Just shy of 60 years after the release of the popular novel, the imaginative universe of Dune has become a one of the major franchise’s of the 2020’s. The latest installment, Dune: Prophecy, takes us back 10,000 years prior to Paul Atreides and follows the beginnings and rise of the Bene Gesserit. Taking us a step further into the world of multi-planetary empires, and the minds of the all-female, political and social society, Amelia Allwarden, ACE, and Anna Hauger, ACE, masterfully craft a character-centered narrative that explores the possibility of fate.
Allwarden and Hauger previously worked together on Westworld, along with showrunner and writer Alison Schapker who brought them onto the project. It was there they got to first explore their dynamic as coworkers and translate it into their workflow as now co-editors with Dune. “Collaboration is the running theme” says Hauger, as sequences were consistently being inherited from each other. There was a lot of restructuring during the edit, with one of the biggest challenges being all of the intersecting plotlines that the story follows and trying to find the best way to intercut them. Allwarden and Hauger share that there were many ways that the scenes could have been arranged, but that that was a fun part of the puzzle. Much of the time, the various intercuts would be passed back and forth between the two, really allowing for them to bounce ideas off of each other. Sharing a similar editing style and the sentiment to create a narrative that pushed character first, “we were able to leave ego at the door and let the best idea win.”
The pinnacle of their collaboration, and that of the entire post team, comes during the mind killer sequence in the final episode, a scene that is the culmination of all of the characters and storylines that were set up in the first. “We first assembled it as scripted, and then I would pass it to Anna to get her thoughts, she would pass it back, and so on,” notes Allwarden. The entire scene was shot on bluescreen which gave them the freedom to push their ideas within the edit beyond what was written. For example, as Valya is running across the ice to save her brother Griffin from drowning, she attempts to use the voice to urge him to swim. Instead of just hearing the voice through the water, “As I was building and experimenting with the sequence, I was like, what if the camera becomes the voice?” she says. Taking that idea to the VFX department, they were able to build it out to bring that vision to life, and it is what made it in the final cut of the episode. With dynamic pacing, and skillful intercutting between various characters, events, and even realities, Hauger and Allwarden successfully mold each character arc while keeping the viewer engaged.
As with any prequel, there is a whole different process of worldbuilding that is done apart from the original. Being able to brainstorm and design elements of the show without knowing the final product was a favorite aspect of the project the co-editors shared. Allwarden and Hauger got the chance to truly experiment with this through the edit and create a show that compliments the original story while distinguishing with their own voice. Prequels can often be found to highlight the events that lead up to those of the original, but in the case of Dune: Prophecy, they were able to do so without sacrificing the examination of character.
Dune Prophecy is streaming on MAX.
