the character usually causes laughter from that land.
The real, believable and understanding character is at the heart of Nolan’s latest film, with director Lawrence Lamont’s sleeper hitting “one of them.” Sony Pictures released features opened with strong box office numbers on January 17, with Keke Palmer playing Dreux, a dedicated, hard-working young woman in Los Angeles who worked hard to get from Waitress to the restaurant franchisee. Amid the obstacles to her best plan, her kind best friend Alyssa (SZA) is a thoughtful and sometimes reluctant bohemian style who shares with her a too small apartment this month rent. It turns out that the money has been put into other uses by Alyssa’s boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua David Neal).
In Syreeta Singleton’s script, Dreux and Alyssa get good income in 24 hours under 24 hours to find or rebuild the rent, Evade eviction (their landlord promised to happen at 6 p.m.), Dodge Gang members, And make sure that somehow. Dreux’s career path won’t hit roadblocks. At different angles, the duo decided to raise funds by donating blood and taking out a pair of expensive shoes that hang from a telephone pole – electrostatically and (half) economically devastating ambulance ride.
Nolan participated in the good friendship between Dreux and Alyssa, and the urgency of their plight. Sometimes, the movie is similar to Daylight Hour, West Coast version of Martin Scorsese’s After get off work. Editing is enough to allow character moments, and fleets are enough to convey their desperate straits.
Nolan shared the credit for co-editors with long-time former assistant editor Kim Boritz-Brehm, who edited many scenes and praised her mentor’s work and support, and in smaller, tight pictures. “The opportunity to edit the ‘one of the times’ scenes was one of the most fun and positive experiences I’ve ever had,” Boritz-Brehm told Cinemontage. “I love working with TIA because we have a similar tailoring style, her notes It really helps to make the scene super polished and tight….. The movie was shot in 21 days, so even if the production might not capture everything on their wishlist, we are still able to get together and provide An interesting story.”
Cinemontage recently talked with Nolan about “a day of it.”
Movie: Given your career, do you feel like you have an affinity for comedy?
Tia Nolan: I think being typing will certainly work because at some point you get enough of these credits and then they don’t think for you for the “barbarians”. I’m not at the top of that list – not something I can’t do. But yes, it must be my early years were Jim Brooks, Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron, these outstanding lyricists were fun, and It can indeed bring this kind of life look. I really like that one. Not just the comedy editor, I also think I am the character editor. Some comedy is just gimmick-driven, and when you work on comedy, these are really the notes you get often: “How can I get into the next suit or comedy work faster?” But I really like acting, stories In the place where these characters live are found. If you can’t master the character, yes, you might laugh, but you’ll forget about it in five minutes.
Cinemontage: How did “one of them” come to you?
Nolan: I’ve made a lot of movies for Sony and I’ve done “Anyone except you” lately, so Sony knows what I can do. This is a much smaller movie. My agents always stay in touch with them just to see what’s going on. Last summer, the strikes reduced the industry and then no one was at the green light. No one’s desk has a lot of stuff. My agent called me and he said, “I don’t know if you’re interested in this – it’s small, which is definitely different from what we’re looking for for you, but let me send you a script.”
I’m not familiar with Lawrence or Sireta. I had a preliminary meeting with Lawrence and we had a lot of producers – like Zoom’s “Brady Bunch” square, but in reality, it’s just Lawrence talking to me. Lawrence’s spirit is so amazing and infectious. He was just so happy and very excited about the project and I can say it will be an interesting project and it’s a great place for the next few months.
Movie: How did you work with Lawrence?
Nolan: My relationship with most directors, and what I do with Lawrence, is that I watch the daily and then send an email that basically outlines what I see: sure, any notes, any “ Can we grab these photos? Transparent When we were shooting on the movie, everyone used to gather and sift through the old things of the daily newspaper at the end of the day. This is no longer happening, so if the director had even seen the film frame before, This always surprises me.
I will also edit the scene and send it to the director immediately. We have a secure streaming website. It would be great if they had time to watch it. If they don’t, they won’t, but they know how the movies come together and make sure we’re on the same page. In most cases, the movie has no time to start at Square One and the director has not produced it. Lawrence and I are communicating like this, sometimes even talking.
