Inside the Mind of Dune: Prophecy: Editors Amelia Allwarden and Anna Hauger on Expanding the Iconic Universe

PH: Dune: Prophecy expands on the iconic universe of Dune. How did you approach balancing the complexity of multiple characters and plotlines while maintaining narrative cohesion across the episodes you edited?

Amelia Allwarden: With such an expansive universe like Dune, it’s really important for all of us to communicate as collaborators who are putting this project together. Executive producers Alison Schapker and Jordan Goldberg, the other editors, and I all had constant communication to make sure we were weaving together the storylines in a really compelling and interesting way. When you have so many characters and different plot lines merging, you have to be communicating. The other editors and I would be texting and talking about how certain storylines were coming together and how we were approaching the editing of certain characters; communicating this frequently made it so that we could maintain narrative cohesion. We all want to make sure we’re working toward a shared goal and a shared vision - that’s Alison‘s version of this project, and as long as we communicated, we were able to make that happen.

PH: The first cut of the finale was over two hours long. Can you share how you decided which sequences to cut and how you ensured the pacing and storytelling were still effective?

Anna Hauger: The season finale of Dune: Prophecy definitely came in long in its initial cuts, but having editor’s cuts and director’s cuts that are a little padded is pretty normal. A big part of the producer’s cut stage is figuring out what parts of the story are the most important and which parts don’t need quite as much attention. Pacing, storytelling, and emotion are at the forefront of our minds when we are making these decisions. Amelia and I spent countless hours with our showrunner Alison Schapker and executive producer Jordan Goldberg, watching different iterations of the episode and deciding which plot points were doing their job and which were weaker and could be trimmed or even lost. It’s a bit of trial and error, really. Sometimes, it’s obvious which parts can stand to be lost, but sometimes you need to “kill your darlings,” which can seem heartbreaking in the moment but can ultimately lead to a better episode. I can’t give away any specifics because it might come into play in season 2, but there was one scene that came towards the end of the finale that everybody loved that we never dreamed we could lose for the longest time. But every time we watched the episode, the ending dragged; it seemed like there were multiple endings. At some stage in the producers’ cut, Alison pitched that we watch the episode without that scene, and to our collective surprise, it made the episode better. As great as the scene was, we didn’t need it. 

PH: Were there any specific scenes that you found particularly challenging to edit due to their emotional or narrative complexity?

Amelia Allwarden: The “mind killer” sequence in episode six (the finale) was a really complex and rewarding sequence for Anna and I to put together. We collaborated really heavily on this sequence, which takes place inside of Valya’s mind. It’s inherently very emotional, and it could be edited in a lot of different ways, so Anna and I were always trying to balance the emotion with the tension of her collision with Desmond Hart and the emotionality of seeing Griffin again. Inherently, because of how the sequence was shot, we could edit it the way we wanted. It was filmed with both Young Valya and Adult Valya on a blue screen, with some practical snow and ice. We decided to approach this sequence character-first - so while we were maintaining some levels of physical continuity, we also allowed ourselves to play with illusion since we aren’t in a physical space. So it was very narratively complex because we had to tell the story of how Valya was working through this, and also very emotionally complex as we were weaving in her biggest fears tied with Desmond’s biggest fears.

PH: Many sequences take place inside the characters’ heads, blurring the lines between reality and dreams. How did you approach editing these scenes to distinguish them from reality, and what techniques did you use to keep the audience engaged?

Anna Hauger: I had two sequences like this: Lila’s Agony Trial in episode 2 and Valya experiencing the mind-killing virus in episode 6. It’s interesting that you phrased the question as one of being between a “dream” and “reality”: we see the character in a prone position, eyes closed and in what could be a dream-like state, but we know that what she is experiencing is very real, with life-or-death consequences.

Audiences understand this with just a few well-placed cues: audibly, we create a loaded silence, the kind just before a jump scare in a horror movie. Visually, we make a vast space of some kind, hard to discern. This instantly creates tension; the audience is on alert, searching for a danger they know must be there. As Lila or Valya start moving through these spaces, their environments visually become clearer, and the sounds slowly become more audible, increasing the tension as the danger starts revealing itself.

At this point, if we’ve done our job right, the audience is fully invested in their escape from this dream/reality. We will use increasingly fast cuts to match a musical score that is ramping up with the action on the screen, hopefully leading to a real heart-in-your-throat moment, like when Lila is being overwhelmed by her ancestors, and Valya is racing to save her brother in the ice field.

PH: Can you talk about the collaborative process of editing Episode 6 together? How did you divide the workload, and were there any creative disagreements or breakthroughs during the process?

