Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/137897
and set up his Avid gear, and it can be done on a laptop now. Then after his first assembly, we did the main cut on the lot at Sony." POST: How many visual effects shots did you do in the end? NICCOL: "There are hundreds and hundreds. I lost count. Every alien eye had to be done. I used contact lenses, but then we would grab that as a matte and enhance it. We used a lot of vendors, including Rodeo FX in Montreal, Chaos, Sandbox F/X, Post Matters, Capital T, Freestyle, EDFX, Juggernaut, Ace, Rotofactory and Gradient Effects. But what I do is chase the artists I really like. I'm not really loyal to companies so much as to the artists, so if they move companies, so do I. That was a big part of it as I'm more interested in the artistry of VFX than the technology, and I find I use vendors everywhere in the world now. "I have a great company I use in India, and for clean-up stuff on this they were invaluable. As there's no commerce in the film's world, there's no signage, so we had to take out every single sign and traffic lights, since the aliens are so polite and law-abiding that they don't need any of that stuff. So you can send a shot to India in the morning and it'll come back the next day, and it just costs you $200. Amazing! I don't even know where the guy is." POST: The film has some stunning visuals, such as the all-chrome cars and helicopters the Seekers use to track down humans. Do you like working with VFX? NICCOL: "Yes, I love it, but I've often had discussions where digital artists are saying, 'Well, the light is coming from this side so it the cave,' and I just go, 'Who cares? It looks better.' So I tend to take a lot of license with VFX, and I'll always go for beauty over logic. It's amazing what you can do now, but you have to also consider budget and so on. "The weird thing is that often VFX look more realistic in the end.There's a glow-worm scene where at first we thought we'd just do it practically, with lots of small lights and dimmers to turn them on and off. So we did a test, and immediately went, 'Get the greenscreen.' Because it didn't look real enough! Even with something simple like a bullet squib, I prefer to use VFX now instead. "I've lost so much time in my life watching someone stick a wire up an actor's arm to the squib, and then the timing's wrong and the squib goes off early, so it's, 'Let's do it again… and again.' Now I just send the shot to India and it's perfect. If I want a little more blood, or less, it's no problem. So the pendulum's swung the other way, and some things I just don't do practically anymore. You just fix it in post, though I don't like hearing that phrase, as it's easy for people to say." POST: As usual, the sound and music are also key elements in this film. NICCOL: "It's hard to over-stress There were hundreds and hundreds of effect shots, many how important sound is. I love invisible, spread out among a number of vendors. being able to bring new music into the world. I can do a lot of other shouldn't be doing that,' and I just go, 'Yeah, things and crafts. I could shoot a film and art but it's far more beautiful that way.' So with direct it and edit — but I can't write music. the wheat field in the cave, they would tell me, That's the language I understand the least, so 'No, the light couldn't reach that far back in getting all the sound and music right is very important to me. I work with Paul Massey. who's probably one of the best mixers on the planet — he's done everything from Spider-Man to Rango and Pirates of the Caribbean — and he mixed all the dialogue and music, and did a great job. "Sometimes when I'm doing a scene and I'm feeling something false about it, I'll close my eyes while we're shooting it and just listen, as sometimes the truth is actually in the sound. You can fool the eye, but you can't fool the ear in the same way. Actors will hate me for saying this, but I happily replace dialogue and you can change a performance so much by doing that." POST: Was doing a DI also very important to you? NICCOL: "Yes, we did it at Efilm with colorist Mitch Paulson, and again, I follow the colorist around, not the company. The DI is great because it's not exactly a rewrite, but you can tweak and vignette elements and change the look of a single frame for the better." POST: Any interest in doing a 3D film? NICCOL: (Laughs) "I always thought we were watching 3D at the movies. I still remember the first time I saw Lawrence of Arabia as a kid. Don't tell me I wasn't watching 3D. I'm serious. It was so immersive. But to go and do 3D to a film after it's been shot in 2D is pretty horrendous, I feel. Do it for a reason, not just because you can and can charge more." POST: What's next? NICCOL: "I'm juggling a couple of projects. I've got to be in love with something before I totally commit." www.postmagazine.com The film was edited by Thomas Nordberg on an Avid Media Composer. Post • June 2013 9