{"id":74382,"date":"2022-01-30T06:24:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T00:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/adam-mckay-dont-look-up-team-on-taking-risks-and-intense-reactions\/"},"modified":"2022-01-30T06:25:04","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T00:55:04","slug":"adam-mckay-the-dont-look-up-team-on-taking-risks-and-intense-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/adam-mckay-the-dont-look-up-team-on-taking-risks-and-intense-reactions\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam McKay, the ‘Don\u2019t Look Up’ team on taking risks and intense reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d has hit a nerve in a way that\u2019s rare for films to do. That\u2019s partly because it addresses an urgent, hot-button topic \u2014 climate change \u2014 with a film that\u2019s partly a cry for help, partly a black comedy. Adam McKay directed the movie with David Sirota writing the story. The film features a stellar cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. McKay states that people either love or hate the movie. There is no middle ground.<\/p>\n

These days, it is rare to take risks in a film. \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d swings for the fences; it could have gone wrong in so many ways, but even detractors have to admit it\u2019s interesting: It\u2019s epic, covering a wide range of geographical and emotional territory, with so many characters and subtle shifts in tone. This movie seems certain to win multiple Oscar nominations.<\/p>\n

McKay, Hank Corwin, and Nicholas Britell had previously worked together \u201cThe Big Short\u201dAnd \u201cVice\u201dBefore this film. The trio sat together. Variety<\/em>They will be discussing their collaboration, the search for the right tone, and the intense reactions they received to the Netflix film.<\/p>\n

Adam McKay<\/strong> We\u2019re living in incredibly strange, ahistoric, teetering, seismic times. One tone doesn\u2019t cover what it feels to be alive now. I like to write comedy that combines dark tragedy with drama. Then I make these guys understand it!<\/p>\n

Nicholas Britell:<\/strong>Hank and my involvement began before the filming started. Adam wanted me to compose a score that he could play during the telescope sequence for them. This would give the movie a feeling.<\/p>\n

Hank Corwin<\/strong>The film’s tone was constantly changing; even Nick’s temp music would soon become obsolete and we would have to start again. It was an ever-evolving process.<\/p>\n

Britell:<\/strong> Years ago, Hank said it\u2019s like we\u2019re playing jazz together. They would often work in the same room. As they\u2019re figuring out the cut, I\u2019m experimenting with different ideas. Hank’s early score piece. \u201cOverture to Logic and Knowledge,\u201dIt is actually at the end of the film, not at the start.<\/p>\n

McKay:<\/strong>They are both my friends. We all worked together to solve the bizarre climate crisis. Then came the pandemic. Many of the events were exactly as written, but some of them were more absurd than the script. I had to make rewrites. That played out in the editing and the scorem, as these guys masterfully tried to blend this all together \u2014 and had to take into account how much of the movie was like what we\u2019re living through.<\/p>\n

Corwin:<\/strong>Sometimes we feel like we’re on top of the world, trying to determine the tone. But Adam engenders confidence. There were times I didn\u2019t understand what Adam was going for but I had confidence. It\u2019s like a dance the three of us do.<\/p>\n

Britell:<\/strong> We\u2019re all open to trying things out. It\u2019s the safest experiment zone you could imagine. This is the nature of our discussion. \u201cI have this crazy idea, what do you think?\u201d We\u2019re always trying to show each other things.<\/p>\n

McKay:<\/strong>With this movie, there were many breakthroughs. One occurred when the three of us were talking about what\u2019s going on in the world. We talked about World War II soldiers, who would drink and dance to large bands with joy and terror. Nick said: \u201cNow, it\u2019s like you\u2019re having that night, dancing to the big band, but you\u2019re losing.\u201dHe said it almost immediately. \u201cI\u2019m going to try to write a piece\u201dThis music was used during the opening credits. Hank and I were able to see the movie for the first time, and it was an important breakthrough in our editing. It was a series of conversations that led to these guys truly understanding the movie’s DNA.<\/p>\n

Corwin:<\/strong> There\u2019s not necessarily a comfort level as much as a discomfort level and knowing it will create a dialectic. It\u2019s a struggle but it gets better.<\/p>\n

Britell:<\/strong> We\u2019re all searching together. Every idea is not an end point, it\u2019s a beginning.<\/p>\n

McKay:<\/strong>It was a blend of drama, comedy and tragedy that we did early on. But the movie was far less funny. We let it all be absurd at times. It was a breakthrough. Nick was able to make that sound, and Hank had an aha moment. You felt like you were on the right track.<\/p>\n

