Froilan Fuentes
Jim Hemphill
November 9, 2023
West Coast POPCast (YouTube)
The Egyptian Theatre re-opened in Hollywood with a special screening of The Killer, followed by a Q&A with Director David Fincher and Sound Designer Ren Klyce hosted by Jim Hemphill.
Jennifer Walden
December 13, 2023
Mix
Join Mix’s Jennifer Walden as she speaks with the audio pros behind director David Fincher’s action thriller, ‘The Killer.’ Discussing their work on the film are:
Presented by Netflix.
December 14, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams
Editor Kirk Baxter discusses his work on The Killer with director David Fincher.
The Killer is now playing on Netflix
Ray Richmond
December 5, 2023
Gold Derby
You wouldn’t think that Ren Klyce would have a whole lot more to learn about his job as a sound professional on movies. He’s been at it for nearly 30 years, going back to “Se7en” in 1995 and presiding as director David Fincher‘s designated sound guy ever since. He’s earned nine Academy Award nominations for his sonic work, including on Fincher’s “Fight Club,” “The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Mank.” And yet while discussing his latest collaboration with his favorite director, Netflix‘s “The Killer,” he asserts, “I learned a lot on this film. I think I learn every time. I always think, ‘Oh, I’m finally figuring out how to do my job.’ You get a new project and you realize that you’re learning a whole new set of skills. I like the idea that there’s still sort of a beginner mentality to the approach, and I think that’s actually a healthy way to do any type of work, honestly.”
December 9, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams
Director David Fincher, Editor Kirk Baxter, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, and Stunt Coordinator Dave Macomber break down the fight sequence between The Brute and The Killer in The Killer.
The Killer is now playing on Netflix
Kirk Baxter and David Fincher enjoying some downtime at Miraval Studios.
Steve Hullfish, ACE
November 23, 2023
Art of the Cut (Boris FX)
Today on Art of the Cut, we’re talking with Kirk Baxter, ACE, about editing David Fincher’s latest: The Killer, which is now on Netflix.
Kirk’s been on Art of the Cut before – for Gone Girl and for Mank. He was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He won an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for The Social Network. He was nominated for an ACE Eddie and won an Oscar for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Was nominated for an Emmy for House of Cards. Was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Gone Girl. Was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Mindhunter. Was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Mank and won an ACE Eddie for Love, Death and Robots.
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Follow Steve Hullfish, ACE, and the “Art of the Cut” podcast on Ex-Twitter. Buy his book “Art of the Cut. Conversations with Film and TV Editors” (Routledge, 2017).
Read the transcription of this interview:
Kirk Baxter, ACE, director David Fincher’s long-time editor, talks about the power of believing in the process, pacing, and voiceover changes on the action-packed thriller.
Steve Hullfish, ACE
November 23, 2023
Art of the Cut (Boris FX)
Jordan Orme and Hayden Hillier-Smith
November 22, 2023
The Editing Podcast
Welcome to The Editing Podcast, where storytelling meets the art of post-production. In this riveting episode, hosts Hayden Hillier-Smith and Jordan Orme sit down with none other than the master editor behind the brilliance of David Fincher‘s cinematic wonders—Kirk Baxter.
We delve deep into Kirk’s illustrious career, spanning iconic films that have left an indelible mark on the world of cinema. From “The Social Network” to “Gone Girl” to his most recent thriller, “The Killer”, Kirk Baxter’s editorial prowess has shaped some of the most memorable moments in film history and has influenced the editing landscape forever.
In this episode, we dissect the mesmerizing opening sniper scene, a sequence that hooks audiences from the first frame. Kirk takes us behind the scenes, sharing the secrets of crafting tension and suspense that keep viewers on the edge of their seats. We also explore the intricacies of “The Killer‘s” visceral fight scene, a jaw-dropping display of editing finesse that elevates the film to a new level of intensity. Kirk Baxter’s insights into the creative decisions behind each cut and the rhythmic flow of the sequence offer a rare glimpse into the mind of a true editing maestro.
