Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/130212
director's chair Glenn Freemantle and his Sound 24 team, are located in Pinewood. The final sound mix was done in the Powell Theatre by rerecording mixer Ian Tapp on Dolby Atmos, which Boyle calls "amazing." a natural part of the set, which act as a warning to the audience's subconscious — that things aren't quite what they seem." POST: Where did you post it, and where does post rank for you in the whole equation? BOYLE: "I love post, and I actually love the transition from the shoot to post the most, where you moved from this huge crowded set with hundreds of people to the edit suite with just two or three of you. I love that change of tempo. All films are made in the editing room. It doesn't matter what you've done with the shooting and sets and acting and set pieces and so on — it all gets made in the edit, particularly with a nonlinear film like this, with elements that are moved around a lot to tell the story. We did the post at De Lane Lee in London and all the sound mix at Pinewood with sound designer Glenn Freemantle." POST: You worked with editor Jon Harris on 127 Hours. How was it this time round? BOYLE: "He's fantastic, and a great guy. Here's the thing about an editor — you've got to be able to share a room with them for three, four months. You're like roommates, so you have to be able to get on well. And he's very skillful. He did a rough cut during the Olympics, and then we put it on ice and walked away from it for six months. "So that was a big challenge coming back to it, as we'd forgotten parts of it. You do forget, though you never think you will. It gives you a rare, welcome glimpse of what it's like to see it for the first time, like an audience. We cut on Avid, and once we got back to it, it went pretty smoothly." POST: How many visual effects shots did you do in the end? BOYLE: Our VFX supervisor was Adam 14 Post • May 2013 Post0513_010,12-directors chairRAV3FINALREAD.indd 14 Gascoyne, who did Slumdog, 127 Hours and tend to forget just how vital sound is. As a the Olympics with me. I think we had at least rule, American films are much better on a few hundred by the end, some of them sound — even with animated films. We actuquite complex, like the scene where Vincent's ally did a mix on the new Dolby Atmos syshead is half shot away." tem, which is amazing." POST: The film has some great visuals. Do POST: Was doing a DI also very important you like working with VFX? to you? BOYLE: "I do. I like working with Adam a BOYLE: "Yes, and we did it at Technicolor lot and with all my collaborators, and I like to in London with this amazing colorist, Jeangive them all a lot of freedom. I'm not dictat- Clement Soret, who I've worked with before. ing the shots the whole time. For me, the The DP wasn't available for the whole of the secret is to hire good people and let them go grade, but it didn't really matter as he and for it. Ultimately, I'm responsible and I shape it Jean-Clement have worked together so many all, but I like them to be their own masters, times now. Like with all your key collaboraand you get better work like that. Adam runs tors, you expect them to act as though you a very small but very brilliant VFX house, would been knocked over by a bus — they Union Visual Effects, which did them all." have to carry on and make the film in the way POST: What was the most difficult effects they know you would want it to be done. I'm shot in the film? there for the whole DI as, again, I'm ultimately BOYLE: "Probably doing Vincent's partially- responsible for the way it looks, but I like to decapitated head. It took quite a while to do leave them to it." and it was done very carefully, and it turned POST: You shot this digitally? out really well." BOYLE: "Yes, on Alexa, and there's no POST: As usual, the sound and music are question now that film's dead. All the labs are also key elements in this film. closing. It's weird the way it's suddenly hapBOYLE: "They're hugely important to me pened, just overnight. It didn't seem that digital as a filmmaker. I actually believe — and we was going to finally take over shooting for a don't realize this as an audience — that it's at long time, even though post and sound went least 70 percent of a film, if not more. If you digital a decade ago. "I'm happy to shoot digitally. There's still have bad sound, any movie is unwatchable, and if you turn the sound off on any film, most something special about film, but you can't be are also unwatchable.They just don't work. It's a luddite about it. It's a new era, and when you extraordinary, and sound recordists often get consider the possibilities of what these new treated so badly on sets, even though the cameras can give you, it's pretty amazing. Look audio is so vital. But if you have a film with bad at that Russian meteor that hit earlier this year. It was totally unexpected, it hit the atmovisual quality, you can get away with it. In fact, your eye adapts quite quickly. 28 Days Later, for instance, was a very rough-looking film deliberately, and it didn't faze anyone. But there's no way around bad sound. If you can't hear dialogue and so on, it's a disaster. "The opposite side is just how effective a film can become when you have really good use of sound, and our production sound mixer Simon Hayes had a very simple brief — be fanatical about the clarity of all Jon Harris cut Trance on an Avid Media Composer. He the dialogue, especially what Rosario worked previously with Danny Boyle on 127 Hours. was saying. We wanted it to be super-real, almost like it was in your own head, sphere at 44,000mph, and thanks to all the telling the tale and hypnotizing you. Then all dashboard digital cameras in cars in Russia, we those tracks got passed on to (supervising have the most images ever of this thing sound editor/sound designer) Glenn Free- exploding. It's mind-blowing!" mantle and his team at Sound 24, and then POST: Any interest in doing a 3D film? we added all the music from Rick Smith, and BOYLE: "None. I like all my films to feel like that way you get a great soundscape that they're 3D anyway. I wear glasses, so it's no fun lures people into the film. for me anyway — two pairs of glasses? Forget "I've always been very particular about it (laughs). But I loved Life of Pi. The 3D in that sound, and I feel that British films sometimes was extraordinary and so beautiful." www.postmagazine.com 5/2/13 4:32 PM