In the Neon feature Longlegs, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must decipher in order to end the spree of a serial killer. The film was written and directed by Osgood Perkins, and stars Maika Monroe as agent Lee Harker, Nicholas Cage as Longlegs and Blair Underwood as agent Carter.
Greg Ng and Graham Fortin edited the horror film, which was released in July. Here, they talk about working in the genre, as well as the editing process for making the film so terrifying.
Photo: Greg Ng
What excited you about working on Longlegs?
Graham Fortin: “What excited me most about working on Longlegs was getting to work with Osgood Perkins and getting to work on a film with a larger scope than I’ve been accustomed to. I’m also a big fan of procedural, thriller and horror films, and Longlegs was a special cocktail of all those genres.
“Eyeballs, too. The eyeballs of the cast. Getting to work with raw material of the cast was surreal. Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt and of course Nicolas Cage. Having grown up watching his films, especially Wild At Heart, there were moments when I was cutting the interrogation-room scene and saying to myself, ‘How did I get here?’ You’re putting things together, deep into the granularity of an edit, but you zoom out and say to yourself, ‘This is absolutely bananas.’”
Greg Ng: “Bananas is a good way of putting it. It was exciting to be working with our film family on something that seemed so ambitious. Tonally, it was a balancing act of horror, drama and this weird artsy-ness that I’d never done before, but somehow it all came together in this unique Oz Perkins cocktail.”
What were the early conversations you had with the team as it related to the edit?
Graham Fortin: “The project was brought to us by producers Chris Ferguson and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. We’ve worked with them multiple times before, so we are fortunate to have a shorthand. It was the first time we worked with Oz, and he was an absolute pleasure to work with. One of the first things he said to me was, ‘I don’t have to tell you what to do. You know what you’re doing.’ He absolutely trusts his collaborators, so it puts you in a position of confidence and comfort from day one.”
Greg Ng: “One of the first things I did was watch all of Oz’s other movies, which I had not yet seen, but watching them gave us a good sense of the sort of director he was and what sort of vibes his movies conjured up. For anyone who hasn’t seen The Blackcoat’s Daughter, it’s a masterpiece. Needless to say, his movies resonated with me, and I was pretty jazzed to work on Longlegs. Oz’s brother Elvis Perkins had composed the music on Blackcoat and I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House, and he was going to compose for Longlegs too. He came on early in the process and supplied us with those soundtracks and a library of musical elements that he was working on.”
Photo: Graham Fortin, credit: Grady Mitchell
What do you see as the role of the editor when it comes to a movie like Longlegs?
Greg Ng: “The editor is the cook following the recipe written by the director, hunted and gathered by the crew, and purchased by the producers. I guess that makes the actors the meat and potatoes, and as editors, we’re trying to elevate this meat pie into Beef Wellington. Assuming, of course, that we all agree that Wellington is better than beef pie.”
Graham Fortin: “The role of editor on a film like Longlegs is similar to any other: you want to make the best movie possible for everyone involved. One of the first days in the edit, I asked Oz, ‘Can I be honest?’ and he said, ‘Always.’ Honesty is key when working together, so as an editor you have to be as honest as possible with the material, otherwise you’re not going to take any creative gambles.
“As an editor, you’re one of the first audience members in the process of putting the material together, which is one of my favorite things about the process. Shaping the material early on, you get to see how a shot, scene, sequence and eventual cut take shape. Once a project is done and you’re watching it with an audience, I think back to when I first saw the raw footage for the first time. You reflect on all of the decisions you made to get to the finish line.”
Can you walk us through a typical day in the edit for Longlegs?
Graham Fortin: “It changes depending on what phase of production you’re in. In production, you’re just trying to keep up with camera and make your days. Once we’re wrapped and Oz is in the edit suite, things get a little more calm, and we’re able to play around with the material.
“Oz calls it, ‘tilling the soil.’ Trying things out. Seeing how all the pieces fit together and finding the shape of the puzzle pieces. There’s also a lot of movie-history talk, referencing things, nerding out. It’s one of my favorite parts of the process, talking about the movies that connect you and your collaborators.
“In the end, it’s just trying to make the best movie possible. You have to keep in mind that no matter how small or big the problem is, all of these decisions add up to the final product.”
Greg Ng: “Typically, the day begins with finishing whatever ideas or notes we couldn’t get to the night before, and sometimes that means undoing the things that you thought were brilliant, but in actuality were just okay or totally wrong. Generally speaking, this is followed by a productive period of work up until lunch time, after which we typically need to drink a lot of coffee to counteract the effects of excessive carbs in my sandwich/burrito/poké bowl. If my dog Pancakes was lucky enough to come to the office, she would need an afternoon poop walk, and then at some point in the afternoon, we usually hit a mental wall. After humming and hawing a bit, someone usually leaves and has an epiphany in the bathroom, returning to the edit suite with renewed vigor, and the cycle continues.”
