The Guilty editor, Jason Ballantine ASE ACE had always wanted to work with director Antoine Fuqua; he just figured it would be on an action film in the vein of the features Fuqua is known for (Training Day, The Replacement Killers, Olympus Has Fallen). But with Fuqua's remake of the critically acclaimed Danish film, Den Skyldige "The Guilty" (2018), Ballantine instead finds himself at the editorial helm of a psychological thriller.
The Guilty takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center. Call operator Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller in grave danger—but he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and facing the truth is the only way out.
JASON BALLANTINEJason Ballantine began his editing career in the horror genre (one which he would return to often) with the Australian thriller Wolf Creek (2005). From there he would edit other fright flicks, such as Prom Night (2008), Crush (2009) and Needle (2010). But it would be his work on director Andy Muschietti's adaptation of Stephen King's It (2017) and It: Chapter Two (2019) that would put an exclamation point on Jason's work in the horror medium. Currently at work on Muschietti's The Flash (2022), Jason has also previously teamed up with directors Baz Luhrmann and Matthew Vaughn for The Great Gatsby (2013) and The King's Man (2021) respectively.
Editing The GuiltyIn our discussion with The Guilty editor, Jason Ballantine, we talk about:
- Interviewing with a director
- Recording dialogue over zoom
- An assistant who's also a VFX editor
- Everything you'd ever want to know about futzing audio
- Ignoring the notes and making the movie the director wants to make
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