Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1062194
www.postmagazine.com 29 POST DECEMBER 2018 OUTLOOK O OUTLOOK O OUTLOOK DIRECTORS GEORGE TILLMAN, JR. The Hate U Give, Soul Food, Notorious, Men of Honor The African- American director/ writer/producer and Wisconsin native became inspired to make films of his own after seeing Taxi Driver, and in 1994 he wrote and direct- ed his first feature film, Scenes for the Soul, which cost just $150,000 to make. His follow-up, Soul Food, became a big hit, and Tillman and producing partner Bob Teitel landed a first look deal at Fox 2000, which they still maintain to this day. His new film, the ripped-from-the- headlines The Hate U Give, which pre- miered at Toronto to universal acclaim, is both a family drama and a provoca- tive examination of racial issues. STRENGTHS: "The main one is that you get to improve your film through edit- ing, and adding sound and music. For me, post is the best part of filmmaking and my favorite bit, as you get to see everything you shot and it's like rewriting the whole film. You get to focus the film, work on elevating scenes with music and sound, and it's the least stressful part. The other big strength for me is testing and sharing it with audiences. I used to hang on to my movies till I felt they were finished, but now I like to preview and test them. It's really helpful to do that early on too, so you can make tweaks and adjustments to everything from per- formances to pace and tone." WEAKNESSES: "The big one is that you can be with a movie way too long in post and start to lose perspective. When you see it over and over again, you just be- come desensitized to what your original vision was. You just get tunnel vision, and you have to learn to step out, and come back with a fresh take on it." OPPORTUNITIES: "For me, the most im- portant one is ADR, and having the chance to improve on all the dialogue, and making sure the audience can hear everything. Often you're shooting out on location and there are problems with the audio, so I love having the opportunity to fix stuff in post, and I love working with sound. I feel it's hard to over-estimate the role sound and music play, and I've worked with the same great sound team — BAFTA-winning sound editing supervisor Don Sylvester (Walk the Line), Oscar-winning re-record- ing mixer Andy Nelson (Les Miserables) and Oscar nominated re-recording mixer David Giammarco (Moneyball) — on most of my films. For The Hate U Give, I wanted a very naturalistic and realistic approach, and we did a lot of research online for scenes like the riots, to get it right and not be too big and Hollywood. We spent a lot of time on all the little details and touches, and I love doing that." THREATS: "The big threat is when you have too many opinions from producers, studio execs and all the outside forces. It's easy to start listening to every suggestion, and some of them might be really good and helpful, but you also have to maintain why you're there and what your original vision for the film was. You have to stay true to that." OUTLOOK: "When I started making movies in the '90s there was no Netflix and all these other platforms. People went to the movies. It's all changed so radically now, and I see it going to streaming, and streaming going to a whole other level. It's the future. But I hope that audiences will continue to see movies in theaters with other people. No director loves the idea of people watching their films on a tiny handheld device, alone in a room. It's important for people from all kinds of backgrounds to watch movies together and share the experience, especially if it's different from their own experiences. I remember that we screened The Hate U Give in Sacramento, and the audience was probably over 80 percent white, and it was so emotional. And how would I know how that kind of audience would actually react and feel if I hadn't been there with them in this big theater, all together? So the point is that this movie is for everyone, not just a black audi- ence. So yes, the technology is changing so fast now, and streaming is so conve- nient, but I hope and pray that people will always want to go the theater and watch a movie together." The Hate U Give U Give U