From the first frame of Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, viewers are told this film is an examination of time, character and viewpoint. In a seven-minute prologue that sets the scene in 1968 — “a nation coming off the rails,” as the director has assessed it — backdrops of political and global conflict are established and the players are introduced. Archival footage combines with rat-a-tat Sorkinesque pacing to start a rhythm and flow as film editor Alan Baumgarten’s work takes center stage. Baumgarten, who was Oscar-nominated for American Hustle, just received an Academy Award nod for his work on The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Alan Baumgarten
“The central challenge of this film is that there is not a clear, singular point of view,” Baumgarten, an ACE member, says. “We’re not seeing it through any specific character’s eyes from the beginning, and points of view shift throughout because we basically have multiple narrators. That’s a challenge because then you get into the question of unreliable narrators. Who are you listening to? Who is giving you the ‘right’ perspective? And who are you meant to follow?” The answer? Everyone.
There are really three stories being told in The Trial of the Chicago 7, which only added to the stack for Baumgarten in the editing room. First and foremost, there is, you guessed it, a trial — familiar territory for Sorkin — during which eight and eventually seven defendants faced trumped-up federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There is the story of how that riot and other tensions evolved and exploded that August, which is something the filmmakers needed to explain in detail. Finally, there is the more interpersonal story of two ideologically aligned revolutionaries, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), with profoundly different approaches.
“The interesting thing is there are also different time frames, and that contributes to a lot of shifting emphasis and point of view,” says Baumgarten. “The present of the film is the trial, which lasted around six months, and we’re doing that in two hours. But also in that present time period, we have other locations happening, and we launch off to flashbacks from there as well. So we’re launching off from the present day to the past from different places with different narrators.”
That time- and place-shifting provided for a number of editorial set pieces, not unlike the prologue — fertile ground for Baumgarten’s work. For instance, a mock interrogation sequence deep in the film finds Hayden and defender William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) heatedly sparring as they recount the events that led up to the second of two riots at the convention. But Sorkin also set up another storytelling device — of Hoffman performing stand-up comedy at colleges during the trial.
“That mixing of time frame and location and who’s telling us what we’re hearing really contributes to different strands, leading us to a complete picture,” explains Baumgarten.
Baumgarten, who edited using Avid Media Composer, started working on the film at the beginning of production in October 2019. The 36-day shoot was done entirely on location in Chicago and New Jersey, but Baumgarten stayed in Los Angeles, editing the dailies as they came in and trying to keep up with camera as much as possible to make sure they had all the coverage they needed.For a couple of scenes — the Vietnam footage that Rennie Davis is showing in the auditorium and the Abbie Hoffman press conference that plays on TV — Baumgarten had to cut footage and send it to set in advance for playback. Otherwise, Baumgarten didn’t send the director any cuts. He and Sorkin communicated by phone or email during production, but the director didn’t see a full assembly of the film until Baumgarten presented the editor’s cut after he returned to Los Angeles.
Another feat of the finished film is how everyone in the vast ensemble gets a moment to shine without throwing off the balance. However, there were complexities in the performances that Baumgarten wanted to elevate where he could. In a movie like this, with the dialogue moving at an intentionally rapid clip, it can be difficult to linger.
“I was looking for the subtle reactions and silent beats to keep the characters alive within a scene and let them comment, so to speak, by observing,” says Baumgarten. “Watching them observe tells us what’s going on with them.”
The Sound
Extending into the sound design, Sorkin has said that his experience with 1990’s A Few Good Men first taught him the exponential value that a finished soundtrack has on how a movie plays. With The Trial of the Chicago 7, there were a number of areas where what you hear is as crucial to telling the story as what you see. Baumgarten was entrusted to work closely with the post sound team on that element. (The team — supervising sound editor Renée Tondelli, dialog and music re-recording mixer Julian Slater, sound effects re-recording mixer Michael Babcock and music editor Allegra De Souza — created the sound through Warner Bros. Post Production and did the sound mix on Stage 6 at Warner Bros.) As an example, during the riot sequences, Sorkin was really drawn to sounds like boots on the pavement and walkie-talkie chatter. The latter was particularly important during a scene that depicts a march to police headquarters to free Hayden, as it was intended to convey the idea that there were marshals and groups of protesters at different locations throughout Grant Park.
“We had to work very hard with our sound designer and supervisor, Renee Tondelli, and our dialogue mixer, Julian Slater, to experiment with every spot, every opening gap where we could put in extra walkie-talkie,” recalls Baumgarten. “Sometimes it meant lowering crowd sounds. If we had filled up an area with other sounds, whether it be a group chanting or cars or something, we would open it up. It really does give it an immediate, visceral, heightened sense that you’re there.”
It would probably come as no surprise — given the tightly conceived visions of Sorkin-penned films like The Social Network, Steve Jobs and Molly’s Game and series like The West Wing and The Newsroom — that the director thinks like an editor. That can present challenges if choices are limited, but for film editors, you never have enough material until you have way too much.
Baumgarten jokes that Sorkin might almost come across as a minimalist without some encouragement to collect more on set, but equally, he says, it’s to the director’s credit that his vision is so clear.
“He’s got such a great foundation,” Baumgarten says. “He anticipates and will get what we need, and some extra, but he has thought it through. I feel like I have a head start when I’m working on an Aaron Sorkin script (like Molly’s Game). When the gun goes off, I’m already going down the track.”
Working Remotely Due to COVID
Baumgarten and team finished the 10-week director’s cut just as the pandemic forced everyone to start working in isolation in March 2020. That meant posting cuts for Sorkin on PIX so he could review and give notes, either by email or Zoom calls.
“All of our ‘fine-cutting’ was done this way,” Baumgarten says. “We were not able to screen the film in a theater with an audience at any point during the process. In fact, Aaron has often noted that the only time he screened the film with an audience was at a drive-in premiere at the Rose Bowl that Netflix organized for the film.”
Brainstorm Digital handled visual effects, and because they are based in New York, Baumgarten had to work with them remotely, doing VFX notes and review sessions via Zoom and screen sharing.
The same applied to music, with composer Daniel Pemberton working from London. He faced a delay in getting the score recorded since musicians were prohibited from gathering in close proximity for quite a while. Eventually there was a window of time when Pemberton was able to record at Abbey Road and Air Studios under strict protocols, so Baumgarten and Sorkin listened remotely via links.
The digital intermediate was done at Efilm with colorist Skip Kimball. Baumgarten was able to work closely with Kimball for two weeks, but DP Phedon Papamichael was unable to leave Greece, so he had to tie in remotely from Athens. Looking at color on different monitors while talking it through over lengthy phone calls was a big challenge. Sorkin came in to review and sign off on the final version, but he left it to Baumgarten and Papamichael to oversee the work.
As for sound, Tondelli worked remotely from home and did all of the ADR with the principal actors and the loop group (for crowds) via Zoom sessions. At the sound mix, COVID restrictions meant that only five people were allowed to be on the stage at the same time. In that case, Sorkin came for playback of each reel and gave notes.
Baumgartner says assistant editor Christine Kim played a crucial role and worked closely with him from the beginning. “She ran the department beautifully and took all of the notes when Aaron was in the editing room,” he says. “She also helped me do many of the changes and was eventually promoted to additional editor because of her great work and invaluable contributions.”
