Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/5315
very manicured, and it all comes to- gether in post." WEAKNESSES: "A lot of peo- ple complain about the high costs, but I don't get too involved in all that. I do know we have a lot of pressure and I always wish we had more time for post so we can af- ford to make mistakes or experi- ment with ideas. The biggest weak- ness for me is that once it's in post, it's almost out of your hands. And then you see stuff you want to fix but there's just no time on the schedule, and you have to live with it. So it's all about time and money." OPPORTUNITIES: "It's amazing what you can do in post with ele- ments like sound effects and music. They really can help you make the movie so much better, and the op- por tunity to make it better never really stops in post. Even when we do the color timing, you can juice it up and make it brighter and more fun, like you want to reach out and touch the screen." THREATS: "For me it's always lack of time, which impacts ever y- thing in post. And I have to say the film part of the whole process is the least exciting par t for me, because coming from an all-digital world, where everything is pristine, it's al- ways a bit of a letdown to see it on film.The colors are always off a little bit, even though now it's so much better than it used to be. And then when it goes out to the theatres, God knows how it will look! They may have the wrong bulb on the projec- tor, even the wrong sound. So Blu- ray is our hope!" OUTLOOK 2010: "It's funny, be- cause although the economy's re- ally bad, movies are this great es- cape and more people seem to go because they're still cheap enough and good value. So I'm hoping that will continue and box office will keep growing. "At the same time, the studios are thinking hard about making smarter choices in what movies they make now. They can't afford to spend millions on projects that they're not sure about, so there'll be fewer films, but maybe better ones. And Blue Sky/Fox has always been ver y targeted in their approach. We're not some big, bloated studio pumping out tons of productions. We've always been very focused on the movie we're making. And I do see the current economic crisis as an oppor tunity to reshape the whole business. It's not always about big stars and high budgets. It's more about good ideas. And some of the biggest films of the year haven't even had big stars." OUTLOOK DIRECTORS Carlos Saldanha's Ice Age. Shawn Levy's Night at the Museum 2.