Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1316365
www.postmagazine.com 15 POST NOV/DEC 2020 OUTLOOK O DIRECTORS ciers must speak up to save the director from his or her excesses. But it's also true that at a certain point the responsible director must stand firm in order to protect the financiers from their own worst excess- es. The other pitfall directors often speak about during editing is 'losing objectivity'. The best response I ever heard was from Walter Murch, who said something along the lines of, 'When I think I'm losing objec- tivity, I just dive deeper into subjectivity.'" OPPORTUNITIES: "I love the ability to use VFX to improve even a traditional, non-VFX film. We can speed or slow bits of performance, swap an actor's per- formance from one take of a two-shot into another, re-frame, you name it. Such 'cheating' has been done forever — like swapping the actor's audio of one take into another — but now it's all so easy and seamless. Plus, don't get me started on the Avid, if nothing else for all the sound work you can do instantly." THREATS: "The biggest threat during edit- ing might be if too many voices are trying to influence the director and editor. The best films really do come from a singu- lar vision — even as that vision is aided by trusted, like-minded collaborators, like co-writers and editors — and it's the director's job to protect that singularity of vision. Mike Nichols once told me that even nice directors sometimes play the role of pricks just to keep a sort of invis- ible electric fence around them. 'It's hard enough to hear your own voice.'" OUTLOOK: "This is certainly an unfair moment to ask that question, given how the plague has come the closest ever to helping TV 'win' over theater-going. I dread that theaters will now really only show 'big' movies, as has been trending for a long time already. At least the huge amount of content needed for streaming services means more human films can get made, even if not given theatrical releases, so that's the solace I take. There really is no substitute for seeing a movie projected, but will the new generation of earthlings even know that? I keep hope alive if only for the fact that a couple has to go somewhere on a Friday night." STEVE MCQUEEN 1 2 Years A Slave, Widows, Shame, Hunger, Small Axe The British director/ writer/producer burst onto the interna- tional scene in 2013 when his harrowing slave drama 12 Years A Slave dominated awards season, winning the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Picture, as well as receiving Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and DGA nominations for his directing. McQueen began his career as a visual artist, making videos and short films before his debut 2008 feature Hunger. STRENGTHS: "It's all the people, as they're the ones who carry you home and make your work the very best it can be. The thing is, once you leave the set and get into post, the work is so fragile, you know? Anything can happen, anything can go wrong, so you're really relying on your whole post team to get you to the finish line. For my current film, Small Axe, I set out to be as ambitious as possi- ble, so there are five separate films — 'Mangrove', 'Lovers Rock', 'Alex Wheatle', 'Education' and 'Red, White and Blue', and we posted all of them at Lipsync, and it was their amazing team who did everything — including all the sound and visual effects, and really helped me get through it. And I don't mean just in terms of finishing my movie, but in dealing with the pandemic. We all leant on each other, Small Axe represents Steve McQueen's latest work.