Working With the Editor

"The role of the editor is critical and I had a wonderful editor, Lillian Benson. This project is the first that Lillian and I worked on together. I wanted to work with her not only because she has a wealth of experience but also because of the documentary nature of the other projects she has worked on. This movie needed to have a sense of then and now, and I knew she would understand what I was reaching for as we went along." "I basically shoot the movie the way I think it should be cut, so my directives to the editor are in the camera. It's kind of dangerous to cut in the camera, but that's the only way I know how to direct. That's the only way I can control my movie. If you shoot everything, then everything is liable to end up in the movie. If you have a vision, you don't have to cover every scene."

Debbie Allen and the editor, Lillian Benson, discuss a cut     DP John Simmons sets up a scene with Debbie Allen as Quilly

Scoring the Movie

A vintage radio accents the film's period authenticity

"In scoring we have a lot that was not evident in the shooting. The radio is on all the time. The radio for these women is like television is for us today, which is really like looking at the radio."