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October 2011

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POST: Is this a comedy, an animated action-adven- ture, or both? DAPKEWICZ: "It's basically both. There is an adventurous tone that sets it apart from the Shrek films, yet there is comedy behind it as well. That is what drew me to the project in the first place. I am a big fan of the Zorro and Indiana Jones films, and it definitely has that kind of vibe, with a lot of humor in it as well." POST: What are the challenges to editing comedy? DAPKEWICZ: "There is a lot of timing and pacing involved with getting the comedy down right. With a film like Puss in Boots, there are a lot of jokes where we take our time, there are certain pauses… there are lead ups to jokes. So when I am cutting it together I have to make sure it's just right so people can get the joke." POST: But you have to have quick cuts as well because it's also an action-adventure, right? DAPKEWICZ: "Exactly, we have to kind of pick and choose our moments. What are the moments in the film where we really want to play up the suspense, the action and drama, and when can we take a step back and have people laugh a little bit. That's a big part of putting the film together, pacing it the best we can." POST: Were there any scenes that were more challenging than others? DAPKEWICZ: "It ranges. Some of the scenes toward the back end of the film where we are trying to explain some exposi- tion or get more drama in; trying to land those moments just right can sometimes be the most difficult areas to cut. People might think it's the big action scenes because there are technically more shots to put together. So much is also dependant on the animators themselves in what they deliver back to me in terms of the acting and the performance. A lot of times I am just guessing how much time Puss in Boots needs to react to some- thing to get the drama across, and I give it to the animators and they take it from there and try to work within the timeframe that I've given them." POST: Any surprises? DAPKEWICZ: "Not for this film. I started Puss in Boots: Walking the line between action-adventure and comedy. working with 3D for the first time on Mon- sters vs. Aliens, and that was a bit of trial and error for me in terms of how 3D affects the film as far as cutting goes, so I brought that with me to Puss in Boots. It helped me to bet- ter understand what works pacing wise in 3D. What is very important when watching a lot of these films is the pacing of watching in 3D and how it sometimes affects people the wrong way. If you cut things way too fast and you also have too much depth in your shot, I finally realized that's what makes people sick. "What we tried to do early on, before any scenes actually went into animation, is look at all of the scenes in the very rough layout form with the cinematographer; we looked at everything in 3D just to see how the scene played. If there was a long shot with not a lot of cutting involved, we would add more depth to it so it felt like you were actually immersed in the scene. Then if we had an action scene with a lot of quick cutting, we'd pull back on the depth so it wouldn't be so jarring on people's brains." www.postmagazine.com Post • October 2011 15

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