Don’t Look Up
Creative Coordinator
Development
Don’t Look Up came into Netflix as a script written and to be directed by Adam McKay, with his production company Hyperobject Industries producing. Jennifer Lawrence was attached to star when it was submitted, and Leonardo DiCaprio was in talks to play the co-lead.
The project came in as a compelling, ambitious package that toed the line of social commentary, comedy and disaster film at a scale no film had attempted since Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. We made a timeline to go into production, cast the rest of the film with a team of A-list talent, and release the title on service by end of 2021.
Prep and Production
Prep and Production were immense for a movie of this scale… both in the level of talent attached and scope of its budget and story. We worked hard to schedule the shoot around an A-list cast, and keep the budget under cost throughout prep and production.
Shortly after principal photography began, we had to pause due to the pandemic. Through an excellent cross-functional effort across all of our teams at Netflix, we were able to get back into production during the height of COVID quarantine without any further production pause. I watched dailies as they came in, and sent daily selects along with production progress updates to Netflix leadership every week. We held weekly production progress calls to make sure the project remained on schedule, budget, and creatively aligned.
Post-Production
In Post, the creative team reviewed every cut from the Director’s Cut to the Final Locked Cut, giving notes to Adam McKay and the producers. Later in the post-production process, we showed cuts to test audiences in theaters across the United States.
I’d collaborate with our Consumer Insights team, comb through the mountains of audience data, and communicate noteworthy audience feedback to Adam. I worked cross-functionally with our post-production and VFX teams to ensure delivery of the locked picture.