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percent of the effects shots in, and the movie still played. Frankly, when your film's playing with incomplete visual effects, the sky's the limit once they get dropped in. And we had the Lincoln Memorial and The Thinker by Rodin coming to life, and on top of the sculptural pieces, we had another new dimension — ar twork coming to life — Monets, Rothkos and Hoppers all ani- mating and alive in 3D. That was extremely hard but gratifying to animate. "We also have a lot of creatures ranging from giant octopus to saber tooth tiger skeletons to pterodactyls, kangaroos and baby giraffes. So this was by far the biggest visual effects movie I've ever done, but the first Night was my education in VFX and it was fun to do this and push it when I felt flu- ent in the language of the technology." POST: What was that the most difficult ef- fects shot to pull off? LEVY: "The ones we're still working on! It's Lincoln and marble cherubs, because these are stone sculptures that need to move in a rubber y fashion without losing their stone-like qualities. That paradox is in- herent in the concept, and it's a really tough one for Rhythm & Hues to pull off — to create elasticity in the animation, but stone in the material and texture." POST: You can only blame yourself as it was your idea. LEVY: [Laughs]. "I know, and I won't be writing sculptures for Night 3. POST: How important are sound and music to you? LEVY: "Huge! I pick most of the music long before I ever shoot. I arrive on the set everyday with an iPod loaded with songs I've handpicked months before, which I play on set while shooting, to give actors the tonality of the scenes. And half the time the music that ends up in the film is the same music I picked a year earlier while writing the scene. For instance, there's a Coldplay song that I knew a year ago would end the film. I heard it while writing the scene, I played it on set while shooting, and then licensed it to score the scene in the final release print. "We did all the audio on the Newman stage on the lot and we have two sound su- per visors here on the Fox lot — John Larsen and Craig Heningham — and they did my first Night film and do exceptional work. They know I want texture to the soundscape, but I never want the audience to notice sound effects at the cost of dia- logue and story. So we'll often mix sound ef- fects more subtly if they risk grabbing too much attention. "For instance, the sound of the golden tablet at the hear t of the film's plot, the sound of the pharaoh's sword, the sound of the little Einstein bobble-heads that come to life — these are all very specific, custom-de- signed and custom-recorded sounds, and quite perfect I feel." POST: Did you do a digital intermediate? LEVY: "I'm just about to do it at Efilm with my DP John Schwar tzman. I'm a huge DI fan and there's no question it's revolu- tionized the post process and has become a must-have for pretty much every director I know. In my early films we didn't do DIs, and I got so frustrated by the lack of reli- able control in timing sessions. So the idea that you can really tweak the details of your image and rely on them to lock in and carr y on through the whole process is in- dispensable to me at this point. I can't ever see doing a film without a DI now. Even when the budget's being squeezed, you must protect your DI." [Efilm's Steve Scott was colorist.] POST: How did this film compare with working on the first one? LEVY: "I'd say it's been easier in that I'm a lot more savvy about all the technology now. I'm more VFX fluent and, quite honestly, the core of this franchise is my collaboration with Ben Stiller, and the trust level between us was way higher going into this film, which made it all much easier and smoother." POST: What's next? LEVY: "In three weeks I star t shooting Date Night, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell, which is an action/comedy about marriage, and I'm also producing it." POST: You must be incredibly busy, as I hear you're also currently developing several films to produce through your production com- pany, 21 Laps Entertainment, which is based at Fox, including Matchbreaker, Father Figure, Devil You Know,The Seems and Back Magick for Fox; Me, Me, Me at New Line; and Over- achievers and The Talent Thief for Universal. 21 Laps also produced the Fox release The Rocker, which stars Rainn Wilson (The Of- fice). Does all this mean that you're moving more into producing now? LEVY: "Not really. I like producing, but mostly when it's projects I direct myself, as then I'm really able to control the film and reduce any meddling." [Laughs] POST: How healthy is Hollywood today? It seems more and more as if films are either big-budget studio event films like yours, or very small indie projects, with nothing in between. LEVY: "Sadly I think you're absolutely right.The mid-range film is in trouble. But re- member you're talking to someone who doesn't really make mid-range films [laughs]. It so happens that my tastes sync up with studio film styles and scale, and so I've found in the studios a ver y comfor table home to do what I do, and give them what they want, and every day feeling personally rewarded. So I can't complain!" Don and Dean Zimmerman edited Battle of the Smithsonian on new Avid DX systems, cutting in DNxHD 36. www.postmagazine.com May 2009 • Post 17

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