Posted in: Netflix, streaming, TV | Tagged: Brett Bachman, house of usher, Mike Flanagan, netflix, the fall of the house of usher

House of Usher Editor on Mike Flanagan Pulling Him Into the TV World

Editor Brett W. Bachman (The Toxic Avenger) spoke with Bleeding Cool about how Mike Flanagan recruited him for The Fall of the House of Usher.

Editor Brett W. Bachman is so accustomed to the film world that he originally didn't see himself going into television any time soon, especially given his recent success with memorable indie projects like the Nicolas Cage-starred films Mandy (2018), Color Out of Space (2019), and Pig (2021), and other horror work like Werewolves Within (2021) and V/H/S/94 (2021). It's that work that attracted the attention of horror visionary Mike Flanagan, who's not only made a profound impact on the genre but also expanded his empire to Netflix with Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, the "Haunting" series, and his latest, The Fall of the House of Usher, based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

Bachman spoke to Bleeding Cool about how Flanagan recruited him, his biggest challenge coming back to the TV world, and how he compares Flanagan to other directors. The series follows the CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company (Bruce Greenwood), who faces his questionable past when his children start dying in mysterious and brutal ways.

How 'House of Usher' Creator Mike Flanagan Sought Editor Brett Bachman for Netflix Miniseries

Bleeding Cool: How did you get involved with 'The Fall of the House of Usher?'

Bachman: Mike Flanagan offered me the job on Twitter via direct message. Honestly, he had been a big fan of the movie I did years ago called 'Pig.' He is probably our movie's biggest fan; I think he has seen it four or five times. I received a text message from the director of that movie, Michael Sarnoski. This is a few months after the movie came out. He wrote, "I had a general meeting with Mike Flanagan. I think he might be reaching out." Two weeks later, I received a notification inbox basically from Mike praising the movies and how much he's seen it, applauding not just 'Pig' but a long roster of films I've worked on, and I've never met him before. He invited me to come aboard to the TV world right then and there. I've been a fan of his going back to 2014. I jumped at the opportunity immediately. I was like, "Whatever you want me in, medium, format of film, TV, music, video, short film, whatever, I'll do it." I got brought into the collective from that point moving forward. I found out it would be me and him adding the show together. This was all of two months before I got going, and then they started shooting.

What did you find the biggest challenge entering the realm of TV from the film world?

Great question. I have a lot of experience in the feature world. I had rounded out about 20 features, but I'd never done any scripted TV before, so I was a little a little anxious about stepping into that process. I didn't know the mechanics of how the world worked, but then I found out that they wanted me to edit the entire show myself. Once we finished the assembly, Mike would come aboard the show with me, but my responsibility for half the year was to edit all the footage that was coming in from Vancouver. I was a little nervous and apprehensive, but I approached it with a lot of confidence, forethought, and discipline.

Honestly, it was one of the most comfortable jobs I've done before. It's certainly challenging as you're trying to keep up with the material that's coming in and the way that Mike and his director of photography and co-director Michael Fimognari can always shoot with two cameras. They're classical in their approach. The scripts, I don't know if you're familiar with Mike's work, but like it's the TV show, a lot of dialog and scripted material. You're trying to catch up with the volume and stay ahead of everything. After keeping my head forward, I wanted to work every single day, assemble material, and rely not on the help of my assistant editors found out that it was the summer, and they had wrapped shooting, and we were going to start director's cuts. It was a joy to work on the show and to. I'll leave it at that. That was the biggest challenge for me, was the volume of material.

How do you compare the experience of working with Flanagan compared to other directors?

Great question. The first thing I was most curious about was coming into the TV world and the 8 hours of material in episodes. What is the workflow for this going to look like an additional movie in a future world? We have usually ten weeks to if it's union movie, we have ten weeks to put together a director's cut in the TV world. That schedule's expedited. We had about two weeks to do a director's cut per episode. I was curious how we are going to develop our time and allocate this time as a resource to get this material going. I had no idea what that was going to be like. When I started working with Mike, I found that he is a man who is so confident, bold, and efficient. His background as a film editor, starting in that world, becoming a writer, director, and then becoming a showrunner in that order is taught.

From his editing background, his mind still thinks in that manner when he's preparing his shot list and a breakdown for the day. The material as it comes in is easy to understand in intent. You can sense the crane is pushing in and closing on an actor at that moment. We're going to sit in the monologue. We're going to let the actor do the thing. He also asks for your take on the material, and there's so much coverage on some of these scenes that it's a bit daunting at first, but if you present the scene that has been…if you come out with intent, a point of view, and you show him a product that you're proud of, and you stand behind the narrative intense, it's surprising how fast he can say, "Yes! That's it. We're good." A lot of directors I've worked with will like to sit back at the scene, relax on it, and review it. We could go back and tinker and try and find opportunities to better tell the scene, and Mike will see something that he likes and say, "That's great, Move on. It's there, it's done."

We had a few of those, and we found there were a few scenes in episode two ['The Masque of the Red Death'], the big one, at the end of episode two, the acid party with the Masquerade, and most of that scene is the first cut. It's like the first assembly edit, and he's like, "It works. It's great. I love it. There are other things to do. Let's move on." He's incredibly concise, bold, and confident, which is maybe moving from the TV world. He must be a resource in that regard, but he knows what he likes, and he's confident. If you see something that resonates with him, he's happy with it, and we can move on. We start elsewhere, and it's probably the biggest change for me.

The Fall of the House of Usher, which also stars Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Henry Thomas, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan, T'Nia Miller, Zach Gilford, Willa Fitzgerald, Michael Trucco, Katie Parker, Matt Biedel, Crystal Balint, Ruth Codd, Kyliegh Curran, Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill, and Kate Siegel is available to stream on Netflix.

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