Britell:<\/strong>There are always things that you feel work so well from moment to moment. A constant zooming out was one of the key elements in our process. \u201cIt\u2019s not just how does this moment work, it\u2019s how does the whole thing feel?\u201dIt is amazing to see Adam in action, looking at the film and hearing his words. \u201cI know what I gotta do,\u201dRight away. That constant looking back at the film in its entirety is a great way to learn.<\/p>\n

Corwin:<\/strong>Adam is able to look back and say \u201cIt\u2019s good but let\u2019s try something else; it may be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Variety:<\/strong> <\/em>Is there a particular sequence that was especially difficult?
<\/em><\/p>\n

Corwin:<\/strong>All of us agree. We all agreed that the first Oval Office scene was our litmus test to determine how we would cut this film. If that scene isn\u2019t right, everything after it doesn\u2019t play as well as it should, and everything before it seems false. For the duration of the edit, we were attenuating this scene.<\/p>\n

McKay:<\/strong> Hank had cut a version of that scene where the scientists tell the president and her son, who\u2019s her chief of staff, \u201cWe\u2019re all gonna die in six months.\u201d Hank did a version that is one of the best cut scenes I\u2019ve ever seen, it was a tour de force. To feel the energy, I enjoy doing test screenings. And at that first test screening, it became apparent that there\u2019s such a range of viewpoints of this moment we\u2019re living in. Some of us feel things are completely out of control. Some people think we\u2019re in trouble but we will fix it; others think we\u2019re fine, it\u2019s just politics as usual. Others think it\u2019s trouble but it\u2019s not remotely funny.
Then we thought \u201cThis is going to be much harder than we thought.\u201dIt was a lot of work, tweaking, nuance, trial-and-error, and looking at many different versions. This was meant as a movie about the world. It\u2019s on Netflix for a reason. We\u2019re freaked out about what\u2019s happening. This movie was created to have a dialogue with the audience. That\u2019s what make it harder.<\/p>\n

Variety:<\/strong>The reactions were intense. Were you shocked?<\/em><\/p>\n

McKay:<\/strong>We were all shocked, I believe. The reviews were pretty much 50-50, and that\u2019s fine, we\u2019ve all been through that. However, I was stunned by the intense anger shown by some critics. The movie had been screened and we had received no such reactions. Test audiences laughed in general. So when reviews came out\u2026 That\u2019s not to say they\u2019re incorrect. Naturally, the responses will be passionate and complicated. I was equally stunned by the passionate and positive responses to it when it was released on Netflix. I\u2019d never seen anything like that. People laughing, crying. There was no middle ground, regardless of the audience reaction or the critical reception. It became a reality. \u201cWe\u2019re in 2022, of course those will be the reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corwin:<\/strong>The personal nature of these attacks surprised me. I have thin skin. It was difficult to justify the reviews of people I respected.<\/p>\n

Britell:<\/strong>Netflix is huge, which I find to be a good thing. I\u2019ve received messages from people in dozens of countries in a way that hasn\u2019t happened before. The timing and the reach of the platform \u2014 the amount of people who saw it in such a short period of time \u2014 that was beyond the scope of my comprehension.<\/p>\n

McKay:<\/strong>It felt like every moment of filming this movie was a part of it. From our struggles with tone to the shooting during the pandemic. On social media, I joked about some responses, saying some people didn\u2019t seem clued into what was going on in the world. I was immediately surrounded by social media like a bunch of hyenas. \u201cHe\u2019s saying if you don\u2019t like the movie then you don\u2019t care about the world!\u201d That wasn\u2019t what I was saying! The whole thing took on a new momentum and there was backlash against critics. It became a hot topic. \u201cIf you question the critics, you\u2019re guilty of Trumpism!\u201dIt was as if it had been in the film. Climate scientists have their passionate reactions. \u201cI feel seen.\u201d It\u2019s a reminder of what movies, TV [and]It can be done with music. It was quite brutal. It was a very difficult experience, but I now treasure it. \u201cLet\u2019s do more!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d has hit a nerve in a way that\u2019s rare for films to do. That\u2019s partly because it addresses an urgent, hot-button topic \u2014 climate change \u2014 with a film that\u2019s partly a cry for help, partly a black comedy. Adam McKay directed the movie with David Sirota writing the story. The film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":74383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Adam-McKay-Dont-Look-Up-Team-on-Taking-Risks-and.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}