A man must finally contend with his children in Director Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s comedic-drama, Goodrich.
Meyers-Shyer’s film tells the story of Andy Goodrich, whose life is upended when his wife enters a 90-day rehab program, leaving him on his own with their nine-year-old twins. Thrust into the world of modern parenthood, he must make amends with Grace, his largely ignored daughter from his first marriage and learn how to be a modern father at an old age.
On October 20 after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Meyers-Shyer discussed the making of Goodrich during a Q&A moderated by Director Max Minghella (Shell).
During the conversation, Meyers-Shyer spoke about her editing process.
“We ended [shooting] on a Friday. I went into the cutting room on a Monday. I got no space from it which is not ideal. I watched the first cut, which is probably one of the darkest times for a Director because it’s the slowest, unfunniest, and worst version of your film. It’s like when you walk into a house that you think you’re gonna redo and you have to have that vision for it – ‘I think it’s gonna be this. I think it’s gonna be that.’ So that was rough. But I love the editing process. The part of Sydney Lumet’s book about editing is called. Alone at Last. I relate to that.”
She also recalled the next step of test screening the film.
“Because we aren’t a studio film, we did not get to do a lot of test screenings. I find that putting a movie in front of your audience is the most important thing you can do because, especially with comedy, you want to say, ‘Did they laugh? If they didn’t how can we recut that so they do laugh?’ So I put together a lot of screenings myself. Sometimes friends and family, but sometimes I would email my dentist’s office and say, ‘Anybody want to come watch this film?’ I want movie goers to give their opinions as well.”
Meyers-Shyer’s other directorial credit is the feature Home Again. She has been a DGA member since 2016.