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January 2018

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www.postmagazine.com 17 POST JANUARY 2018 DIRECTOR'S CHAIR process. I've gone through it so often and been in a lot of humiliating situations, so I know what it feels like for an actor to just be dismissed quickly. It's very hard and I didn't want to let that happen here." What did Saoirse Ronan bring to the role, and how much of you is in Lady Bird? "The first time she read it through, I realized, 'She's the person!' She was just perfect as Lady Bird, and I feel we really created her together. The words were on the page, but she totally embodied her — how she walked and talked and dressed and moved through the world. But the character is nothing like me, although it's set where I grew up, and I went to Catholic school. I was very people pleas- ing. I never dyed my hair bright red. I was pretty straitlaced. When I wrote her, it was more an exploration of all the things I wasn't able to do or experience." Tell us about working with DP Sam Levy, who shot Mistress America and Frances Ha with you. "We started working on it and talking about it a year before we even began pre production, as we both live in New York and could easily meet up all the time. He's wonderful and not only an artist but a good person to have on-set. And when you spend that long working with some- one, you want someone like Sam. We discussed the look a lot as I wanted every shot to be very specifically framed — no handheld or documentary-style shooting. I love theater so we also talked about always having a sense of the proscenium. He shot with Arri Alexa Minis and these great old lenses — a mix of Panavision Ultra Speed and Super Speed Prime lens- es, and I love the way it looks." Where did you do the post? "It was mostly all at Technicolor in New York, and we did the sound editing at C5, where Noah did Mistress America and Frances Ha, and on the Warners stage." Do you like the post process? "I absolutely love it, because it was the part of the whole process that I'd spent the least amount of time on before this, although I'd been in the editing room a lot of Frances Ha and Mistress America, but that's nothing like doing it on your own. Editing is so intimate after spend- ing months with a lot of people. It's like writing again, almost a solo act, back to the beginning, and you share a brain with your editor. And I loved every step of it after we had it cut, and then working with colorist Alex Bickel, who'd first come on board during pre production, on the DI, and I loved sound mixing, and seeing how much all that added to it all. And then working with Jon Brion on the music. So it was this big voyage of discovery for me, and realizing how much I enjoyed post and the finishing on everything. Even doing the title design with a friend and designing the font was so much fun." The film was edited by Nick Houy. Tell us how it worked? "He wasn't on the set. He got all the dailies and started while I shot and then we really started digging into it together after the shoot." What were the main challenges of editing this? "I always wanted it to have this feeling of time tumbling forward, so I wanted to capture that sense of a particular place in someone's life where time is slipping away and you're trying to hang onto it. So creating that was very satisfying for me, because even if we didn't have some- thing, you found you could use another piece and if you juxtaposed it just right, it suddenly all flowed and gave you the feel- ing I was after. I think finding the right tone was a big challenge and he understood what we were going for, that it should be light on the surface, and suddenly you get a glimpse of what is really going on underneath. And I found it very interesting when we started showing it to people — not big screenings, just a couple of friends — and we'd continue to refine it and start to realize that the film had its own life and logic that was working. Movies have their own will, in a way, and their own resistance outside of you messing it up." Can you talk about the importance of music and sound? "They're so important to me. I'm a huge fan of Jon Brion's — he's one of my all time favorite musicians and composers, so it was a big thrill to work with him. I wanted a structured, sort of old-fash- ioned score with lots of melodies, which is exactly what he gave me. I didn't want it to feel just like background or ambient sound, and I loved having the score at the end. I wanted all the songs that are in the film, like Alanis Morissette's 'Hand in My Pocket,' Justin Timberlake's 'Cry Me a River' and Dave Matthews' 'Crash Into Me,' to really feel like songs teenagers would listen to and love, just like I did. And I loved working on the sound design, and seeing it all come together." Are you going to direct again? "Yes! I loved it. I loved every moment of it. I'll probably direct more now than act, I hope, even though it takes a lot more time. It's the most fun I've ever had." Star Saoirse Ronan The director, right, on set

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