Susie Bright @ SF Chronicle
Ryan Devine has been cutting movie trailers at New York’s Giaronomo Productions for 14 years and loves every minute of it.
At Giaronomo — whose august team’s editing credits include trailers for “Pulp Fiction,” “The Matrix” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” — Devine is a senior editor and has seen his share of challenges. But he could not believe the high-heeled assignment his studio boss handed him last October: “Barbie.”
“Barbie?” he thought. “You mean, me?”
Devine said he’s “more of a ‘G.I. Joe’ kinda guy,” remembering his Dayton, Ohio, childhood filled with team sports alongside his siblings, and his dad on the field with a 1980s camcorder slung over his shoulder, capturing every moment.
“I wondered if I was the right person to handle cutting a movie about an iconic doll,” he said. “But I was so wrong.”
Devine’s three theatrical trailers for Sacramento native and Oscar-nominated director Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie as the titular doll and Ryan Gosling as Ken, have each been viral hits. His first was a “2001: A Space Odyssey”-style teaser, showing Barbie emerging like a giant sphinx, backlit by the sun, as little girls smash their baby dolls to bits. Helen Mirren delivers the voice-over; there is no turning back.
It won the Golden Trailer Award this year for best teaser and is sure to be a contender at the Clio Awards, often considered the Oscars of advertising.
Adam Cooper, creative director at the Tiny Hero agency, a multiple Clio and Golden Trailer winner himself, can offer only praise to his competitor: “Ryan’s work with ‘Barbie’ is the kind of campaign that comes along once a decade, an impact the rest of us can only strive to achieve. It’s heartfelt, it’s hilarious and doesn’t take itself too seriously. That’s what connected with people.”
Millions have seen at least one of the “Barbie” trailers, tingly moments of bliss so addictive, they took on a life of their own. As Tim Cole, CEO of the World Trailer Awards, told The Chronicle: “The Barbie trailer ‘pop’ is irresistible.”
Most of the time, the public has no idea who cuts the trailers for movies and television shows. In the 1960s, Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock were the first film directors who insisted on editing their own promos, using state-of-the-art filmmaking techniques to make the teasers for their “Dr. Strangelove” and “Psycho” classics.
Trailers today are cut by tight-knit creative teams at specialized advertising agencies. The editors vie to work with major studios and directors, all in the service of editing a clip that might last two minutes or so.
The Chronicle spoke to Devine by phone from his home in New York. A rather modest fellow, he’s been flush pink with the acclaim that’s come his team’s way in the pandemonium around the biggest movie of the year.
Q: Does your crew have to audition your ideas to movie studios to win a contract?
A: Nearly every big movie will have a budget big enough for multiple vendors. A studio will typically hire several agencies who work parallel to us — we’re always competing. There is such a wealth of talent in our industry, you have to bring your A game every time.
At some point, the studio makes a decision about which trailer to go with … which means there’s going to be a winner and likely, multiple losers. You have to have a thick skin to survive in this industry. It makes it that much sweeter when you run the gauntlet and successfully land a piece you’ve worked so hard on.
Q: What trailers have you personally cut before?
A: Some of the bigger trailers I’ve cut are “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “Stillwater” and Pixar’s “Onward.” I co-edited a trailer for “The Outfit” with my older brother Chris (Devine), who is a senior editor/producer at Giaronomo and helped me get started with my career.
When I started cutting on “Barbie” last fall, I told myself it would be amazing if I could just land even one theatrical piece. Landing three is something I never thought was possible for a movie of this caliber.
Q: In your cinema lifetime, what trailers have been the most influential for you?
A: The trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” blew me away when it came out, and still gives me chills today. The trailer for “Inception” is another one that left a mark on me, with its epic soundtrack and slick editorial.
When I was younger … my brother Chris would come home from college with DVDs loaded with trailers he loved. I remember the one for “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” just watching it, over and over. I couldn’t get enough.
Q: Let’s talk about the “Barbie” trailers, starting with the first, “Dawn.” It has 12 million-plus YouTube views. How did the idea begin? Were you targeting cineastes?
A: Greta wanted something extremely tease-y for a first piece. She subverted expectations completely. No one was expecting an homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey” in an advertisement for “Barbie.” It caught audiences off guard in the best possible way. We wanted to give the audience just enough to chew on.
The “2001” homage plays well towards cinephiles, but what’s great about the “Dawn” trailer is that it works even if you don’t know Kubrick. A bunch of little girls in a desert gawking at a giant Barbie and then smashing their dolls has a level of innate comedy that appeals to, as it turns out, everyone!
(Margot Robbie in the “Barbie” teaser by Ryan Devine, which paid homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and won a Golden Trailer Award. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Q: In the second trailer, “Dream,” which has 22 million-plus YouTube views, we first see Barbie’s arched foot slipping out of her shoe. Was that digitally created or a human model?
A: That was all Margot. She prefers to do all her own insert shots in her films. I like where we landed the foot sequence in this teaser, because we’re telling you that it’s Barbie without saying her name directly.
Q: How did you want to use the Ken character in your trailers?
A: Ryan Gosling is hilarious in this movie; it was difficult to not shift the focus toward him in the campaign. He steals a lot of scenes, so we leaned on his character for landing some of the stronger jokes.
Q: Finally, “Real,” the third trailer, gives a bit of the plot away: Barbie is embarking on a hero’s journey. What do people love so much about it?
A: The moments that get the most attention are the record-scratch-inducing Barbie line, “Do you guys ever think about dying?” And then, Ken popping up in the back seat of Barbie’s car and singing along with her to the Indigo Girls’ “Closer to Fine.”
Q: What about the music in your final trailer?
A: I had the Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” song on my mind, even before our campaign. It was perfect for “Barbie.” There are some components that appeal to a younger crowd: the Dua Lipa song “Dance the Night” in the first third of the trailer, and the Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice remix of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” at the very end of the cut.
The Indigo Girls, and Cass Elliot’s “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” lean to another generation, especially when you pair them with the emotional closing dialogue: “Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever.”
Q: Are you going to throw a party to celebrate? Do you have a special pink outfit in mind?
A: Yes. … You know, the only thing better than getting a Golden Trailer for my “Barbie” teaser was getting nominated alongside my brother Chris for his “The Banshees of Inisherin” trailer.
Q: It sounds like you’ve had your family with you on this journey since your dad’s early highlight reels of all those ball games and birthdays.
A: Yes, we’re all close. My dad, John, he’s a man of few words. But when I posted my trailer win on LinkedIn, he showed up, unprecedented, in the comments. Three words: “Proud Dad here!”
