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‘Last Night in Soho’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director Edgar Wright narrates a sequence from his film featuring Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie.

Hi, this is Edgar Wright. I am the director and co-writer of Last Night in Soho. So in this scene, Eloise, played by Thomasin McKenzie, has just rented a room in Fitzrovia, just north of Soho, and she is, shall we say, supernaturally switched on. And she is about to enter into the ‘60s in her dream. She’s a young fashion student who’s come to London and is obsessed about the ‘60s, and is about to go to the ‘60s in a very big way. Now, Cilla Black is playing here and one of the most complicated things on this entire shoot was getting these neon lights to be in time with the music, sometimes at different film speeds. And next door you see a French bistro which has the colors of the French flag, and they’re flashing blue, white, red, and then it switches to red, red, red, as she starts to go back into the past. And that was brain meltingly complicated and I will never do an effect like it ever again, but I’m glad it looks so slick. [MUSIC - CILLA BLACK, ‘YOU’RE MY WORLD’] “(SINGING) They shine within your eyes. As the trees reach.” Now this shot here, where she pulls the bed sheet back, is actually a physical shot and then the digital wizards at Double Negative created the kind of void around it. And now she wakes up in this black void and is walking down an alley set towards the bright lights of the West End. If you see the movie in the cinema or with a good sound setup, you’ll notice that the soundtrack changes from front facing stereo to all the surrounds kicking in at this point. We wanted it to be the audio equivalent of the Kansas to Oz transition in Wizard of Oz. And this shot here is actually shot on Haymarket, one of the busiest streets in London, with period cars, and period extras, and some digital work in the distance that you can see a 1965 Piccadilly Circus in the background. But we had to give the city of Westminster five months notice to achieve that shot. “(SINGING) It’s the end of my world.” And we’re now onto a set here. This was designed by Marcus Rowland. And there’s some very clever magic circle stuff going on here. So Thomasin McKenzie walks down, and there’s a mirror and there’s Oliver Phelps playing the maitre d’. And as he walks across the mirror slides back to reveal a double set, and James Phelps, his identical twin, and Anya Taylor-Joy standing in the other set. Now this is all mirror choreography done by our amazing choreographer Jennifer White and there is no glass. When they tap their fingers right here, they’re tapping each other’s fingers. And then the wizards at Double Negative do clever stuff around, like, putting a bevel on the glass and also putting like a fingerprint on the glass where they tapped fingers. And so this was one of the many complicated bits in a very complicated scene. I hope you enjoyed.

‘Last Night in Soho’ | Anatomy of a Scene

By Mekado MurphyNovember 5, 2021

The director Edgar Wright narrates a sequence from his film featuring Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie.

Recent episodes in Anatomy of a Scene
Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.
Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.

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