Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/40055
DEL TORO: "I think post is the only part of the whole process I really enjoy. I like de- signing, but I don't like shooting, writing or preproduction. It's like being grilled. Every- thing is highly scrutinized.You're always deal- ing with budget bullshit.The great thing about post is that if you did your job right, then it becomes really easy and you're on budget and schedule. If you're not the type of direc- tor who 'fixes it in post,' then it's very relaxed." POST: It was edited by Jill Bilcock, who was Oscar-nominated for Moulin Rouge and whose credits include Strictly Ballroom and Muriel's Wedding. How did that relationship work? DEL TORO:"We met up every day be- fore call and every day after wrap, for a cou- ple of hours, and basically kept the movie cut up to date.So a week after wrapping,we already had our first cut, and then we moved the edit room several times — first to Park Road Studios in Wellington, where we did a bunch of sessions. "Then finally we moved it to LA, to Jim Cameron's Lightstorm offices in Santa Mon- ica for a final week.We cut on Lightworks, which I love. It's very analog — it reminds me a lot of a Kem, and of all the editing sys- tems is more analog. I cut Mimic on it." POST: Did Iloura do all the visual effects, and how many visual effects shots are there? DEL TORO:"Iloura did them all — over 300.They assembled a top-notch animation team and did this amazing previsualization job, to the point where we were very se- cure running two shooting units at the same time, because the previs was so accu- rate.They did some early motion and light- ing studies of the creatures that became the bible on how we shot the film. Not all the shots were creatures.We also did a lot of sky replacement, set blending, rig re- moval and so on." POST: What were the most difficult to do? DEL TORO: "It's funny, but the scenes that have the most reality in them are always the hardest to pull off. So when the creatures are in the bathroom, attacking Katie and skid- ding on the tiles and interacting with a very prosaic environment, it's very hard to get all the gestures that sell it as real." POST: Do you enjoy working with visual effects? DEL TORO: "I adore it. I come from a special effects background, so it's a language and a rhythm that I know well." POST: How important are sound and music to you? DEL TORO:"So important, which is why I hired Marco Beltrami again.We've done sev- eral films together and I knew he'd get what I wanted — a score that used some retro in- struments with a very '70s sound, like old syn- thesizers, blended with a bigger score." POST: Did you do a DI? DEL TORO: "Yes, at Park Road Post.The advantages for me are huge. I love the fact you can isolate just the highlights, or solidify the blacks and play with saturation and just work on the magenta. I started doing DIs on Blade 2, but we used it very selectively back then as it was so costly. Nobody did it. But after that I used it more and more." POST: Is film dead? DEL TORO: "Sadly, I think so. I think it's inevitable now." POST: Hollywood's gone 3D crazy it seems.Any interest in doing a 3D film? DEL TORO: "Yes, I'm very curious. I don't pursue 3D, but I think it's a great ex- pressive tool and I'd love to use it on the right project." POST: So what happened to The Hobbit? DEL TORO: "It was like a little Monty Python cartoon, a year later, two years later. It kept going and going and going in a way that it really became personally, professionally completely not manageable in a way to con- tinue. I just wish them the best. I'm super happy they're shooting. I think the things I'm looking at that are coming out are fantastic. So I think it's going to be a great movie, but what I couldn't do was go from three, four years or five years to looking like a threshold of six or more years invested in it." POST: What's next? DEL TORO: "I'm in Toronto prepping Pa- cific Rim for Warners. It's giant monsters ver- sus giant robots, so it'll be a ton of visual ef- fects. I also have a lot of projects I've been developing, like Drood and Hater, which are done in terms of screenplays, and they get fi- nanced as we get the sources. "I'm currently producing Mama for Uni- versal, another horror film with a first-time director, and he's shooting right next door to me so I can keep an eye on that too. But I don't dictate everything. And some of these films will get financed, and some won't." POST: What's going on with Cha Cha Cha Films, your production company with Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Inarritu? DEL TORO: "The last one we did was Biutiful. Right now I have a two-year stint on Pacific Rim and the others are busy with other films of their own, so after that we'll probably do something together again." POST: Aren't you also writing books? DEL TORO: "Yes, I just finished the third book in "The Strain" series and I'm so proud of it. It's almost like an escape for me, as it gives me so much freedom." POST: Will you make them into movies? DEL TORO: "No. It's a horror trilogy, but I think they'd work better as a TV series." POST: How do you find the time for all this? Do you ever sleep? DEL TORO: (Laughs) "I'm lucky. I sleep very little — just four to five hours. I'm a workaholic." www.postmagazine.com August 2011 • Post 13 Jill Bilcock edited on a Lightworks system. Be Afr aid of the Dark Don't