How One Muslim Disney Director Is Finishing a Movie during Coronavirus
By Anhar Karim
In early spring, director Lena Khan prepared to pick up some last second photography for her upcoming Disney+ film Flora & Ulysses, aiming to complete a final edit soon after. But before that could happen a global pandemic broke out. Now, the team is getting creative with finishing the film in quarantine.
"Oh gosh it's brutal," said Khan about the new setup. "We're like a slave to our internet connection."
Working remotely has slowed things down significantly, with important video calls about the film's soundtrack or editing being constantly interrupted, distorted, and outright shut down by unstable connections. In addition to this, school closings and a lack of child care have cut work time down even further. The team is working hard to lock in final frame-by-frame fixes, but such minute decisions are difficult with these constraints.
"Somedays we can't even work," explained Khan.
These conditions have led Khan and her team to make decisions on more of a gut feeling than anything else. And while certainly not ideal, the process reminded Khan of how film editing used to work before.
"[In the past] they couldn't test it out and watch it back. They just had to do it by a little bit of an instinct. We're kind of bringing that back now," said Khan.
To handle the limitations of their time, Lena Khan's team is coming up with inventive fixes for the problems at hand.
With most of Hollywood's physical production on pause, Khan employed a unique mix of visual effects and creative post-production in order to get the film the remaining assets it needed.
"We were like, 'Well we have this footage. Maybe we can dig around. And if she was actually standing instead of sitting, and somebody said something else, and then we flip the screen, and on the left side we use this other footage?' We literally made something that was never supposed to be," explained Khan.
In addition to this, budget constraints from Disney have made the film's various departments go on hiatus at different times. For the film's crew, this meant many were suddenly out of regular work. And for the film, this meant there was no sound department to provide additional audio for the film's titular CGI squirrel. And so, Khan stepped in where she had to.
"I am voicing the squirrel in the temps for half of it," she explained. As the shots needed to be finalized as soon as possible, there really wasn't another option. And now, when the sound department is finally back to work, the professional voice actor will need to come in and mimic the sounds she recorded.
But to her, this part of it isn't all that new. Finding odd solutions is half of filmmaking anyway, she explained. These new constraints are just the same job taken up a few levels. And these fixes might have actually turned out for the better.
"In constrained circumstances you actually end up being a lot more creative," she said. "I actually think some of the solutions that came up here ended up better for the movie."
But while Khan's team created fixes for challenges inside the production, external pressure trickled in from above.
With almost every arm of Disney's business slowed down, the streaming platform Disney+ is the company's best shot at staying afloat. And sure enough, subscribers for the platform have increased dramatically during the pandemic. However, as many experts have noted, the platform does not feature as much new and engaging content as a competitor like Netflix does. So, Disney+ needs more content, fast.
"We all know Disney+ needs content," said Khan. "Because a third of the country is on it."
Earlier on in the production, Khan explained that short delays here and there were not much of an issue. But now, Disney+'s pressing need has worked to minimize that leniency. Nevertheless, those above her are still prioritizing allowing Khan to make a good film above all else.
"We are trying to preserve quality while rushing to get it out as soon as possible," Khan said. "I think people don't want to compromise the movie for the sake of a temporary thing."
Despite the challenges, everyone who has worked on Flora & Ulysses is excited about one silver lining of this pandemic. That is, as people are stuck at home with their children and seeking some happiness to distract them from the news, an adventure comedy about a super-squirrel might be just the thing they need.
"The one good thing of this pandemic is everybody in this entire country is gonna see this movie," Khan said. And when you've put that much time and effort into a project, it's nice to know that it will get the full appreciation that it deserves.
The positives don't end there for Lena Khan. With the rise of the pandemic, she's been getting a lot more calls from networks asking for more of her signature brand of content.
When she asked what exactly they meant by her brand, executives told her she'd become known for telling happy and accessible stories with depth. Her work was always positive, they'd said, and people aren't looking for anything dark and evil right now.
"Okay, well. I don't know if everything is positive," said Khan. "But I'll take not being evil."
Flora & Ulysses is slated to release on Disney+ this fall. Director Lena Khan's 2016 debut film, The Tiger Hunter, can also be found on Netflix. - Forbes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
