In some ways, “Secret Mall Apartment” Do what it says on the tin. The documentary maps the adventure for an artist collective on Rhode Island who found a hidden space in the intestines of Providence Place Mall 2003. There, the collective created a domestic hiding place in resistance to the consumer mecca that the mall represented, documented the project and used the space that was undetected for several years.
Director Jeremy Workman And editor Paul Murphy knew that there was more shade for history than a secret performance work. They did not want the documentary to feel like a conventional, filled-up news article. So they didn’t work in a conventional way either.
Workman, Based in New York, and Murphy, Hailing From Australia, Divided Up the Material and Worked Siloed on Specific sequences and with specific Types of Footage – Murphy with the Astonishing DV Shot on an Optio Still WEVAs, WRABORS, The Interview and Recreation Footage Shot for the film.
They did this not only because the time difference between Brooklyn and Melbourne makes collaborative editing difficult to organize; They wanted to be able to surprise each other, to build a number of tonal and stylistic tools to reflect the artists behind the secret apartment, without waiting for the opinion from anyone else on the proverbial editing sofa.
“You are in these really fun Sugar Rush scenes where it is so entertaining and ridiculous (who) they bring in Cinderblock, and it is cut as if it is a Hollywood -heist -movie. And then we knew we wanted to slap the breaks on you and switch gears,” Workman told IndieWire. “In a strange way, this process really lent to the form we wanted the movie to take.”
“I am very much the kind of editor who wants to know the big picture when I cut a scene; I want to know where it is that scene in the larger structure. And this was a departure of it for me,” Murphy said. “How can I cut this scene without knowing what has come before? But because of how we shared the movie I could just go,” look, I will only make sure this is a fantastic scene. “
There are many fantastic scenes in “Secret Mall Apartment”, from the context behind the building center in Providence and gentrification of the surrounding area to the history of the artists behind the apartment and their other projects throughout the United States, there is also the apartment’s construction, to something of a confirmation of the value of art to individuals and communities. However, Workman was determined that none of these should feel like copying and pasting an interview printout.
“I wanted to free ourselves from the structure,” Workman said. “Many documentaries – For some reason I do not throw ambitions – there are teams involved and everyone’s illustrative prints and do a lot of paper editing. And we were like:” How do we release ourselves from that method and swing for the closures on these scenes? Let’s just cut the best things we can and do the best scenes, and Paul and I can find out how to build it. ”
Murphy was quick to point out that they did Make some paper editing in description-especially a long conversation recorded in the shopping center between Townsend and his then wife Adriana Valdez-Young about the excitement of making home improvement on the secret apartment and not their actual home. But regardless of the method, the goal was always to delight and unite each other. “We would gesture our own concern for the film and then bring it back to the collective to discuss it,” Murphy said. “It was still cooperation.”
“Because of the time difference, it also created this situation where it felt like we edited 24-7. I would end quite late, at two in the morning, and then I would turn and Paul would start his day. It felt really seamless,” Workman said. “We beat scenes back and forth to each other and it was very like,” Oh, top this. Look at this one. Oh, you think yours is cool? See this. ”
There is a joy that is possible to feel from the editing wires between Murphy and Workman, one that echoes the joy that the artists themselves had to put together the apartment. But in part it is because both the original artists and the documentaries knew they would be as close as possible Soderbergh filmAnd the editing also reflected it.
“I had a” Secret Mall Apartment “playlist that I just kept on a loop all day, and it was” Ocean’s student “, a lot of Lalo Schifrin,” Murphy said. “That’s what helped me get into the style of it, especially the whole (Cinder Block) sequence.
