Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1189824
www.postmagazine.com 18 POST NOV/DEC 2019 OUTLOOK DIRECTORS things. It's a narrow point of view, and if you have a heart for art and a vision for your film, it's very hard. Look at Gemini Man. It cost a lot of money, it's a big com- mercial film, and people get very nervous. I used to be pretty good at hitting the sweet spot and dealing with all this, but it's getting harder, partly due to all the globalization of movies and the changing eco-system of the business." OPPORTUNITIES: "All the advances in technology over the past years have given filmmakers so many more opportunities. Creating a fully digital believable human being has been one of the hardest things to do in movies, but we're there now and I was able to do it in Gemini Man and create Will Smith's clone, Junior. When we shot a scene which had Junior alone in the scene, Will did it wearing a helmet rig which tracks his facial animation, and we had a stereo pair of cameras hanging in front that face back at Will, with all the little tracking dots on Will's face. Those cameras let us see the expressions he uses, so that in post we can make sure we're following his performance. And we used special cameras which let Will see himself project- ed on a screen as Henry, so he could play against his own lines when he acted op- posite Junior. Getting all the timing for the lines was crucial, and the end result had to be totally seamless, so that all the visual effects really turn into visual art." THREATS: "After all the hard work in post, I want to see a film in the theater, not on a phone or tiny screen or streaming. There will always be time and money threats, but I think that's a far bigger one as you lose so much visually and sound-wise on tiny screens." OUTLOOK: "To me, digital cinema and using all the technology available is the future and just logical, even though a lot of people disagree with me. I feel we're in a transitional time, and if I fully embrace all the digital tools, anything is possible because just 10 years ago I was a die-hard film guy, because that's what I'd always used and trusted. But like anything in life, things change, and now there's streaming and new platforms and more big changes on the horizon." DEXTER FLETCHER Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, Eddie the Eagle The British director/ actor started as a child actor, appearing in such films as Bugsy Malone, The Elephant Man and The Bounty before graduating to adult roles in both film (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Layer Cake) and TV (Band of Brothers). He made his directing debut in 2012 with Wild Bill and has since made a diverse slate of films, including the $903 million global smash Bohemian Rhapsody, where he took over the directing reins after Bryan Singer was fired. STRENGTHS: "The editing is absolutely the biggest strength, as it's where you make the film. It allows you to go back and refine and craft and totally remake all the material you collected on-set, and of- ten in a way that you just never thought of before you got into post. The truth is, every job in film is tough, but there are so many rewards in the edit, and you have the privilege of working on it just with the editor." WEAKNESSES: "That you can create a cut that you then show to people who then get very married to it. As the direc- tor, you're there every day in post, seeing all the little changes and millions of tiny adjustments you make — and can make, and executives and the studio often go, 'That's great.' But two weeks later you've changed something that improves a scene or the pacing or whatever, and everyone freaks out. But that's typical and part of the negotiation and navigation of getting everyone to the same end result." OPPORTUNITIES: "For me, the big ones are the VFX and all the freedom it gives you to create anything you can think of visually, and the sound. They've always been crucial, but I think with all the techni- cal advances in the past decade or so, they've really opened up so much more for filmmakers. It's very easy to focus on the sharp end of all the gear on-set – the latest LED lighting and digital cameras and so on, but it's all the gear and stuff you can do in post that is the real back- Dexter Fletcher and Taron Egerton on the set of Rocketman. Bohemian Rhapsody