In the feature Wild Eyed and Wicked, Lily Pierce has had enough of being haunted. She decides to reconnect with her estranged father, a disgraced history professor, and learn how to draw upon a time of steel and blade, when armor-clad knights rode out and dueled their monsters to the death.
The film stars Molly Kunz, Michael X. Sommers, Stefanie Estes and Colleen Camp. William Ford-Conway edited the project and shares detail on how he builds suspense.
William, can you talk about editing horror-themed projects?
“Editing horror is a methodical process. In some ways, you take the perspective of a nefarious, omniscient force that is targeting multiple people, aiming to strike fear to both the characters on-screen and the audience. Typically, my approach to editing has always been reminiscent of the improvisational nature of Jazz. Scenes always start with a foundation in story, set by the script and filmmakers, but often come together through a combination of gut feelings and experimentation. Repurposing reactions and looks during dialogue scenes - cutting away to certain angles that the script doesn’t call for, but the story does. However, executing an effective scare is an entirely different beast. The realm of horror calls for a more precise approach.”
On this film, can you point to a particular scene?
“In Wild Eyed & Wicked, we find our main character Lily visiting her estranged home and father on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Lily’s trauma surrounding these events is a major theme in the film, one that plays out visually through various crosscuts to scenes of her younger self or quick frames of horrific imagery. While the front half of the film plays this somewhat more subtly and mysteriously, it is not until we get to a scene in which Lily finally spends her second night home.”
What challenges did you face as the editor?
“The film’s biggest task, in regards to post production, was how to compliment a film that by design does a lot of heavy lifting before it even gets onto an editor’s timeline. (Director/writer G.S. Foxwood) and I talked at length regarding how the scares should play in the edit. How do we make sure they both satisfy the audience’s need for a proper scare while effectively engaging them in the emotional story being told? This task can be daunting because you walk a fine line of something either truly effective or disposable and cheap. When approaching this scene in particular, there were three key elements to consider: shot choice, pacing and payoff.”
Can you break down the scene for us?
“The scene opens up on Lily going through her late mother’s belongings and is eventually startled by a harmless house noise and an ominously-lit pile of clothes. During the assembly cut, this portion was edited to match the looser style I mentioned previously. The pace between shots is less precise, letting a few frames linger, not only to capture performance, but also to avoid any unease. We had plenty of takes in several scenes where Lily would be framed slightly off or in a way that we feel the emptiness around her. Whereas here, we chose to open on takes that were less ominous, creating a sense of safety. As the scene progresses, we start using setups that favor negative space, whether it be around Lily, or a simple shot down an empty hallway. These are very subtle ways in which an editor can use the material given to craft the story more effectively. While a scene that is constantly favoring wides showcases some great production work, casually threading a variety of shots not only breaks up monotony, but also engages the audience without bringing attention to it. You have just been intimately and casually engaged with Lily, now you are feeling the darkness and unease around her within only a few select shots.
“Wild Eye’d by design is a film that favors lingering takes to create atmosphere. An aspect that the filmmakers and I had a fun time embracing. At the same time, as an editor, it is imperative to have a sense of discipline with these scenes, as long takes can often lead to complacency. You have to justify your placement of a large block of Premiere timeline clips as much as your small precise edits. Interestingly enough, you do find that there is an invisible harmony to how long shots like this play in succession. There is something innately comforting when long takes compliment each other symmetrically, such as Lily’s close-up and the shot of the hallway itself being nearly identical in length, shy of a few frames. Offline editing softwares often make this easy by having hot keys at the ready to not only match frame and check clip length via frames and seconds, but also quick functions to adjust clip lengths frame by frame, or better yet, quickly drag clips to compare to others to match length. It's not a method to rest on, but many underestimate how much complimenting clip length adds to a rhythm that keeps viewers from getting bored or the picture being stagnant.”
How about the payoff - the final scare?
“Lily is in the room of the ominous television that has beckoned her. This portion of the scene is where all the aspects I have discussed synergize in full force. Here, the cuts back and forth are quicker, yet the shot selection is a bit more scattershot, and the length of clips are intentionally uneven. Lily can’t entirely grasp what she is seeing on the television, so neither should the audience. The final scare itself is treated in a three-act structure - an elaborate but effective reference Gordon and I often used. The shots and pacing, up until this point, built enough tension, and while we would have every right to deliver a simple jump scare and sting, we wanted to craft something a bit more deliberate. In this case, we often considered the main scare to be the sudden powering off of the TV. This contains one of my favorite edits in the film - quick cutting from the image of a TV screen to our lead’s performance. The edit itself doesn’t contain any trickery, but does rely on a precision of frames.
“One of the best things about Premiere Pro is its generous freedom to handle clips frame by frame in its timeline. I used an old editing trick, often implemented in action-based scenes, where frames are removed to make impacts seem more effective. Here I did the same, removing frames from the TV, juxtaposing with a match cut to an equally-framed but jarring image Lily. The rest of the scene, which many would consider the more traditional scare, plays out as a fun postscript, landing on a succession of a well placed horror sting and a more traditional match cut framing our creature with Lily’s father. All this is to illustrate that while horror beats can often seem like sudden short beats that take a viewer off guard, well implemented editing can turn what would otherwise be a brief genre gag to a discrete longer set up. Good editing, in practice, is always invisible. The shots, pace and delivery should always work seamlessly so you engage with the story rather than see the gears turn. Horror is no exception, where the editor is not only assembling scenes, but also laying down a seamless framework of suspense, and eventually striking as the genre calls for.”