Director Caroline Lindy’s new feature Your Monster (www.yourmonstermovie.com) centers around soft-spoken actress Laura Franco, whose life falls apart following a breakup. She is able to find her voice again when she meets a terrifying-yet-charming monster, who lives in the closet of her Manhattan apartment. The comedy splits romantic and horror themes, and stars Melissa Barrera, Edmund Donovan and Meghann Fahy. It was released theatrically on October 25th, and is also available on-demand.
Daysha Broadway, ACE, and Jon Higgins, ACE, handled editing duties on the film, and recently shared insight into their workflows, the film’s challenges and the value of collaboration.
What does your editing setup look like for a feature like Your Monster?
Jon Higgins: “I currently run Avid Media Composer on my Mac Studio M2 Max. It's sitting on my hydraulic desk with three monitors and two Rokit 5 speakers. Big Knob monitor mixer. One recent gadget that I added to my home setup - where I mostly work - is my gas-spring, triple-monitor mount that easily lets me adjust my monitors when I switch from standing to sitting. But whether I'm at the office or home, my edit desk staples are hand sanitizer, vitamin D, and because I've been doing this a long time, my anti-fatigue massaging balance board.”
Daysha Broadway (pictured): “I typically work on Avid. Right now I’m using the latest update and really love the organization capabilities of it. I have a very large curved monitor - a Sony Trimaster - and a Big Knob Studio +. This is my home set up, and I’ve upgraded and swapped monitors and mixers over the years. Something that’s really essential is my Macally keyboard. Take it with me everywhere.”
What were your respective approaches to editing Your Monster?
Jon Higgins: “I used to take improv classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre. That's not some kind of brag, I was actually quite bad at performing in front of an audience. However, I did learn a valuable lesson from a book called ‘Truth In Comedy’ that served as a foundation for the theatre's teachings. It has a lot of improv-specific rules, but one universal comedy principle that I apply to everything is that ‘honest discovery, observation and reaction is better than contrived invention.’ In other words, finding comedy through truth in storytelling is funnier than a joke. We have some 'monster jokes' in scenes, like revealing Monster under a bed, and another in which he's chewing glass, but you get away with it because those moments serve the relationship between Laura and Monster. So finding comedy through their goals and obstacles, anchoring to that allows you color outside the lines a little.”
Daysha Broadway: “My philosophy is to always be truthful in every scene, and to ground the audience in the POV of the character who owns that scene. That was a really helpful approach for something like this because the film had to have a steady and even balance of all the genres it possessed. And also because Tommy was playing Monster as a very grounded character, which worked so well. Staying true to the genre and emotions of the character in each scene removed the confusion and allowed me to play.”
Is there a specific scene from the film that stands out to you? What makes it particularly noteworthy or impactful?
Jon Higgins (pictured): “There is a scene called ‘Monster's Closet’ that I love. What makes it noteworthy to me is that after they shot it, I was asked to edit it right away because there was some concern about the tight space, tone and the fear that they'd need to reshoot it. It is a smaller space, and it's a little crowded with objects that exist in this sort of fantasy realm in the back of Laura's closet, but I think it all worked to the advantage of the scene and its emotion. Laura is withholding something from Monster, and he's trying to get it out of her, so the tight space calls for tighter shots, which work to draw you in. As she avoids eye contact with Monster, this tension builds and eventually erupts into her saying the most hurtful thing to Monster, and then we immediately cut the tension with a line about him taking her socks. It was really rewarding to see it in a packed theatre and hear the audience gasp at the hurtful line, and then laugh pretty big at the socks line. It was a great release moment. And then the scene ends with a sort of ‘wait, what’ line that I won't spoil here. But the scene does so much, and it went from sounding alarm bells to what Caroline would later say was one of her favorite scenes from the movie.”
Daysha Broadway: “Well there’s the big finale that I really love and took a lot of time to craft. I just watched the film recently in a sold-out theater with friends and strangers, and as soon as we got to Act 3, and we see the ceiling of the theater, my heart started racing again. Timothy’s score, The Lazours original music, the pacing and intercutting, Melissa..my goodness Melissa. Edmund is also so good. It’s just a great way to end the film.”
What challenges were some of the challenged you encounter while editing this project?
Jon Higgins: “The chemistry between Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey was amazing, so getting to see Monster as soon as possible was a big goal. However, in the assembly, Monster didn't enter the film until after minute 33. But there was so much that you needed to learn about Laura and her world to have Monster make any sense in it, so you couldn't just cut 10 scenes out. So, a lot of that condensing was done by taking scenes and montaging them, using only the most important dialogue or visual information to tell the story in the most efficient way. And then also using pieces as flashbacks, and revealing that information after Monster was already in the movie.”
Daysha Broadway: “Striking the right balance with the genres of the film was challenging, but also just deciding how best to open the film and how much information the audience needed in order to be invested. Making sure we are with Laura without playing out a bunch of expository scenes. Caroline, Kayla and I spent a lot of time on the top of the film. I like that we say things about the break-up and her health, and then we just move on.”
Can you talk about collaborating and if that affects the edit?
Jon Higgins: “There's a common saying that if you give the same scene to 10 different editors, you'll get 10 different cuts. Well one of the things that I loved about this script and attracted me to the project was the ending. I thought it was amazing and I wouldn't have thought to do it other than as scripted. But the way that Daysha reimagined it, it answered more questions and it just brought it to a whole new level and put a bow on a great movie.”
Daysha Broadway: “Could not have gotten through this process without my assistant editor, Josh Johnson. When you are on an indie film, you don’t have the luxury of time that bigger-budget films provide, and it’s really important to have an AE that knows how you work and can stay on top of things. He was a big part of the reason this film got to the finish line.”
What do you take with you from a film like this, that you might apply to your future work?
Jon Higgins: “How rewarding it can be to take a chance on a project - and filmmaker - that you really believe in.”
Daysha Broadway: “There’s good people out there still striving to make original projects that are fun and interesting and meaningful. There’s hope!”