Matt Friedman (‘Expats’ editor): In every edit, the ‘end goal is always to get at the emotion’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“The end goal is always to get at the emotion,” declares “Expats” editor Matt Friedman. For our recent webchat he adds, “That’s really what I love about working with Lulu. Everything is so thought through and so smartly put together on just so many different levels. It’s like peeling an onion. It’s like there’s stuff under stuff, under stuff, under stuff, under stuff,” he says. “Are there other editorial things that we can do? Maybe sit in the shot a little bit longer in order to give the audience time to find the character themselves, whereas if you’re cutting in close, you don’t need as much time to find the character. We think about things like that, but the end goal is the emotion. Whenever I’m cutting anything, what I’m thinking about is, is this getting me to where I want the audience to be, emotionally?” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
SEE Exclusive Video Interview: Lulu Wang (‘Expats’)
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“Expats” was created and directed by BAFTA nominee Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), based on the 2016 novel “The Expatriates” by Janice Y. K. Lee. The six-episode limited series explores the impact of grief and loss on a group of people living far away from home, who become inextricably linked by unforeseeable tragedy. The drama revolves around three expatriate American women in Hong Kong — Oscar and Emmy winner Nicole Kidman stars as grief-stricken mother Margaret, with Sarayu Blue starring as Margaret’s expat neighbor Hilary whose life is spiraling out of control, and Ji-young Yoo starring as Mercy, a troubled young woman trying to make ends meet. Jack Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”) also co-stars as Hilary’s cheating husband David, with Brian Tee co-starring as Margaret’s grief-stricken husband Clarke.
Friedman edited the series premiere and finale, as well as the series’ fourth installment and feature-length fifth episode. The editor’s techniques vary throughout the series, always aiming to complement the series’ atmospheric and often impressionist style of filmmaking that Wang is known for. Two scenes in particular stand out because of the way in which pivotal character moments are revealed in unconventionally long and continuous takes (often referred to as a “one-er”). “They’re very risky and they take a lot more time than if you’re going to shoot conventional coverage,” Friedman says. “The bar is incredibly high and it is incredibly risky and if one part of it doesn’t work, the whole thing doesn’t work. But when it works it can pay huge dividends, if it’s designed correctly. But there has to be a reason for it, right? It can’t just be a one-er for the sake of a one-er, or a one-er for show boating. It has to has to have a reason.”
In the pilot episode, Margaret (played by Kidman) is introduced in an extended one-er from behind her, sitting alone at a table, with the camera slowly circling around her so that we eventually see her face, which then subsequently cuts to her abruptly leaving the table. “By not revealing Margaret’s face, it sets the tone for the entire series, the mystery of it, the withholding of information, which is in the DNA of the entire series. How and when we parse out the information about the story, because it is not done in a linear way. We’re constantly withholding things from the audience and revealing them sometimes in unexpected places. That was the reason for that shot. There’s a very long one-er at the beginning of episode five, the 90-minute episode, when the camera is pushing in on all the helpers singing ‘Roar,’ and it pushes in very slowly and ends up centering on Puri, who is our main character in that episode. It’s kind of the same situation. We could cut that. And it would serve the same function. But this push in gives you the sense of discovery,” he explains. “The beginning of the shot is the reality of what’s happening, and then, as we push in on Puri, this is her dream. This is how she sees it. It’s not her standing in the rain, with a bunch of people and sirens and traffic and car horns going off left and right. It’s this beautiful, powerful song that she’s singing.”
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