The House, a Psychological Drama

In February I embarked on a new feature drama by writer/director Desiree Lim. My 5th feature (as editor), The House is an in-depth look at a former investment banker's psychological journey to personal freedom from a sordid past on Wall Street. But as she tries to find solace and solitude in a friend's vacant home (still sitting on the market, reflective of today's economy), she discovers she is anything but alone in this house. Let's just say she will have to do a lot of soul searching, in order to find her own and move on with her life.

JEAN (Natalie Skye) and GEOFF (Zak Santiago)

With a long history in television, news and short films, and as a cinephile herself, Desiree brings a unique dimension to her feature debut. It is imaginative in both style and story; complex and dark, but at the same time whimsical and hopeful. Working with her was great first and foremost because she was very decisive in the cutting room. We would review all the takes together and choose the best performances, then find creative ways to "make it play" as they say. This lent to a very efficient process, and after only 5 weeks we had a pretty solid 2-hour rough cut.

The cast of The House is a diverse mix of some of Vancouver's top actors, and each role was very well executed; they gave us a lot of character depth and variation to play with in the cutting room. I could see the mark of a great director in the footage, as Ms. Lim always knows what she wants and is skilled at getting the right performances from her actors. Something editor Michel Arcand told me long ago was that the most important thing for a director is to know what film he or she wants to make. And he is absolutely correct. Without clear direction from the very beginning, you end up 'fixing it in post' a little too often and the whole project suffers. Instead, we were able to focus our energy on making the intended story the best it could be.

As an editor, you never know how you will work with a director for the first time. There's always the worry you'll be treated as a button-pusher. And I've heard horror stories. But I have always been treated with total respect and appreciation, and Desiree was no exception. I would go as far to say that we gelled. I think once an editor shows that he is capable of giving the director what she wants, or better, and eventually mind-reading, then the director can relax a bit, knowing they can trust your work and give you the freedom needed to do your job.

But of course "writing the final script," as Stanley Kubrick famously referred to film editing, is a challenging, collaborative process, and one that requires all parties be patient, understanding, able to compromise, and open to new ideas; a marriage of sorts. As with any marriage, there will be disagreements, but when there are, I feel that you are fighting more with the material than with each other. In fact, since the goal is to find the best solution, not to be right, you actually need to challenge one another and at the same time not hold on to your own opinion unnecessarily. If you can keep that in mind, you will get through the editing process more steadily and with better results. To that end, Desiree and I are both very happy with what we created, and we have had lots of very positive response so far. I don't get to say this about every project I work on, but with this film we made art.

Here is the Trailer. Here is the facebook page. 'Like' us, let us know what you think, and please spread the word.

THE HOUSE - a feature film - trailer from The House on Vimeo.