This week a documentary on Billie Eilish officially dropped and is opening in theaters, for those who are still going out into the world to see movies. Directed and shot by R.J. Cutler, of The September Issue fame, The World’s A Little Blurry is a strikingly candid look at the inner workings of the young singer and her family. That’s partially credit to Cutler, of course, but also to the O’Connells for allowing cameras to infiltrate their lives for 10-15 days a month for a year, from 2018 through 2019, and being totally themselves and open during the process.
Well, through the course of shooting for over a year, Cutler told IndieWire he ended up with hundreds of hours of footage. So much so, that the first assembly cut for the film was 27 hours long (!) and the next cut got it down to 17 hours.
“The first assembly cut was 27 hours, Cutler said. “The first cut was, I think, 17 hours. There’s certainly deleted scenes, but this is the director’s cut. At that first meeting, one of the things we talked about was that I’d have to have final cut, and Billie and everybody got it. They understood. This is the film, in every way, that I wanted to make and to finish. You’ve got to cut some scenes, but that’s because they don’t belong. But it’s a full feast, as you say, with intermission, and I love that. It’s a full journey.”
The film ended up being about two and a half hours, which is long for a documentary but it flows very seamlessly. Check out our review of the film here.
