Choices; when woven together they create more than a pattern, they establish character. Hanyu Gao is a master of this concept. Though the moniker of editor is her vocational title, she’s most accurately described as a master storyteller. Consider her work in the film Canary for evidence of this. Hanyu and director Denali Chin labored over the film for months on end, crafting different iterations of it in order to manifest ideal versions of the family members at the center of this frightening and ultimately liberating tale. Numerous awards including those for Best Editing (Indie Short Fest, Independent Shorts Awards, and others) proclaim Canary as a pensive plight in which the human determination for freedom prevails. A plot is just an idea until masterful artists sculpt a film that sincerely creates connection with an audience who many never experience such circumstances but feel its reverberating power.
Sarah (Antonia Kogout) and Rachel (Aglaya Semenova) live at the overbearing dominance of their father (Regen Wilson of AMC’s Visual Effects Society-winning series Fear the Walking Dead) in Canary. These young sisters are cutoff from the outside world, existing in a delicate ecosystem of volatility. The accelerant of this film is not so much the events that occur but rather the emotional temperature which envelopes the main characters. The curiosity that Rachel and Sarah possess about the people and places they are prohibited from interacting with is an inevitable source of conflict between them and their father. The extraordinary aspect of Canary is that the story is communicated in a manner which allows the audience to breathe in that same tension which exists in this family dynamic; uncomfortable as it may be.
Hanyu carefully crafted scenes to enable the characters to have the most powerful impact. For a scene in which a neighbor attempts to visit the family, the father’s subsequent anger towards his daughter’s curiosity is displayed in a deeply calculated manner. The editor describes, “In the footage of this scene, there are two distinctly different performances of the father’s anger. One is a calm yet menacing interrogation, characterized by a dark expression without raised voices. The other is a hysterical outburst starting from the moment the father enters the room. This scene marks the first time the father unleashes his anger and punishes the girls. It’s crucial for the father to be sufficiently intimidating here to establish the character’s oppressive nature. When I initially used the calm and sinister performance, I felt that the father lacked the necessary intimidation. However, if the father were to start shouting immediately upon entering, it would make the character seem overly irrational, resembling a stereotypical ‘bad guy.’ Ultimately, I decided to combine both approaches, allowing the father to erupt suddenly during the calm interrogation. This extreme emotional shift made the father’s outburst more intimidating and added depth to the character’s emotions, making him even more sinister and terrifying.”
The most anxious moment of the film is when Rachel makes her escape from the house she’s been confined to her entire life. Going against the grain of tense music and fast-paced editing, Hanyu crafted this scene into a moment of fear suspended in time by taking an uncommon direction. The lack of any music and a deliberate slow pace in regards to editing makes Rachel’s exodus excruciating and simultaneously immensely satisfying for the audience. The sound of footsteps on the floor, the jingling of keys, and the soft breathing of the sleeping father are a sparse and delicate punctuation to this stress riddled moment for Rachel. Hanyu gleefully recalls, “I remember during the first screening, during the scene where Rachel escapes through the front door but is caught by her father, there were audible gasps and screams from the audience. This not only meant that we had effectively captured the suspense of that moment but also indicated that the audience had empathized with our protagonist throughout the film. Not that I take pleasure in scaring people, but before that, I had been feeling quite unsure about the scene. The screams from audiences brought me immense satisfaction.”
Sharon Howe is a creative person with diverse talents. She writes engaging articles for WonderWorldSpace.com, where she works as a content writer. Writing allows Sharon to inform and captivate readers. Additionally, Sharon pursues music as a hobby, which allows her to showcase her artistic abilities in another creative area.