Movie: How does a tight schedule affect the process?
Nolan: The final schedule totals 21 days. There was a moment because it was a pressing timeline, like: “Okay, we have to fix this in the post” or “We’re going to have to add visuals” – anyway ever been. Suddenly, the production part was this crazy train. But it’s actually like: “You’re shooting four huge scenes a day.” They don’t have time, they throw away their ideas, they compromise here and everywhere, just to shoot these things. Lawrence and I started talking about more and I tried to help with the solution.
“I think everyone can laugh.”
Cinemontage: What kind of solution do you recommend when the scene may be shortened or even never shot?
Nolan: A good example is the scene in an ambulance after Alyssa is electrocuted and dropped onto Dreux, where Dreux wakes up in an ambulance. That scene from the original script was supposed to have them jump out of the ambulance while they were moving. They would have wandered around the door, and EMT would yell. Like an action scene. The studio really likes it, but it’s a stunt and expensive. It’s early to delete from a script. They filmed what you saw, but lacked intensity, lacked the sense of the character: “Oh my goodness, this ambulance is going to cost too much money, we have to get out of here.” At some point, I said, “Okay, OK Right, I’ll make it a horror scene because waking up from a minute Dreux, it’s a full horror scene. “I found the horror temperature score and used some B-rolls to cut it quickly.
Cinemontage: There are still horror tips on the scene, right?
Nolan: That’s true. Our amazing composer Chanda Dancy did a great job of music in that scene. The movie is working, but our temporary score is very rough. It’s hard to find the tone. Then she comes in and literally every prompt she sends us is perfect.
Cinemontage: How does it feel to work with Keke Palmer and Sza in acting?
Nolan: Keke and Sza immediately had this amazing chemistry. They immediately became like best friends, and I could tell because I would watch it in between. They were stopping and starting to do the right thing and I saw how they talk to each other. They are instantly very comfortable and this shows up on the screen. They eventually made my job easier.
Keke knows her timing, knows all her lines, knows the creative. She would be there to joke. She has a lot of energy and she is so respectful and friendly. SZA is not an actress, and now she is of course-but that’s not where she comes from. She is not 100% sure where she is, what she is doing or what she should do. She is just her own version, so brilliant, free and charming – you can’t take your eyes off her. When Alyssa went to work and later picked up Dreux, the first scene they were together was in front of a restaurant, where they posted scenes in the car. Sza holds his identity with Keke in each scene. What she came up with was such interesting lines.
Cinemontage: How do you sift through this material to make sure the characters can still pass and the story still moves forward?
Nolan: It’s definitely a challenge because sometimes you think, “Oh, I want to use every piece.” And I do comedy a lot, and there’s no roadmap. Many times, you will find yourself getting a gem, but you won’t necessarily react to that gem within the other person’s coverage because they shoot first. You have to actually create moments so that you can build in some of these gems.
I always look at the camera and take notes and when I look at the camera, I am editing the scene. I edit in my brain. I’m involved, and it’s not always what I think will be. You might realize, “these two great acting moments don’t actually complement each other, so I have to rethink that.” In this movie, I have at least four scenes a day without time. I had to spend time watching blocks of the scene so that I could see if the characters were tracking. For Deler’s character, it’s fun in this scene.
Cinema: Everywhere in the movie, the title card pops up, announcing how much time is left in the script at Dreux and Alyssa being expelled from 6pm?
Nolan: It is dreaming throughout the process. Early on, I showed the movie for my husband. “It’s great. It’s fun to be with the characters, but I don’t feel the bet.” He mentioned things like “high school” and “three o’clock high” and you can see some sort of ticking clock. One day, I came in and came up with a graphic that said eviction for a lot of hours, but you want everyone to read it and I don’t have a real shot. I want to raise the place, I don’t want to cover up the action. I was like, “That’s really cheesy”, but then I did it and it actually worked very well. Lawrence came in, I showed him, and he said, “This is great.”
Cinemontage: Why do you think the movie resonates with the audience?
Nolan: I think everyone can laugh, but I also think it has to do with the community. It’s about people helping each other, even if everything gets really hard. It’s almost a great friendship story – it’s a movie about these two women and how they support each other and lift each other up.
