Nashville-based editor Ryan Kendrick cut the Sundance film Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert. The film follows Fran (played by Daisy Ridley), who while living in Oregon spends her days in the solitude of a cubicle, listening to the hum of officemates, occasionally daydreaming to pass the time. She “lives an isolated life among her peers and much like the title suggests, often thinks about dying,” explains Kendrick. “She begins to come out of her shell when she befriends a new co-worker named Robert.”

Let’s find out more about Kendrick’s workflow and collaborating with the director…

How early did you get involved?
Rachel and I were in color and mix on another film, I Can Feel You Walking, when a script was sent to her to gauge her interest. We were excited about our collaboration on I Can Feel You Walking and wanted to work together on another one as soon as possible. We both loved the script and the themes it was exploring, so we both said yes.

Director Rachel Lambert

How did you work with the Rachel? How often was she taking a look at your cut?
We were fortunate enough to work in-person. I had about three weeks of building an assembly of the film while they were filming. Once shooting was wrapped, she was in the edit room with me for about eight weeks. There were very few days that she wasn’t seeing some version of the film, whether it was individual scenes, whole sections or full watch-downs.

The holidays rolled around, and we needed to keep working while she traveled home to be with her family. I have Blackmagic Web Presenter, which I use to turn my Adobe Premiere output into a webcam stream. So we worked on the film over Zoom for a month before we were able to get back together in-person.

Was there a particular scene that was most challenging?
The opening sequence of the film was the most challenging piece to nail down. It was important for us to establish the pace, a sense of place and a tone that the rest of the film was going to convey. That’s a lot of pressure to lay on one sequence. As the film took shape over the course of the edit, the opening sequence was in constant flux. We must’ve worked on it at least once a week.

Once the rest of the film was locked, this was the final piece of the puzzle that we needed to really finish. Rachel had to leave town for work, so I was left to my own devices for a couple days to try different versions. I’d reach a sequence I liked and then upload it to Frame.io for Rachel to watch down and contemplate. Then she would call me, and we’d talk through it.

This went on for a couple days until we finally got lost in no man’s land, taking the whole thing apart and putting it back together. We realized we were way off path and went back to an earlier version that we loved. I laid it into the timeline and sent it over Frame.io, and she watched it on her phone. She then called me up and said, “We got it.”

Can you talk about your editing workflow?
The film was shot on the coast of Oregon, so we were in a bit of an internet black hole — not ideal for the transference of footage but excellent for the actual footage. At first, we had planned to do proxy conversions on-set and then have someone drive into town to upload them. This ended up being extremely inefficient. The solution for this was to mail hard drives to the DI colorist in New Orleans every two or three days. He would create proxies and upload them to Frame.io for me to download, and he would also create dailies for viewing on Frame.io that were accessible to the producers, director and DP.

After I downloaded the proxies, I would import them into Adobe Premiere Pro and get to work. I was working alone on this, but I set up the film using Adobe Productions. I wanted to run it through the full paces of editing a feature film. I was able to build my sound effects as its own project; I could open it, search for sounds and lay it into my timeline. I was able to close back out without having to put a strain on my computer or mess up my project window with random files. It was also great for creating a music library from the composer and having separate temp VFX projects.

Editor Ryan Kendrick

While editing, we were sharing scenes with the composer through Frame.io and he would send us his pieces back through the same pipeline. Our post supervisor was the admin for the account, so he was able to keep track of everything we were doing without having to constantly update him over email.

Once we locked picture, it was time to make turnovers. I sent all my EDLs, XMLs and reference QuickTimes over Frame.io. I also used it for conveying notes to the VFX artists by typing instructions at specific timecodes on the frame link to alleviate any communication breakdowns that usually happen through email.

Do you always cut on Premiere?
I use Premiere Pro for all the editing I do, whether it’s for commercials, music videos or films. The familiarity of the software is incredibly valuable for me to be creative without having to think about where to find certain commands inside menus or losing half of a day to technical troubles.

It also interfaces well with After Effects. I like to temp in VFX while I’m working on a scene because I think it helps with figuring out timing, and it brings a necessary level of immersive-ness you want the director to feel when they are watching the cut.

How do you manage producers’ expectations with reality/what can really be done?
Honesty. If they’ve watched dailies or been on-set, then nothing is going to come as a surprise to them. We all want to make the best thing we possibly can, and I think being in the trenches of honesty together really opens up the door to finding solutions to the problems that arise.

How do you take criticism? Do you find yourself defensive or accepting of others’ ideas?
Always try it, whatever the note might be. There is a gut instinct in all of us to reject an outsider’s perspective — and by outsider, I mean all the people outside of our own heads. It’s a cerebral job, and it feels like we are balancing a lot of different plates to keep the piece from falling apart. But I’ve found that to be something of our own doing. Sometimes someone can see something that turns the film from a balancing act into a steady structure, and you need to be open to those ideas. It takes a certain humility to be able to recognize that other people can have good or even great ideas.

And an excellent byproduct of being open and accepting of other peoples’ good ideas is they will also be open and accepting of your opinions.

Any suggestions for those just starting out?
If you’re ever afforded an opportunity to just work on a singular scene, then really dig into the technical minutiae of it. Play with J-cuts and L-cuts. Try the scene with dialogue always off-camera. Lay different genres of music underneath to see how it plays. Do the wrong thing. Just explore the tactile aspects of working the footage. You want to build a mental Rolodex of these small bits, whether right or wrong, because they create great instincts for accomplishing the bigger picture of a full edit.

Also, two frame audio crossfades. Use them. We can tell when you don’t.