Editing American Beauty (1999 film) (section)

===Filming===
Principal photography lasted about 50 days,<ref name="chapter 19">{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 19}}</ref> from December 14, 1998<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Players |date=November 6, 1998 |magazine=Variety}}</ref> to February 1999.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Fleming |first=Michael |date=February 23, 1999 |title=Spacey, DeVito lend 'Hospitality' |magazine=Variety |url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/spacey-devito-lend-hospitality-1117491600/ |access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref> ''American Beauty'' was filmed on soundstages at the Warner Bros. [[backlot]] in Burbank, California, and at [[Hancock Park, Los Angeles|Hancock Park]] and [[Brentwood, Los Angeles|Brentwood]] in Los Angeles.<ref name="shohan">{{cite magazine|title=From the drafting board: Naomi Shohan |url=https://variety.com/2000/film/news/from-the-drafting-board-naomi-shohan-1117778719/ |date=February 23, 2000 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |access-date=August 12, 2023}}</ref> The aerial shots at the beginning and end of the film were captured in [[Sacramento, California]],<ref name="newsreview">{{cite news|last=Costello |first=Becca |date=September 30, 2004 |title=It was filmed in Sacramento |work=[[Sacramento News & Review]] |url=https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content/arts-entertainment/31481/ |access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref> and many of the school scenes were shot at [[South High School (Torrance)|South High School]] in [[Torrance, California]]; several extras in the gym crowd were South High students.<ref>{{cite news|last=Matsumoto |first=Jon |date=July 22, 2001 |title=You'll Need a Permission Slip for That |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jul-22-ca-25120-story.html |access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref> The film is set in an [[upper middle-class]] neighborhood in an unidentified American town. Production designer [[Naomi Shohan]] likened the locale to [[Evanston, Illinois]], but said, "it's not about a place, it's about an archetype... The milieu was pretty much Anywhere, USA—upwardly mobile suburbia." The intent was for the setting to reflect the characters, who are also archetypes. Shohan said, "All of them are very strained, and their lives are constructs." The Burnhams' household was designed as the reverse of the Fitts'—the former a pristine ideal, but graceless and lacking in "inner balance", leading to Carolyn's desire to at least give it the appearance of a "perfect all-American household"; the Fitts's home is depicted in "exaggerated darkness [and] symmetry".<ref name="shohan" />

[[File:Aerial view of Sacramento.jpg|250px|thumb|alt=High-angled aerial shot of a developed city, a suburban grid dominates the lower half of the image. A river bisects the city from the left before forking; the first fork continues up and to the right edge of the image; the second curves up and around to finish on the left, enclosing industrial units and other domestic properties.|left|The film used aerial shots of [[Sacramento, California]], at the beginning and end of the film to show where the Burnhams live.<ref name="newsreview" />]]
The production selected two adjacent properties on the Warner backlot's "Blondie Street" for the Burnham and Fitts's homes.{{refn|One of which director of photography Conrad Hall had filmed for ''[[Divorce American Style]]''&nbsp;(1967).<ref name="impeccable 75" />|group="nb"}}<ref name="shohan" /> The crew rebuilt the houses to incorporate false rooms that established lines of sight—between Ricky and Jane's bedroom windows, and between Ricky's bedroom and Lester's garage.<ref name="impeccable 75">{{harvnb|Probst|Heuring|Holben|Thomson|2000|p=75}}</ref> The garage windows were designed specifically to obtain the crucial shot toward the end of the film in which Col. Fitts—watching from Ricky's bedroom—mistakenly assumes that Lester is paying Ricky for sex.<ref name="chapter 22" /> Mendes made sure to establish the line of sight early on in the film to make the audience feel a sense of familiarity with the shot.<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 10}}</ref> The house interiors were filmed on the backlot, on location, and on soundstages when overhead shots were needed.<ref name="shohan" /> The inside of the Burnhams' home was shot at a house close to [[Interstate 405 (California)|Interstate 405]] and [[Sunset Boulevard]] in Los Angeles; the inside of the Fitts's home was shot in the city's Hancock Park neighborhood.<ref name="impeccable 75" /> Ricky's bedroom was designed to be cell-like to suggest his "monkish" personality, while at the same time blending with the high-tech equipment to reflect his voyeuristic side. The production deliberately minimized the use of red, as it was an important thematic signature elsewhere. The Burnhams' home uses cool blues, while the Fitts's is kept in a "depressed military palette".<ref name="shohan" />

