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It was a late-winter afternoon in 2018, andSteven Soderberghwas premiering his newest movie aboard a Manhattanbound Amtrak train.
We moved fast onThe Knick, says series co-star Holland.
We moved even faster onHigh Flying Bird.
If anything, there was an intensified energy to his approach.
The Knickdemanded another gear, Soderbergh says.
We all got into that rhythm.
I dont know how to get out of it.
Theres a Fincherface Pez dispenser sitting nearby and a bar ofFight Clubsoap.
They became close enough that Fincher even sent Soderbergh a rough cut ofGone Girl, asking for feedback.
(We always show each other stuff, Soderbergh says.)
Over a weekend, Soderbergh edited his own cut ofGone Girland sent it back.
Soderberghs obsession with editing began decades ago, when it was the only job he could get.
Editing is the first thing I understood, he says.
What lit me up immediately was the power of it.
Youre pulling from all these other skills and mediums.
I was like, This is the fun part.
This is the reward.
Its work, but its the best job in the world.
You couldnt come up with a game as interesting.
Heres how Soderbergh gotHigh Flying Birdoff the ground so quickly:
1.
It took almost two years for McCraneys version to be completed.
Hes a very busy guy, says Soderbergh.
I didnt pay him to write it.
He was doing it sort of on spec, on the side.
(Soderbergh watched such chatty classics asThe Sweet Smell of SuccessandGlengarry Glen Rossbefore filming.)
But the screenplay just happens to align, both logistically and philosophically, with Soderberghs current approach to filmmaking.
I relate to a guy whos asking, Why does it have to be like this?
Why cant it be different?
Freeing the Actors (and the Crew)
Soderbergh isnt a morning person.
The one thing I hate about directing, he says, is getting up early.
Their exchange runs nearly nine pages, and Soderbergh wanted to cover it from more than a dozen angles.
It would get stale, he says.
you’ve got the option to put them anywhere you want, he notes.
you’re free to Velcro one to the ceiling.
It makes it all go a lot faster, he says.
That speed is freeing for the actors, who dont have to go through countless takes.
But Holland initially wasnt sure what to make of Soderberghs all-iPhone filming style.
When he first mentioned it to me, I was maybe a little bit nervous, he says.
The slimmed-down approach allowed the small cast and crew to travel around Manhattan with relative ease.
There were no trailers to park onHigh Flying Bird.
The fact that were not carrying a dolly onHigh Flying Birdmeans I dont need a truck, he says.
I dont need two people to move it around.
I dont need all of the supporting material.
That stuff adds up.
Soderbergh approached such the sequence as he would a game of pick-up, grabbing whatever location he could.
It took us about two hours to make our way downtown, Soderbergh says.
We just kind of made it up as we went along.
Typically, Im only circling a few, he says.
I like to keep it lean and mean.
Soderbergh would also double-check the footage had been sent via Dropbox to his long-time editing collaborator, Corey Bayes.
This is the holy grail, he says half-jokingly.
Its a modest setup, but it served as his mobile editing suite during theHigh Flying Birdshoot.
Some people have switched over to other systems, he says.
It has its issues.
But I find the handful of things you do most often during editing, Avid handles intuitively.
I like scenes that keep pushing you forward and keep you alert, he says.
Its clear theres no plan.
Youre not seeing a layer of visual conception on top of everything.
In other words: theres no game on top of the game.
Afterward, I might watch something to clear my head, or to learn, Soderbergh says.
Or Ill read something.
As accelerated as Soderberghs cutting schedule might be, its actually designed to let him slow down.
Its to buy myself time, he says.
Thats hard to do.
You have to write letters to actors and say, Im sorry.
[But] the movie was resisting all attempts to make it work until we got medieval with it.
I want to get it in front of people.
They come from a place of support.
They want me to succeed.
And yes, he did send the film early on to Fincher.
He said it was really fun, notes Soderbergh.
It expanded the universe [ofHigh Flying Bird], says Soderbergh.
That simple idea just made the movie feel twice as big.
There were a couple of days that we wrapped at lunch, says Soderbergh.
Those are the days Ill text him at 12:45 or whatever and go, Were done.
All this speed has also freed up Soderbergh to do whatever he wants next.
Theyve both got these crazy visuals, he says.
I thought, It would be really fun to slam these two movies together.
But itll make for an interesting night.
