Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino's feature Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and her former boyfriend - the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor). Pasts collide and tensions run high, leaving Tashi to ask herself what it will cost to win? The feature includes music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Amazon/MGM Studios’ Challengers was released theatrically back in April and is now available to rent or buy on Amazon. Here, a number of creative pros share their experience working on the film’s production and post production.
Editor Marco Costa
"I’m an occasional and very mediocre tennis player, but I enjoy playing, so when I read the script for Challengers, I felt a strong wave of enthusiasm wash over me. A film about tennis? I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. But then Luca immediately clarified: 'It’s not a film about tennis. It’s about people.' This phrase stuck with me throughout the entire editing process and served as my guide. It’s a film that delves into and explores relationships and dynamics, between appearances and hidden instincts that come to the surface. I like to think that Art, Patrick, and Tashi are in a continuous emotional flow, tossed back and forth by their emotions and reasons, just like a tennis ball on the court."
Costa stayed away from watching any films about tennis, hoping to distance himself from the idea of a sports film. He did, however, find inspiration from Mike Nichols’ filmography.
"For the tennis scenes, however, I always kept the film Cabaret in mind, because there’s a strong sense of dance behind the way Luca staged the protagonists' movements on the tennis court," he explains. "We started editing the film in Boston during the shooting and then finished the editing in Italy. I’m one of those few editors who loves to use the Wacom Cintiq for editing. It gives me the feeling that I’m doing a craft, handmade, and that I’m drawing the story of our characters."
The film's final scene required the most work from the editor, who tried to create a perfect symphony of editing, music and sound design.
"To achieve this, since we didn’t yet have the score, we edited the scene entirely mute - without sound or music," he reveals. "Imagining in our minds the potential pulsing beats and the overwhelming sound of the rackets. A choice that initially might have seemed risky, but we didn’t want to be influenced in any way by temp music."
Supervising Sound Editor/Re-Recording Mixer Craig Berkey
"I oversaw the sound editorial and mix for the film," says Berkey. "Challengers required accurate and detailed tennis sound design to bring the matches to life."
He used Avid Pro Tools for editorial, and the Avid S6 control surface for mixing. Sound editorial was performed in Vancouver and London, with the mixing later taking place in Rome.
"Sound was a vital element in amplifying the emotional intensity of the film during the tennis sequences," he explains. "You needed to feel the racquet hits, ball bounces, footsteps, vocal exertions and crowd reactions. We achieved this by using realistic sounds recorded on-set and adding layers of sound effects to heighten the power of the action. Accurate placement of sounds within the Dolby Atmos mix also helped to put the viewer into the middle of the matches."
Production Sound Mixer Lisa Piñero
"I am the sound department head from pre-production through the wrap of principal photography," Piñero explains. " The film was shot on-location in the Boston, MA area. Our team of three - myself, Eva Rismanforoush (1st assistant sound) and Kelly Doran (2nd assistant sound) - worked to give Luca clean dialog, along with tennis match ambiance and environmental sounds."
Piñero notes that it was clear from her first conversation with director Luca Guadanino that sound is important to him as an artist, and would be critical to building the emotional and competitive energy he wanted to communicate in Challengers.
"We had some interesting challenges, which included one of our primary tennis match sets located directly under the flight path of a nearby airport," she recalls. "Luca’s emphasis on getting cast wild lines on-set whenever necessary and assistant director Kim Winther’s support in giving us the moments we needed to record audience and environmental match sounds were critical to getting the tracks we needed."
The production sound team used Aaton Digital’s Cantar X3 digital recorder, along with Schoeps and DPA microphones running through Shure’s Axient digital wireless system.
Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer Paul Carter
"Right from the start of the project, director Luca Guadagnino had a clear vision of the power and intensity he wanted the sound to bring to the film," Carter reveals. "As the film progresses, we experience tennis action varying in size, from indoor training areas, the small venue Challenger games, right up to much larger venues with big excited crowds. We approached each setting individually using different sounding racquets, ball hits, tennis shoes and crowds to give each moment of the journey its unique feel."
Carter says he used three main layers during the mix comprising the location recordings that Lisa Piñero and her team recorded on-set, a layer of tennis sound effects, and a layer of designed sounds that would help to heighten moments when needed.
"This all then had to be weaved into the big energetic score that was delivered by Trent and Atticus, and drives us through the matches."
Cargo Cult Slapper 2 and Audio Ease Altiverb were used to recreate the tennis court reverbs and place all of the elements together into the same setting.