Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1488128
www.postmagazine.com 20 POST NOV/DEC 2022 OUTLOOK DIRECTORS is half the experience and underrated, and I love the way a certain sound effect or an ambient track can change the whole mood of a scene. It's all such an important part of the process for me, and it's how we really reach the audience subcon- sciously. The audience is tremendously educated and advanced when it comes to visuals, maybe because of videogames and because it's a more obvious form of communication. We rely so much on our eyes, even for balance, and more than we realize. But I think our ears and all the audio processing is our biggest stealth weapon to get to your soul." THREATS: "Post can become this grab bag of random ideas, where you don't follow through with the one voice that you need. Because if you're open to all possibilities, it really means that you're open to none, and in the end you have to have a point-of-view. And as a writer/ director, that more or less has to come from me. Too many ideas is not a good thing. Art demands discipline. To create means to curate, to choose." OUTLOOK: "I'm not very optimistic. I think COVID has dealt a heavy blow to the theatrical experience. I hope that comes back first, and I think we have to make a big effort to educate viewers about the history of our beautiful me- dium. It's great that there are so many new voices making films now, but I think the year ahead all depends on the virus and any new variant. I just hope that the audience is there with us." TODD FIELD Tar, In the Bedroom, Little Children The writer/director/producer made his feature film debut at Sundance with the acclaimed 2001 drama In the Bedroom, which went on to receive five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Field's next film, Little Children, premiered at the 44th New York Film Festival and re- ceived three Academy Award nominations. Tar, his latest film, has also been getting a lot of awards buzz. Field has also worked as an actor in many films, appearing in Woody Allen's Radio Days and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. STRENGTHS: "The old saw is true — that the screenplay isn't really finished till you're done with post. It all happens in post. As Kubrick once said, 'When you write the screenplay, you go, "That writ- er's pretty good!" Then as a director you go, "That writer wasn't so hot, but luckily I'm so smart!" Then you get into post and go, "That director was a moron!"' As a writer/director, that rings so true. The front-end of post is always hugely stressful, but there's also that act of faith where you know there's a certain point where you get past the awfulness of the early post process and begin to see light at the end of the tunnel." WEAKNESSES: "They're the same as in production: Who are you collaborating with? Why are they doing their job? Are they invested in what you're doing? Do the people financing the film understand the importance of everything you're trying to do in post? Often in post I see the weaknesses having to do with dogma. People will say, 'Well, this is how we do it. We've always done it this way, blah, blah, blah...' Well, that may be true, but maybe it's not true for this project and how it should feel, so why don't we try some- thing else? So when you're dealing with someone like me, who's basically an ama- teur filmmaker, those can be the pitfalls." OPPORTUNITIES: "The great thing about post is that they're endless and so exciting, and you have the chance to try and get smarter about the script and make it so much better than you could have ever imagined with all the magi- cal tools at your disposal — sound and visual effects, and music, and so on. And then, of course, you're working with post people who have all these amazing skills that you don't have, and I find the whole experience so exciting and creative, especially when you're sitting with them in a room or stage and you're not having to deal with 200 people and crew who're looking at you and wondering what the hell you're doing." THREATS: "Deadlines. When you work with big companies, they often can't be that available to you. They have a con- tainer and you have to fit into it, and their schedule and tempo. Often, it's like a shell game in post, and a sort of 'good enough' mentality that can be very frustrating for someone like me. That's why I liked work- ing with visual effects supervisor Jake Nelson at Residence Pictures, who did Tar. We could have specific conversations Todd Field (left) recently directed Cate Blanchett in Tar.