Was there a
particular moment in the edit or day in production that stands out?
Graham Fortin: “I had no idea what Nicolas Cage was going to look like when the raw footage came in. I vividly remember looking at his first day of dailies and going, ‘What the…’ to myself. I loved it. It was such a surprise because I had a different vision of what he was going to look like in my head from what I had read in the script.
“When the interrogation material came in, I remember hearing Maika’s heartbeat as well. It was shocking to hear how loud it was. Neon using that later on in the marketing materials was cool to see. I had completely forgotten about that until it popped back up during the release.”
Greg Ng: “I had a similar experience to Graham, seeing Cage and not recognizing him. But I also remember fondly the day we were trying to figure out how to get Lee Harker to Ruby Carter’s birthday party after waking up in the basement. In the script, she wakes up and we know where she’s heading, but we realized that the audience wasn’t completely aware of what was happening. There’s a shot of Lee coming up the stairs, checking the phone in the kitchen, but it’s dead, and then eventually finding Longlegs’ car. I can’t remember exactly how we came about it, but we were joking around, going, ‘Ha, wouldn’t it be funny if the devil called on the phone and reminded her?’ And then that joke became a reality. And that’s how she now wakes up, with the phone ringing upstairs.”
What were some of the specific challenges of working on a project like this?
Graham Fortin: “The editorial process is a marathon, so you also need a wonderful team around you. Our post production team of Andy Levine, Stephen Grobe, Ian Macdonald and Emma Levine were all keeping things running smoothly. The fact we’ve all worked together in different capacities for so many years helps.
“One of the biggest challenges is finding a work/life balance. It’s so hard. Making time to be able to go for walks, go to the gym, have dinners with friends, that all helps with the work. If you don’t try and make time for that, I really feel like the work can suffer.
“Luckily, working with Greg allows for the two of us to talk about everything going on in all stages of the film. It really makes the job less solitary.”
Greg Ng: “I totally agree with Graham. The work/life balance is probably the biggest challenge of all, but fortunately we had ample time to get everything done, and Oz has very reasonable work hours.”
Can you talk about your editing setup?
Graham Fortin: “On Longlegs we worked with Avid.”
Greg Ng: “We also had an Avid NEXIS for shared media, a wall full of scene cards, and a cup full of Sharpies and pens.”
What were your thoughts on seeing the final cut for the first time?
Greg Ng: “I still get a kick out of hearing all the reactions from the audience. But the first time I saw it with an audience, after seeing it so many times in the cloistered walls of the edit suite, I remember being pleasantly reminded that, ‘Oh right, this part is scary!’ Or, ‘This part is still funny!’”
Graham Fortin: “It was nerve-wracking, like all the final cut screenings are. Thinking to yourself, ‘How will people react to this once it is released?’ It’s a process of letting go and knowing you can’t keep touching things. You can’t control how people are going to interpret it. I am extremely proud of the film and was very excited for other people to see it. When it was released, watching the backs of a lot of heads in the theater was pretty fun for the bigger moments in the film.”
Will anything from this project carry through to your other work?
Graham Fortin: “There was a moment at the premiere, right before the lights went down and the movie started playing. I looked up at the roof of the Egyptian Theater and then at all the familiar faces, some I’ve known for almost 20 years. We’re all extremely fortunate and lucky to have worked on this project, growing up together and becoming better at our craft. It was a moment to bookmark in my mind for rainy days.”
Greg Ng: “On a more technical note, one lesson that I often think about since working on Longlegs is the power of reduction and letting a scene or a shot stand on its own. Sometimes in the edit, a scene or a moment can become embellished or dressed up in such a way that its impact is strangely watered down, and sometimes the answer is to strip away all the extra bits and just let it be, which might seem counterintuitive, especially in horror.”
What’s next for each of you?
Graham Fortin: “I hope to continue making cool stuff with cool people! Greg and I have been fortunate enough to work with Oz on both The Monkey and Keeper. It’s been a whirlwind of a year for the both of us. The Neon marketing team unfolding their release of Longlegs over the past was extremely cool to observe as well. It was a bit of a rocket ship ride, hopefully there’ll be more.”
Greg Ng: “We’re definitely looking forward to making more films with Oz and the team, but it’s always been a dream of mine to work on a project like The Empire Strikes Back, though maybe mixed with horror. Wouldn’t that be cool? I’m not sure if they’d take the Star Wars franchise in that direction, but hopefully someone will call us when it does. Please.”