00:00: David Fincher’s Editor Kirk Baxter
01:00: Use Riverside
02:18: Why Hiding Blinks Creates Intention
05:05: The David Fincher Editing Style
09:50: Choreographing The Vicious Fight Scene in The Killer
12:29: Letting Sound & Music Guide Your Edit
13:57: Comment “Storyblocks is cool”
15:00: Hooking Your Audience In The First 5 Minutes
16:23: How To Cut With Intention
18:14: Breaking Down The Sniper Scene in The Killer
25:15: The Magic Of Vertical Sound Cutting
27:53: Breaking Down The “Cool Girl” Sequence in Gone Girl
Editor: Tyson Pellegrini and Hayden Hillier-Smith
Executive Producer: Vishnu Vallabhaneni
Thumbnail: David Altizer
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David Fincher’s Oscar-winning go-to editor, Kirk Baxter, helped achieve a new kind of subjective cinema with Michael Fassbender’s assassin character.
Bill Desowitz
November 12, 2023
IndieWire
[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers.]
David Fincher’s “The Killer” is his most experimental film since “Fight Club”: a subjective, cinematic tour de force in which we get inside the mind of Michael Fassbender’s titular assassin after he experiences his first misfire in Paris. Fully exposed for the first time, the hunter becomes the hunted and he’s forced to cover his tracks while stepping outside of his comfort zone. In the process, the film becomes a noirish existential journey from nihilism to faith, which is what first attracted Fincher to adapting Alex Nolent’s graphic novel.
For go-to editor Kirk Baxter (the Oscar-winning “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Social Network”), it was one of the hardest Fincher films to cut. It’s divided into six chapters, each with its own look, rhythm, and pace tied to Fassbender’s level of control and uncertainty, and the editorial process necessitated the creation of a visual and aural language to convey subjective and objective points of view for tracking Fassbender. In fact, it’s reminiscent of what Hitchcock called “pure cinema,” only much bolder.
“It was like a ’70s film and I found it to be one of the more challenging movies to make because it’s not sort of juggling a bunch of different character lines or going back and forth from past to present and that sort of thing,” Baxter told IndieWire. “It’s just a straight line, but the exposure of that with nowhere to hide, like you can’t kind of jazz hands your way out of something. It’s like everything is just under the spotlight and you’re not having dialogue and interaction to kind of dictate your pace. It’s a series of shots and everything has to be manhandled and manipulated in order to give it propulsion, or how you slow it down. But just by its very nature, it had to be sort of let’s go [and see how much Fassbender has to break his own rules to survive].”
Netflix has another hit movie on its hands with David Fincher’s The Killer. We spoke to the film’s editor, Kirk Baxter, and Assistant Editor, Jennifer Chung, about how they put it together using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Andy Stout
November 10, 2023
RedShark
Kirk Baxter ACE picked up two Oscars working on previous Fincher titles you will probably have heard of, The Social Network (2010) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). In other words, The Killer has some serious pedigree behind it, and much like this year’s Academy Award for Editing winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, it was cut on Adobe Premiere Pro.
Jennifer Chung ACE was one of the Assistant Editors on The Killer and represents a 14-strong editing department. Chung is currently cutting her first indie feature (“It’s a different kind of stress,” she says laughing), but looking back on The Killer, is there any particular sequence that stands out as her favorite?
“I think it has to be the fight sequence,” she says. “The fight sequence is pretty epic. And it just goes on. I think Kirk did an incredible job with that; it’s just really fun to watch.”
“I watched something on TV which had a big fight sequence two nights ago, and I couldn’t follow it,” says Kirk Baxter, who edited The Killer and put the movie’s signature fight scene together. “I knew people were fighting, but I couldn’t track who owned what fist and what thing. It was just a jumble of limbs edited quickly.”
No such failure to follow the action in The Killer’s own fight scene, which Baxter says is essentially a sequence of 18 scenes with multi-camera setups depicting a single fight all strung together in a row. He was cutting the sequence as Fincher was shooting it. The shoot would break at lunchtime when he’d start cutting the first half of the day, getting the second half later at the end, then cutting into the evening and sending it to Fincher to see if any pickups were needed.
“It was this crazy, relentless week of all of us going around the clock to know that we had the thing,” he says.
September 3, 2023
Venice Film Festival (YouTube)
Press conference featuring Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt ASC, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Director David Fincher, and Editor Kirk Baxter ACE.
Red Carpet featuring Producer Peter Mavromates, Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt ASC, Writer of the original “The Killer” (“Le tueur”) comic Alexis “Matz” Nolent, Editor Kirk Baxter ACE, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Director David Fincher. The original stream has the ambient sound turned down to a minimum because it is too busy and noisy, and only barely intelligible in the close-ups.
The Fincher Analyst 