Mendes's dominating visual style was deliberate and composed, with a minimalist design that provided "a sparse, almost surreal feeling—a bright, crisp, hard edged, near [[Magritte]]-like take on American suburbia"; Mendes constantly directed his set dressers to empty the frame. He made Lester's fantasy scenes "more fluid and graceful",<ref name="kemp 26" /> and Mendes made minimal use of [[steadicam]]s, feeling that stable shots generated more tension. For example, when Mendes used a slow push in to the Burnhams' dinner table, he held the shot because his training as a theater director taught him the importance of putting distance between the characters. He wanted to keep the tension in the scene, so he only cut away when Jane left the table.{{refn|The shot references a similar one in ''[[Ordinary People]]''&nbsp;(1980). Mendes included several such homages to other films; family photographs in the characters' homes were inserted to give them a sense of history, but also as a nod to the way [[Terrence Malick]] used still photographs in ''[[Badlands (film)|Badlands]]''&nbsp;(1973).<ref name="chapter 2" /> A shot of Lester's jogging was a homage to ''[[Marathon Man (film)|Marathon Man]]''&nbsp;(1976) and Mendes watched several films to help improve his ability to evoke a "heightened sense of style": ''[[The King of Comedy (film)|The King of Comedy]]''&nbsp;(1983), ''[[All That Jazz (film)|All That Jazz]]''&nbsp;(1979) and ''[[Rosemary's Baby (film)|Rosemary's Baby]]''&nbsp;(1968).<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 21}}</ref>|group="nb"}}<ref name="chapter 2" /> Mendes used a hand-held camera for the scene in which Col. Fitts beats Ricky. Mendes said the camera provided the scene with a "kinetic&nbsp;... off-balance energy". He also went hand-held for the excerpts of Ricky's camcorder footage.<ref name="chapter 18">{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 18}}</ref> Mendes took a long time to get the quality of Ricky's footage to the level he wanted.<ref name="chapter 2" /> For the plastic-bag footage, Mendes used wind machines to move the bag in the air. The scene took four takes; two by the [[second unit]] did not satisfy Mendes, so he shot the scene himself. He felt his first take lacked grace, but for the last attempt, he changed the location to the front of a brick wall and added leaves on the ground. Mendes was satisfied by the way the wall gave definition to the outline of the bag.<ref>{{harvnb|Lowenstein|2008|p=268}}</ref>

Mendes avoided using [[close-up]]s, believing the technique was overused. He also mentioned Spielberg's advice to imagine an audience silhouetted at the bottom of the camera monitor, to keep in mind that it was being shot for display on a {{convert|40|ft|m|sigfig=1|adj=on}} screen.<ref name="chapter 25">{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 25}}</ref> Spielberg—who visited the set a few times—also advised Mendes not to worry about costs if he had a "great idea" toward the end of a long working day. Mendes said, "That happened three or four times, and they are all in the movie."<ref name="stein">{{cite news|last=Stein |first=Ruthe |date=September 12, 1999 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/09/12/PK5266.DTL |title=From 'Cabaret' to California / Dark 'American Beauty' lures Sam Mendes to Hollywood |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |page=55 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803021235/https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/From-Cabaret-to-California-Dark-American-2909669.php |archive-date=August 3, 2021}}</ref> Despite Spielberg's support, DreamWorks and Mendes fought constantly over the schedule and budget, although the studio interfered little with the film's content.<ref name="kemp 26" /> Spacey, Bening and Hall worked for significantly less than their usual rates. ''American Beauty'' cost DreamWorks $15&nbsp;million to produce, slightly above their projected sum.<ref name="kemp 27">{{harvnb|Kemp|2000|p=27}}</ref> Mendes was so dissatisfied with his first three days' filming that he obtained permission from DreamWorks to reshoot the scenes. He said, "I started with a wrong scene, actually, a comedy scene.{{refn|The scene at the fast food outlet where Lester discovers Carolyn's affair.<ref name="chapter 22" />|group="nb"}} And the actors played it way too big:&nbsp;... it was badly shot, my fault, badly composed, my fault, bad costumes, my fault&nbsp;...; and everybody was doing what I was asking. It was all my fault." Aware that he was a novice, Mendes drew on the experience of Hall: "I made a very conscious decision early on, if I didn't understand something technically, to say, without embarrassment, 'I don't understand what you're talking about, please explain it.{{'"}}<ref name="weinraub">{{cite news|last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |date=September 12, 1999 |title=The New Season / Film: Stage to Screen; A Wunderkind Discovers the Wonders of Film |newspaper=The New York Times |page=271 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/12/movies/the-new-season-film-stage-to-screen-a-wunderkind-discovers-the-wonders-of-film.html |access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref>

Mendes encouraged some improvisation; for example, when Lester masturbates in bed beside Carolyn, the director asked Spacey to improvise several euphemisms for the act in each take. Mendes said, "I wanted that not just because it was funny&nbsp;... but because I didn't want it to seem rehearsed. I wanted it to seem like he was blurting it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is so in control—I wanted him to break through." Spacey obliged, eventually coming up with 35 phrases, but Bening could not always keep a straight face, which meant the scene had to be shot ten times.<ref name="stein" /> The production used small amounts of [[computer-generated imagery]]. Most of the rose petals in Lester's fantasies were added in post-production,<ref name="chapter 4">{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 4}}</ref> although some were real and had the wires holding them digitally removed.<ref name="chapter 5">{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 5}}</ref> When Lester fantasizes about Angela in a rose-petal bath, the steam was real, save for in the overhead shot. To position the camera, a hole had to be cut in the ceiling, through which the steam escaped; it was instead added digitally.<ref name="chapter 11">{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapter 11}}</ref>