Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1208556
DIRECTOR'S CHAIR www.postmagazine.com 15 POST JAN/FEB 2020 balloon? How do you fit the cast in the basket? How do you freeze the balloon when it gets to 37,000 feet? How do you cut the basket off the balloon? How do you shoot the parachute opening? There were a million details and we spent a lot of time in pre-production, so that by the time we actually started shooting, we had as many of the answers as we could. But then of course there's all the stuff on the day, and new problems that crop up." Where did you post? "Mainly in London. Deluxe did our picture post and we did sound post produc- tion at Boom Post with sound designer Andy Kennedy, and then mixed in Dolby Atmos at Halo with re-recording mixers Stuart Hilliker and Lee Walpole, who did Les Misérables. And Atmos was perfect for this as you can hear every creak and movement right above your head along with the balloon in 3D space. In fact, the sound — or lack of it — was crucial to the film, as when you're that high you hear the wind and the balloon noises, but no traffic or the usual street noise of a city. I love working on post and all the editing and sound." Talk about editing with your regular editor Mark Eckersley, whose credits include Peaky Blinders and The Crown. How did that work? "We've worked together a long time and he cut projects like War & Peace and Cubs for me, and he was on the set quite a bit when we were shooting in the stu- dio. We were there about six weeks, and then we went off on location for about a month. So he'd cut as we shot, and I stay out of the cutting room as much as possible while we're shooting, although I can't help myself sometimes. I trust him implicitly, and if there's a problem he lets me know, but in general I don't worry too much about the rushes as the danger is you start worrying about fixing problems in coverage you've already shot, instead of thinking about the next day's work. I like to give him a decent amount of time to do the assembly as he always comes up with ideas that I never thought of." What were the big editing challenges? "The main one was dealing with all the flashbacks and the realtime structure, as right from the start of the project part of the conceit was that this is a realtime flight, from start to finish, and I wanted to stick to that flight plan as much as possible. It had to be in realtime, and that's sort of the reason for all the flash- backs. But when we wanted to change the order of some of them, or write in new bits and pieces, then obviously there was a knock-on effect on the rest of the edit, and that became a big challenge. And we found that we ended up moving around the flashbacks far more than we ever thought we would, so getting that right took quite a lot of time playing around with the order." Obviously all the VFX play a big role. Talk about working on them with VFX supervisor Louis Morin, whose previous credits include Arrival and Beauty and the Beast. "Yes, they're a huge part of a film like this, and he was on the set most of the time. We actually got to know each other from cloud photography, as we knew that in the same way we wanted to do as much real flying as possible, we also wanted all the visuals in the sky to be as real as possible, even though we knew we'd never be able to do all that. But it was our starting point, and we went around the world, to places like South Africa and New Orleans, as well as the UK and London, scouting and trying to find the best cloud formations. So early on we went to New Orleans with these Red array cameras that cover a very wide angle — something like 150-degrees — and give you these huge vistas. In the end, we used a mix of real skies, some full-CGI ones, and some were a combination of both. And the real skies not only provided a great reference for Framestore and Rodeo, but it gave us the benchmark for all the other back- grounds. And then Louis and his team added a lot of wind and weather VFX, and we used a lot of blue screen in the studio with a special lighting rig George Steel's crew created." What was the most difficult VFX shot to do? "I'd say some of the wide shots of the really big CGI clouds, and we couldn't do some of the storm photography for real as it's just too dangerous to get a helicopter up above a big storm, so most of that had to be CGI, and it was a big challenge. Getting it to look good was relatively easy, but making it look believable was very hard and it took a very long time with all the processing and adjustments. In the end, it was the mix of the moving 3D skyscape, some animation and painting that worked best, and a lot of artistry went into it." Where did you do the DI and how important is it to you? "It's vital and we did it with colorist Simone Grattarola, and he's worked with me and the DP on many of our films and projects. Getting the grade right was very challenging, especially with the sunsets and getting the balance right be- tween the sun's warmth and highlights, and the cool lowlights of the clouds, and all the VFX and plates we'd shot." Did the film turn out the way you hoped? "It did, especially in terms of the way it looks. We had a brilliant concept artist draw a bunch of frames right at the start, and they really captured what I wanted, and if you compare them to the finished film, they're remarkably close." For more on the film's visual effects work by Framestore, see our story upfront, in Bits & Pieces. The skyscape is a combination of real and CG elements. Post took place in London at Deluxe.