ATLANTA — Moonshine Post (www.moonshinepost.com) helped create a total post production pipeline for the film St. Agatha, spanning dailies to finishing. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (
Saw II,
Saw III,
Saw IV,
Repo the Genetic Opera), the film premiered in Los Angeles in early February.
St. Agatha is a horror film that shot in the town of Madison, GA. The project was brought to Atlanta for production by producers Seth and Sara Michaels, and returned for a producer’s cut, which was co-edited by Moonshine’s Gerhardt Slawitschka and Patrick Perry, and colored by John Peterson.
“The house we needed for the convent was perfect, as the area was one of the few places that had not burned down during the Civil War,” explains Seth Michaels. “It was our first time shooting in Atlanta, and the number one reason was because of the tax incentive. But we also knew Georgia had an infrastructure that could handle our production.”
Moonshine was initially brought in solely for dailies, but with an opportunity to do a producer’s cut, the production returned to the studio, where two editors worked in tandem to create a final cut.
“Why not cut in collaboration?” suggests Drew Sawyer, founder of Moonshine Post and executive producer. “It will cut the time in half, and you can explore different ideas faster.”
Gerhardt Slawitschka
“We quite literally split the movie in half,” adds Perry. “It’s a 90-minute film, and there was a clear break. It’s a little unusual, I will admit, but almost always when we are working on something, we don’t have a lot of time, so splitting it in half works.”
“The editors, Patrick and Gerhardt, were great,” adds Sara Michaels. “They watched every single second of footage we had, so when we recut the movie, they knew exactly what we had and how to use it.”
“We have the same sensibilities,” explains Slawitschka. “On long-form projects, we take a feature in tandem, maybe split it in half, or in reels. Or, on a TV series, each of us take a few episodes, compare notes, and arrive at a ‘group mind,’ our language of how a project is working. On St. Agatha, Patrick and I took a bit of a risk and generated a four-page document of proposed thoughts and changes. Some very macro, some very micro.”
“They were able to elevate the cut we already had, proving to us they are the best in town,” notes Sara Michaels. “I’ve suggested them to a lot of people, not only for indies, but for bigger projects. They have the experience to handle bigger budget movies.”
Patrick Perry
Colorist John Peterson, a partner at Moonshine Post, worked closely with the director on the final color.
“I was thrilled to be part of it,” says Peterson. “From day one, the first looks we got from camera raw were beautiful.”
The color pass included adding a certain amount of film grain, creating vignettes and heavy keys with isolation windows.
Moonshine Post recently expanded via a partnership with audio company Bare Knuckles and VFX studio Crafty Apes. They recently secured work on two AMC series, along with projects from Netflix. “We are not trying to do all the post in town, but we want to foster and grow the post production scene here so that we can continue to win people’s trust and solidify the Atlanta market.”
St. Agatha will be available in theaters and on-demand from Uncork'd Entertainment.