Whereas on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, director Josh Greenbaum took IndieWire behind the scenes of the planning, making, and enhancing of his new hit documentary “Will & Harper.” The documentary, which premiered at Sundance and hit Netflix final week, is a highway journey film, as comic Will Ferrell takes a cross-country journey with long-time buddy and collaborator Harper Steele after she got here out as a transwoman. The journey serves as a method for the 2 buddies to discover how the desire have an effect on their friendship, whereas Steele sees if the nation she loves — previous to her transition, Steele liked taking solo cross-country journeys and wonders if she will be able to journey the nation with the identical sense of freedom — will love her again.
Listed here are 9 issues concerning the making of “Will & Harper” which may shock you, taken from Greenbaum’s Toolkit look.
Harper Was Initially Towards a Documentary
Because the documentary’s opening reveals, Steele’s popping out to Ferrell rapidly led to the choice to take a highway journey, however the half that was unnoticed is that Harper initially didn’t need to movie their journey as a part of a documentary.
“Harper, I feel pretty rapidly, to not Will’s shock, mentioned ‘No, Thanks,’” mentioned Greenbaum whereas on the podcast. “She has form of lived her life hiding from cameras.”
This was the case previous to transitioning, as Greenbaum found when he was searching for archival footage and pictures of his topics.
“Once I was searching for archival footage of her at Saturday Evening Stay, the place she labored for 13 years, and was the top author, there’s solely two pictures and [Harper is] within the nook of the body,” mentioned Greenbaum.
Harper Did Punch-Up On ‘Barb and the Star’
Greenbaum has recognized Ferrell and Steele for a number of years, and thought of them buddies earlier than making “Will & Harper.” Ferrell produced the director’s “Barb and the Star Go to the Vista Del Mar,” and starred in his movie “Strays.”
“I really knew Harper as nicely prior,” mentioned Greenbaum. “Kristen Wiig launched me to her. She got here in whereas making ‘Barb and Star’ as a author doing a little punch up, roundtable sort of stuff.”
Greenbaum mentioned realizing the 2 topics turned out to be useful in making the movie, as was the truth that he has a novel profession that bridges each comedy and documentaries (“Changing into Bond,” “Too Humorous to Fail: The Life & Loss of life of the Dana Carvey Present”). That mixture made him the logical director for “Will & Harper,” however that’s not how he acquired the job.
“The true backstory, that’s additionally fairly enjoyable,” mentioned Greenbaum. “After Will had the concept for the movie, he was telling his enterprise companion, Jessica Elbaum, who’s the top of Gloria Sanchez, their firm, who did produce ‘Barb and Star,’ and she or he mentioned, ‘Oh, this sounds wonderful, however we don’t make docs.’”
Elbaum’s husband, Rafael Marmor, had labored in nonfiction for many years and was who the Gloria Sanchez head turned to for steering.
“Rafi occurs to be one among my oldest buddies of 20 years from faculty; he’s additionally produced all seven of my doc tasks,“ mentioned Greenbaum, who on three totally different fronts appears to have been destined to direct “Will & Harper.”
The Opening Sequence Was Initially Its Gross sales Reel
The opening minutes of “Will & Harper” is an extremely condensed and breezy retelling of the 2 buddies’ skilled historical past collectively, Steele popping out to Ferrell, and the choice to take the highway journey. It’s an ideal distillation of the movie’s premise, which is why it additionally made for an efficient gross sales reel.
“I shot all of that, which you see because the opening of the movie, to basically create a pitch reel, a sizzle reel as we name it, to go get funding,” mentioned Greenbaum. “This isn’t unusual in docs that I’ve executed prior to now, whereby I create some type sizzle reel trailer, one thing that conveys what the movie could also be about, take that out to impartial financiers to seek out financing. After which I discover time and time once more, I take advantage of a model of that factor because the opening of the movie itself.”
Astute and repeated viewers of the movie will discover how the movie’s opening is shot in a totally totally different model from what follows, with Steele and Ferrell speaking to the digital camera, and a slate that reads “untitled highway journey film.”
The Director’s Greatest Concern
Nonfiction filmmakers can construction narrative within the enhancing room, however there wasn’t a ton of room to fudge the timeline in “Will & Harper. ” The movie is a linear highway journey throughout the nation, and every area has a novel panorama and distinct backdrop.
