Nickelodeon's family feature Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado represents an expansion of the 25-year old franchise. The live-action feature was directed by Alberto Belli and stars Samantha Lorraine, Jacob Rodriguez, Mariana Garzón Toro, Daniella Pineda and Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. In it, Dora (Lorraine) and her friends trek through the dangerous Amazon jungle in search of an ancient treasure, hoping to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado debuted on July 2nd, on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon in the US, and shortly after around the world. Evan Ahlgren edited the film, which runs just over one hour and 30 minutes. He worked with Belli on a prior film and says they hit it off, quickly realizing they had similar tendencies and a love for action, adventure and drama. He cut the project using Avid's Media Composer.
"That is my number one choice in software," he states. "Some tools within Avid that I use regularly is D-Verb, because I love creating sound design in all of my work. I used this tool throughout Dora’s visions and several different environments to give them an otherworldly feel. (I'm) also a huge fan of selecting all media to the right of the play head in the sequence to open up my cut to make changes."
Ahlgren says he could feel the energy on the pages of JT Billings' script and wanted the edit to reflect it.
"This film jumps from upbeat humor to moments of peril pretty quickly, so it was mostly juggling comedic timing with how long to let tension build in a moment, then pull the rug for more witty jokes without losing tension," he explains. "But mostly hats off to the cast Samantha Lorraine, Jacob Rodriguez, Mariana Garzon Toro, Acston Luca Porto and Daniella Pineda for creating these moments for me to work with in the edit."
While the writer, director and cast brought their own spin on the iconic character, Ahlgren wanted the film to feel like her biggest and riskiest adventure to date, and to show new sides of the character that audiences haven’t seen prior.
"Early on, Alberto and I discussed inspirations such as Indiana Jones,
Goonies and
Jurassic Park, and how we could inject them into the edit. I would literally have all of the
Indiana Jones films playing on loop while I was cutting, so if I left my office to get a snack, I would hear Indiana Jones playing and of course stop and watch it for a few minutes."
Ahlgren has a love for movies in general, and enjoys the opportunity to help tell a story, regardless of the genre. That said, he's itching to do a sci-fi thriller.
"I seem to gravitate to films like Ex Machina,
Possession or
Minority Report while choosing what to watch. Something cerebral with emotional drama."