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DIRECTOR'S CHAIR www.postmagazine.com 19 POST APRIL 2016 Shakespearean with the actors, or it'll be too over-the-top, but you don't want to make it too modern either, as it'll look just like a guy in a costume. So you have to walk a very fine line between fantasy and reality. It's a tone departure more than anything else. Visually we stay in the same world, just not as dark, and tonally it's not as dark. The story has dark points, but I was interested in being a little lighter and getting in and out of darkness and drama, and not staying too gloomy. I love humor and I like a bit of self-deprecation, so it was important not to take it all too seriously." How was the shoot? "We shot it all in England, at Shepperton and on location in Wales and Somerset. It was just 74 days — I finished a day early — which is pretty fast. We had just 14 weeks of prep — not enough for a movie this size, but we managed to pull it off." Where did you do the post? How long was the process? "We did all the editorial here in LA at Tribeca West, and we're still in post and it's been over 27 weeks so far. We're in the middle of mixing at the Hitchcock stage on the lot at Universal, and then we'll do the DI at Technicolor in Hollywood." Do you like the post process? "I do, a lot. As a visual effects supervi- sor I've spent a lot of time in the past 20 years in post production, so it's very familiar to me. But to be honest, I actu- ally prefer being on the set with actors. I think that's my favorite part of making a film, more than prepping and more than post. But I'm very comfortable in post. The weird thing is that for me, post is harder than filming. It's where you put the whole movie together and you have all this time to think about it and start second-guessing yourself. When you shoot, you're under the gun and you're just going. It's like being on the battlefield. But in post you sometimes have too many choices. I have a military background in part, so I have this sense of making a quick decision and stick- ing with it and moving forward. And sometimes in post there is a bit of a lag happening, and even though I'm used to it, I miss that forward movement. But I do love post and seeing all the hard work come together." The film was cut by editor Conrad Buff IV, who won the Oscar for Titanic and who cut Terminator 2, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Snow White and the Huntsman, among many others. How did that relationship work? "As we worked together on the first one, we already had a close relation- ship, and when I got this it was very clear to me that he should also cut this one. Look at his resume — he's a leg- end. So he was at Shepperton with me, and he's always very calm, warm and very easy to work with. There's no ego, so it's a perfect relationship as I also lean a lot on him. I don't sit behind him looking over his shoulder wondering what he's doing. I let him cut the movie. He's had so much experience and he knows how to cut this way better than I do, so I trust him completely. And trust is very important. Of course I have my ideas and things I want to try and so on, but I was learning so much from him every day. And he's also very respect- ful. There's no agenda or attitude with Conrad, just because it's my very first movie. There was no 'This guy doesn't know what he's doing.' He just wants to make the very best movie he can." Nicolas-Troyan spent 74 days shooting and more than seven months in post production.