“This was one among my greatest fears once I launched into the undertaking,” mentioned Greenbaum. “In docs I are inclined to get out of the way in which and simply let no matter occurs occur, after which form it within the edit. And I feel it hit me early on that like, ‘Oh God, what if they’ve one of the profound conversations on day one, form of climax of the movie, the emotional climax occurs on day two. Historically you may in a doc have the ability to transfer these issues round within the edit, however right here you may see once they’re in upstate New York (the beginning of the journey) versus Arizona and California.”
Greenbaum mentioned one factor he had going for him was it’s human nature to not launch into the deepest, most tough query instantly. However he took some precautions.
“I knew they’d questions for each other. Like Will had quite a lot of questions he wished to ask Harper, and she or he wished to ask him. And I mentioned, ‘Why don’t you each ship me the entire questions and conversations you need to have? Don’t share them with one another,’” mentioned Greenbaum. “And that method I’ve a bit little bit of what I used to be calling our ‘Query Dialog Bible.’”
The director mentioned by and enormous the conversations occurred naturally, and didn’t come too early or too late within the road-trip/narrative arc, however that a number of instances all through the journey he’d remind Steele or Ferrell of questions at what felt like the appropriate time within the 17 day journey.
Automobile Scenes: Cameras Had been At all times Rolling
Whereas Greenbaum might need tried to house out and map out the large questions Harper and Will requested one another as they drove, that doesn’t imply the cameras went on and off.
“Once we had been driving, we had been rolling just about your entire time,” mentioned Greenbaum, who went into the edit with 240 hours of footage from a 17 day journey. “They had been nervous early on whether or not or not they may speak for 16, 17 days straight. And so they did as a result of I additionally didn’t allow them to take heed to music within the automotive.”
That’s proper. This was a highway journey with no music, which appears exhausting to think about however makes good sense from a filmmaking standpoint—Greenbaum couldn’t let unlicensed music on Steele and Ferrell’s audio tracks. By no means realizing what moments would find yourself within the movie, he didn’t need footage rendered unusable as a result of he couldn’t license or afford to license the music beneath their dialogue.
That Oklahoma Bar
Should you’ve seen “Will & Harper,” little question Steele’s first go to to a roadside bar in Oklahoma is one you bear in mind. It’s the kind of honky tonk place she visited on a regular basis as a person however wonders if she’ll be protected in as a trans lady. And in accordance with Greenbaum, the scene was simply as nervewracking for the crew because it was to observe.
“I walked in to only pre-scout it with my DP 5 minutes earlier than we’re about to go in,” mentioned Greenbaum. “And I in fact see the Accomplice flag, I see the “fuck Biden,” the Trump [banner], and everybody’s smoking, it’s lawless. And I got here again out to say to Harper, ‘I need you to know all of this, what it appears like in there, and we will go discover a totally different bar.”
Steele was insistent and entered the bar. The cameras that adopted right here weren’t hidden, however they had been long-lens and the digital camera operators gravitated to the corners of the room. That evening, there was a pool match drawing the patrons’ consideration, a few of whom might have observed the cameras and presumably thought they had been filming the match.
“Will’s nervous, I’m nervous,” mentioned Greenbaum. “We did have a safety particular person for this. Fortunately, they by no means needed to do something. I all the time need to defend my topics, however these are shut buddies of mine.”
The Costumes & the Painful Massive Texan Scene
It didn’t take lengthy for Ferrell to appreciate dressing up as Sherlock Holmes and making a present of making an attempt to eat the 72-ounce steak on the Massive Texan restaurant was a mistake, garnering unwelcome consideration. You’ll be able to see within the movie how badly he feels afterwards — breaking into tears, realizing he’s harm Steele, in addition to having created an unsafe house for his buddy. Greenbaum mentioned the second was a collective mistake born out of a string of optimistic experiences they’d had, just like the bar in Oklahoma.
“I feel we acquired lulled into a way of safety and confidence,” mentioned Greenbaum. “We had been form of met with nothing however love and or acceptance and heat total, and it goes again to that notion that it’s exhausting to hate up shut.”
To Ferrell’s credit score, Greenbaum notes, the well-known comic by no means flinched at together with this scene within the film, which wasn’t one thing the director ever actually thought-about. He admits he was nervous to indicate the movie to Steele and Ferrell, however was pleasantly shocked the response was tears, slightly than notes.
