Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros | Tagged: final destination, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Final Destination: Bloodlines Editor on Death Scenes, Voiceover & More

Editor Sabrina Pitre (Clown in a Cornfield) spoke to Bleeding Cool about breaking down Final Destination: Bloodlines most memorable scenes.

Editor and actor Sabrina Pitre is as versatile as they come when it comes to working behind the scenes and doing voiceover work. She just doesn't care much about being in front of a camera. After reuniting with Freaks (2018) directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky for Warner Bros/New Line's Final Destination: Bloodlines, she was tasked with editing the death sequences together that are atypical of the franchise. The editor spoke to Bleeding Cool about how the film's more memorable sequences from the flashback sky view dance sequence and the epic MRI scene. The following contains spoilers.

Final Destination: Bloodlines Editor Sabrina Pitre Breaks Down Sky View and MRI Scenes

Bleeding Cool: There are so many different memorable sequences in the film. What was your most memorable one, or what was the most difficult one for you?

Oh, wow. The sky view was gigantic and a beast of a scene. It was like the first 20 days of shooting were all dedicated to the sky view, so it was a lot to work with, and I knew we had to build tension across a long period of the film. The whole sequence was about 20 minutes. It was trying to find that balance of building tension early on, releasing it, building it up again, releasing it, and as you're teasing the audience into what's going to happen. What could possibly lead to a kill here, because we know people are on the lookout, especially those who are familiar with the movies, but we also wanted to make sure we were careful with people who weren't familiar with 'Final Destination' to understand, like why this person is feeling so trepidatious.

It's treated delicately that way, but what was nice, though, is we had a pretty structured… before we shot, VFX had a pre-vis of the whole opening. You had a structure of how things were supposed to more or less play out. Obviously, when you shoot the footage and when the actors are there, things change, so it was a bit different. It was a lovely guide on approaching that part of the edit, then we had (The Isley Bros') 'Shout' playing, which was always scripted. I had to build up that song, which builds us up to the main disastrous event. It was finding and playing with that music and making sure we were hitting the beats and using the song to give us a little break again, and then build us back up again for the big kill towards the end. It was all about finding a balance between building and releasing the tension, which was quite challenging. It takes some time to fine-tune that and get it right.

The other scene I found challenging was the MRI scene because we had two kills there, which were independent of each other. You have this death of a beloved character, Erik (Richard Harmon), and you want to be able to mourn him, but then you're still trying to build tension for Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner), who's over there trying to breathe (suffocating due to his peanut allergy) and that one I found particularly difficult to try and thread that needle of "Okay, we've just killed this person. It's terrible. It's awful, but we also want to make sure we're keeping people on the line and building them up to Bobby's death as well." It was tricky because not every kill in the movie is the same, right? So, each kill demands its own process.

Have you ever thought about taking that bold next step into directing your first feature? I know that, aside from your extensive experience as an editor and actor, you've also directed a short film with Judy's Comeuppance, and I was wondering if it's something you thought about doing.

That's funny. You're not the only person to ask me that. It must be because I'm overly opinionated [laughs], but I get asked a lot about from other directors that I've worked with if I'm interested in directing. Initially, I went to film school with that idea. I did a bunch of…I was a guerrilla filmmaker, essentially in my youth. I shot a bunch of short films and loved the process. It was great. I wrote my own stuff, but I don't know, the more that I've worked in editing, it was the first job I got out of school. The more I fell into it, the more I loved it. I like the safe space of being in my little cave, getting the footage sent to me, and being able to play with it without anybody looking at me or judging me initially. It's very liberating and I quite like it. As an introvert at heart [laughs], I probably prefer being behind the camera and away from the crowds.

Is that the reason why you haven't really been in front of the camera whenever you perform, or preferred doing the voiceovers in your roles?

Yes, exactly. Yeah, I find that the voiceover is the same thing. I can be silly and creative, but I don't have to be on camera [laughs]. I can show up in my sweats.

One of these days, you should do a voiceover in a horror project.

[Laughs] Sometimes, being a voice actor, I temp things when we're in the edit. I was the temp voice for Old Iris (Gabrielle Rose). I was a temp voice for Stefani (Katilyn Santa Juna), Julia (Anna Lore), the little kid, and the old lady. Anyways, it wasn't the case in this movie, but in my previous film, 'Clown in the Cornfields,' which I did right before 'Final Destination,' I did a temp for the creepy clown that pops out of the Jack in the Box, and they kept it. So, now and again, my voice will appear in the movies I work on.

Final Destination: Bloodlines, starring Brec Bassinger, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, and Tony Todd, is currently in theaters.

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