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director’s chair Jonathan Liebesman Battle: Los Angeles H By IAIN BLAIR Even though the story is about aliens, the goal was to keep it real. for you? JONATHAN LIEBESMAN: “I’ve always been a huge fan of sci-fi films and wanted a chance to create the kind of hyper-real world that sci-fi affords you as a filmmaker. I enjoyed being able to play in a much bigger sandbox in a conceptual way, but we were very aware of making it real and keeping it grounded in reality.” POST: What sort of film did you set out to make? OLLYWOOD — Maybe only one thing could make LA’s freeway traffic even worse — an invasion of aliens who relentlessly set about destroy- ing the city — and cities everywhere.That’s the set up for Battle: Los Angeles, an epic sci- fi extravaganza from Columbia Pictures, di- rected by Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls,The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:The Begin- ning) and stuffed to the gills with explosions, water-spouts, car-wrecks, plane crashes and enough visual effects shots to make the may- hem look stunningly photoreal. Here, in an exclusive interview, the direc- tor talks about making the film, dealing with all the effects, and his love of post. POST: What was the appeal of doing this LIEBESMAN: “The guys on our team were incredibly adept — we were lucky to have a team around us that worked hard to achieve what we wanted as opposed to giv- ing us limits as to what we could achieve.” POST: This was a very complex produc- tion. How tough was the shoot? LIEBESMAN: “I think every film shoot is tough — it’s an arduous process with long hours, and you need strong physical en- durance.The actors were incredible, doing take after take of the most grueling stunts, and the crew all pitched in and pushed past POST: Do you like the post process? LIEBESMAN: “Yes. I love it. It’s where the movie comes alive for me.The possibilities are endless, and if there’s a problem, you can always solve it if you look hard enough. I also love the world of visual effects and roughed out some shots myself to show Everett Bur- rell and Kevin Elam, so I would be in the of- fice late every night. But the truth is, I didn’t want to be anywhere else.” POST: Where did you do the post? How long was the process? LIEBESMAN: “At Sony, and it took about Jonathan Liebesman on set: Post “is where the movie comes alive for me,” he says. nine months.” POST: The film was edited by Christian LIEBESMAN: “We wanted to create a gritty, action-packed war film grounded in reality, and the enemy just happens to be aliens.The audience will experience the alien invasion through the eyes of one group of marines, battling to save Los Angeles.” POST: What were the main technical chal- lenges of pulling all this together? LIEBESMAN: “Tracking the handheld shots was extremely difficult. According to our VFX vendors, we had the most compli- cated handheld tracking shots they had ever seen.” POST: How far did you have to push the technical limits of filmmaking to make this happen? 12 Post • April 2011 any physical duress in order to ensure the movie was the best it could possibly be.That said, it was an incredibly fun shoot.We shot in Louisiana, in Shreveport and Baton Rouge; the shoot was about 70 days all up — we shot September through December.” POST: Was there ever a time when you went,“What have I got myself into?” LIEBESMAN: “Not really. I always knew this was a big opportunity for me.When it came down to it, that set, with those actors, and that crew, is where I wanted to be. If ever it felt overwhelming, it only stemmed from my desire to make the most of the chance I’d been given and create a film that I felt could be special.” www.postmagazine.com Wagner. Tell us about that relationship and how it worked? LIEBESMAN: “I really respect Chris and learned a lot from working with him; he’s cut some of my favorite movies and he’s a bril- liant storyteller.As well as being a great col- laborator, he is also the most hardworking editor I’ve ever worked with, and probably the most creative. He can find ways to cut the footage and create moments you never thought were there.” POST: Where did you edit, and what equipment did you use? LIEBESMAN:“We did it at Sony, and we used Avid Nitris DX Version 4.” POST: There’s obviously a huge number of