“Will was prepared to fuck up, and that’s so useful. I feel what’s occurring on this house and different areas is persons are so afraid to fuck up, which I get. It’s like, ‘I need to say the proper factor, the appropriate factor. I don’t need to say the fallacious factor. I need to be an ally. I need to be supportive, however I don’t need to say the fallacious factor,’” mentioned Greenbaum. “And what you see in our movie, and in Harper and Will’s relationship, is Harper affords Will quite a lot of grace. However Will’s additionally prepared to indicate himself, warts and all, make the errors, fuck up, and solely via that does development and dialogue occur.”
And to not make an excuse for Ferrell’s blunder, however there was a backstory to him dressing up in a dressing up.
“I didn’t get to work this into the movie, however they each love costumes,” mentioned Greenbaum. “And actually, I came upon that over their 30 yr friendship, one among their favourite issues to do could be to go to a celebration, and never a dressing up celebration, and each of them present up in costume, not telling one another what they had been carrying.”
Harper’s Desert Hideaway
It’s probably the most heart-wrenching scene within the movie, when the highway journey enters Trona, California, and Steele brings Ferrell to the house she purchased in the midst of nowhere, simply outdoors the Mojave Desert.
“Will, he actually had no thought, as a result of she purchased it six, seven years in the past and had informed Will and buddies, ‘I purchased this place for 10,000 bucks up within the desert, I’m going to show it into one thing cool,” mentioned Greenbaum. ”And she or he does that on a regular basis, she’s like very useful. And so I feel to Will and all of Harper’s buddies, it was a undertaking.”
When mapping out the highway journey and documentary, Steele didn’t reveal a lot concerning the place to Greenbaum, merely mentioning “it could possibly be an fascinating place to cease” and subtly indicating it was a “darker place for her.” However nothing ready the director and crew for what would transpire.
“Once we pulled up, I bear in mind simply already getting emotional and gutted by not solely simply pulling into that city, which is that this very down and out city — the place I feel you get the sense in all probability lots of people go to cover away from one thing of their lives — after which pulling as much as her home and seeing the state of disrepair it was [in],” mentioned Greenbaum. “It in the end could be very clearly, she mentioned, ‘I wished to maneuver right here and stay my life out right here in hiding the place I might stay my life as a girl, gown in girls’s garments, however not be round anybody. It’s devastating to assume that in some unspecified time in the future, that’s the place she thought she deserved. It was a shock definitely to all of us then as we labored our method via inside the home, which you’ll see was vandalized and it was actually a tough, emotional, profound second, however once more, an attractive one in the end of development as you see within the movie.”
Within the movie, Steele says that she doesn’t need this anymore, and Greenbaum is comfortable to report that that is very true.
“I can let you know since then, she’s given the home away,” mentioned Greenbaum. “She lives not removed from me in Burbank, California. We go and get beers on the common at our native little dive bar.”
Bon Iver, Pringles, and Dunkin’ Donuts
Greenbaum mentioned there are two widespread misconnections about “Will & Harper: ” One, that they’d an enormous music finances as a result of variety of songs by well-known bands, and two, that they acquired product placement {dollars} from Pringles and Dunkin’ Donuts. There was no product placement; that’s all Steele and Ferrell—each their love of junk meals and dedication to a bit.
Greenbaum mentioned making a Gloria Sanchez documentary that includes Will Ferrell didn’t imply some outsized music finances, and he was warned the music he was temping to whereas enhancing was a mistake. Specifically, “Holocene” by Bon Iver, which performs through the cathartic fireworks scene after Ferrell and Steele go to the Trona hideaway.
“I used to be informed by each buddy of mine, each music supervisor, simply get the music out now earlier than you fall extra in love with it, since you’ll by no means get it,” mentioned Greenbaum.
Greenbaum credit music supervisor Joey Singer for getting the rights to each observe, together with “Holocene,” however provides that the movie’s material was a better than think about promoting level to artists like Bon Iver, who’re hesistant to license out their music.
“I despatched Justin Vernon, Bon Iver, a letter,” mentioned Greenbaum. “I despatched the movie in [as well] and he mentioned again, ‘Please use it. Go for it.’”
Will & Harper is streaming on Netflix.
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