Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1488128
www.postmagazine.com 21 POST NOV/DEC 2022 OUTLOOK O DIRECTORS about shots and what was possible with each one. He was either the artist doing the work or he was supervising." OUTLOOK: "Obviously COVID and streaming changed the way people watch movies. I think if you want people to show up at theaters again and have that collective experience, you have to give them a seat that's as comfortable as the one at home, with speakers that aren't blown and where the projection is maintained. It has to be a superior expe- rience to the one you can get at home, and if you build it, they will come." GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD The Woman King, Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees Award-winning director/writer/produc- er Gina Prince-Bythewood is one of the most versatile storytellers working in film and television, and is well-known for her character-driven work in such varied projects as ABC's civil rights series Women of the Movement, and the critically acclaimed blockbuster action drama The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron, that's one of the Top 10 most popular Netflix films of all time, with Prince-Bythewood becoming the first Black female director on the list. STRENGTHS: "Some people believe that saying, 'You make a film three times — once when you write it, once when you shoot it and once when you get into post,' but I don't believe that. It all starts with the script, and if you're telling a dif- ferent story by the time you reach post, then something went drastically wrong. So for me, the strength of post is the ability to realize that original vision you had and build on the story you intended to share with the audience. And it's ex- citing to see the film come together and watch the performances, and then you're adding all the icing to the cake — the sound and music, and any visual effects to help enhance the visuals. And for me, sound is so important in post. It may not get the same respect and recognition as the visuals, but it really breathes life into every frame and helps create the whole world you've tried to build and capture on-camera. It's the same with the score. A great score just elevates everything up there on the screen, and you may not even be that aware of it when you're watching. It's the same with the DI and the color. You may not notice any of that, but it all helps to enhance and elevate the film." WEAKNESSES: "I've made six movies now and it comes down to one basic thing for me — it's all the other voices that come in during the post process, and how you have to navigate all the notes and opinions. Do I pay a lot of attention to all that? Yes, you have to — unless you're paying for your own movie (laughs). So it's all about the vision and fighting for it and protecting it. But I feel with every movie I've done, it's turned out the way I first envisioned it and intended it." OPPORTUNITIES: "Post really gives you the chance to not only enhance and elevate your film, but to fix stuff. For example, my latest film, The Woman King, had a lot of VFX, and I collaborated very closely in post with my VFX su- pervisor [Oscar winner for Ex Machina) Sara Bennett, who co-founded Milk, who did most of the VFX. We had two very difficult VFX sequences to create — one planned, that we knew was going to be difficult, and one totally unplanned. The first involved two characters jumping off a 70-foot wall into the ocean below, and it's difficult to do, as it takes a lot of different elements, and I wanted it to be one uncut shot and look 100 percent real. It really helped that Sara and I'd had a similar jump and gone through the whole pro- cess in my previous film, The Old Guard. "The other one was a mistake that happened on-set...so Sara was able to recreate some elements with VFX to help sell this moment, but it took a lot of time and it was the last VFX shot to get fin- ished, but it saved the whole sequence." THREATS: "It's always the same — you don't have enough time for post, or you're worrying about the budget, or both. And just generally, post schedules seem to be getting tighter. For instance, the studio moved up the release date two months for The Woman King, which is a huge amount of pressure when you're still in the middle of post. So we were in the middle of finishing the score while we had to start the mix already, and that just doesn't happen normally. It meant everyone was crunched and pushed, and it's hard and grueling, but luckily we had an amazing post team and we got it done for the new release deadline." OUTLOOK: "I'm pretty optimistic. I love going to the theater and it's great to see people returning, as there's nothing like the collective experience of seeing a film on a big screen. And as a filmmaker, there's nothing like watching your film with an audience that laughs when you hoped they'd laugh, cry when you hoped they'd cry, and look frightened when you hoped they would. There's just no substitute." Viola Davis and Gina Prince-Bythewood confer on the set of The Woman King.