Amelia Allwarden: Collaborating with Anna on episode six was really creatively fulfilling. During production, when we were filming, we decided to do our own halves of the episode. I was editing any scene that came in from the first half of the episode, and Anna was editing any scene that came in for the last half of the episode. We started this way because Anna and I were editing episodes two and four separately, so this method helped us keep things pretty straightforward in terms of who was doing what. We always knew, though, that once we got past production, we were going to collaborate in a different way. Neither of us wanted to draw harsh lines. We really wanted to collaborate as much as possible, so once we assembled all of our scenes, we watched the whole episode down together, and we gave each other feedback on our halves. We continued to have conversations to make sure they were meshing in the episode as a whole. Once we started getting into directors’ cuts, producers’ cuts, and studio cuts, we really started collaborating even more.

Boundaries fell away in terms of the first half - second half, and if either of us had an idea first on a scene, one of us would tackle that first and show the other the idea. Sometimes, there were scenes that we were tougher to crack, so Anna and I would pass them back and forth every time we would do a note. We would pass it back to the other person in order to get both of our heads on the case. I think that this method made the entire episode much more collaborative. Anna and I didn’t really have creative disagreements; we just had different creative idea ideas, and ultimately, we were always open to seeing each other’s ideas. Sometimes, seeing each other’s ideas sparked a combined idea that was really the best solution, so being able to have someone like Anna, whose editing work I’ve admired for so long, was incredible. To be able to bounce ideas off of each other and collaborate with each other every day was completely invaluable and absolutely made the episode better than either of us could have done on our own.

PH: You worked closely with VFX teams to transition from previews to final effects. How did the evolving VFX impact your editorial choices, and were there any moments where you had to significantly adjust scenes based on changes in the visual design?

Amelia Allwarden: It’s really important on a series of this scale for editorial and VFX to be in lock-step with each other. During production, we had access to some previs and plenty of storyboards. Once we were in post, we worked down the hall from VFX to collaborate easily. As each cut evolved, we would have conversations about those evolutions with VFX. The sequences in the Anirul thinking machine cavern are examples of scenes that had to be constantly discussed as visual effects evolved. We had to think of the best way to tell the story down there. For example, in Dune, there are no Latin characters in their written language. We had to collaborate with visual effects and come up with a way to tell the stories of the crossing bloodlines without being able to read the text. Points in the room where the different branches of family lines came together would affect how I would cut a scene. As long as we continued to keep lines of communication with VFX alive, we were able to tell the stories successfully. 

PH: Was there a particular VFX-heavy sequence that stands out to you as a highlight of your collaboration with the VFX team?

Anna Hauger: We had so many outstanding collaborations with our brilliant VFX team, but the one that stands out to me the most is the “mind killer” sequence in the finale, where we are in Valya’s mind as she faces the fear brought on by Desmond’s virus. There are so many elements in this sequence where VFX had to do the heavy lifting of the storytelling. We were in tight collaboration with VFX supervisor Mike Enriquez and VFX producer Terron Pratt from the minute we had an initial pass of the scene. We all had to be on the same page regarding the visual representation of the black snow invading the white snow- where was the height of the fear and, thus, the height of the black snow density? We had endless conversations about the cracks in the ice, and the sandworm in the snow, and how to visually show the fear passing through Valya. Our fantastic team of VFX editors, Neil Greenberg, Kevin Gasca, and Jill Paget, helped us out with amazing temp comps for many of the shots to help sell our vision. Once we had a locked editorial-sequence, we would have bi-weekly and sometimes tri-weekly VFX reviews to look at the progression of shots and make sure the creative vision was being realized.

PH: Dune: Prophecy delves into the origins of the Bene Gesserit. How did you ensure the series maintained the tone and mystique of the Dune universe while introducing new elements to the lore?

Anna Hauger: The Dune universe is so vast and complex, and we wanted to make sure, first and foremost, that we honored the original scope and feel of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel that inspired so much incredible art in the film, television, and gaming worlds. Overarchingly, the tie that binds these works together are the themes of the desert and of a civilization that has developed to thrilling technological heights without the use of “thinking machines.” With these themes acting as a solid backdrop to color the series, we were able to focus in on the mystical and incredibly powerful Bene Gesserit and flesh out some of their history.

As the young Valya is fighting for her spot amongst the now leaderless sisterhood, we get to see her use the Voice, one of the Bene Gesserit’s most powerful tools of control, to murder Sister Dorotea. It’s a shocking moment that shows not only the lengths that she is willing to go to secure the future she thinks is right but also how the human brain is developing extra-sensory techniques in the absence of thinking machines.

We also got to spend a lot of time showing the intense physical and mental training of the young Bene Gesserit sisters and how and why the early Sisterhood, under the leadership of Valya and Tula, maneuver to place the Bene Gesserit as genetic Kingmakers in the future when the action of Dune takes place.

PH: What lessons did you learn from working on Dune: Prophecy that you will carry forward into future projects?

Anna Hauger: A lesson that I have learned and continue to learn is how much I love the collaborative nature of filmmaking. Being open to ideas and different ways of working can be so rewarding. Co-editing has become my favorite way to work, especially when paired with a brilliant collaborator like Amelia.