‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Director John Krasinski Breaks Down the One-Take Opening Scene in New Video

John Krasinski proved with the smash hit A Quiet Place and its very successful sequel A Quiet Place Part II that he can direct the hell out of a movie. And Vanity Fair’s always-fascinating “Notes on a Scene” series shows us exactly how he does that. Krasinski, who wrote and directed A Quiet Place Part II, breaks down the opening scene of the horror sequel, which he revealed he sought to shoot in one-take to “never break the energy, so you always felt like you were a part of it.” Watch Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II scene breakdown below.

A Quiet Place Part II Scene Breakdown

In Vanity Fair’s latest “Notes on a Scene” video, Krasinski goes into great technical detail about the opening scene of A Quiet Place Part II, which showcases the intense alien invasion scene where the Abbott family’s small town is besieged by sound-sensitive monsters. The writer-director reveals he originally sought to “do most everything in the opening of the movie in one take,” though it would not technically end up being the case. However, the frantic energy of the fantastic opening scene gets pretty close.

“It would drop the audience into the movie so that you’d be actually walking with my character, you’d be in the car with Emily,” Krasinski said in the video. “And that we’d never cut and therefore never break the energy, so you always felt like you were a part of it. So in order to do that, every single department had to be perfect that day.”

He also tells a touching story about his distinct sound editing choices for both A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II, which were inspired by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, who plays his character’s daughter in the films and is the de facto lead of the sequel.

“Any time you’re in a close-up shot of Millie, I established that you can get into her envelope,” Krasinski said.  “And by that, I mean, you hear the world the way she hears the world. Where I got that in the first movie was actually based on something Millie’s mom told me about Millie. One day when we were first getting to know each other, I said, ‘Can Millie hear anything?’ And her mom said, ‘She actually can, it’s just all dimmed down as if it’s been really muffled. So if there’s a big sound behind her, she’d hear it. And she can hear laughter and things like that, but really really low.’ And so I thought, ‘Wow, what if I put that in the movie actually as Millie heard.’ And one of the greatest moments of my career as a director was when Millie’s mom saw the movie and she burst into tears. She said that I gave her something she never thought she’d be able to do, which was actually experience the world as her daughter does.”

A Quiet Place Part II is playing in theaters now.

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