Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1436481
www.postmagazine.com 21 POST NOV/DEC 2021 OUTLOOK O DIRECTORS anyway, and COVID has cut off even more of its resources in the past two or so years. It's highly at risk, and I feel very lucky and privileged to still be able to make films. But I feel, especially for mov- ies like mine, that our days are numbered. It's a battle to get financing and it's getting harder and harder. I think the big events movies — the Marvels and Bonds and so on — will survive, as kids still love going out to see them, but I think the future is very bleak for the small, quieter kind of movie. It'd be very interesting to see if my current movie would even get a release in five years time. I'm not sure it would." SEAN BAKER Red Rocket, The Florida Project, Tangerine Since making his first film, Four Letter Words, back in 2000, the writer/direc- tor/editor/producer has created a body of work that is provocative, edgy and heartfelt. His last film, The Florida Project, premiered at Cannes in 2017 and went on to earn an Oscar nomination for co-star Willem Dafoe. STRENGTHS: "You wouldn't know that my new film, Red Rocket, has a ton of VFX, and I've come to absolutely love this part of post that's changed for me in the last few years. It's such a god- send! On The Florida Project, I realized that working digitally, we had so much control over the image in post and could do so much. Ten years ago we'd laugh when people said, 'We can fix it in post.' But now you actually can, and it's amazing. I learned that on The Florida Project, that I could remove a van or a cord or anything I didn't like that was eating up part of the frame. And I've totally embraced it to where I'm doing some manipulation in almost every frame of the film. I'm erasing some- thing, changing a sign, touching up a sky — not because they're mistakes, but because I can improve the shot. And it's driving my producers crazy! They say, 'You make these neo-realist films, shot in real locations, where it's supposed to be all reality, but now almost every shot in the film is an effects shot. Why?' And my answer is, 'They're still neo-realist films. I'm just making them better.' All films, even documentaries, are manip- ulated, and what's great is that with stabilization and seamless mattes and so on, now you can even manipulate performance on one side of the frame to the other side. I can take the timing of one actor's performance and have it on the right and slightly change the timing of the other actor's performance on the left side of the frame, and no one will ever know — even me. After watching a film for a year, even I forget what was actually manipulated in post. And I wish I'd had this ability and resource 15, 20 years ago." WEAKNESSES: "I often hear of directors who feel pressured in post by producers to change whatever, and that's why I'm always one of the producers on my films. I never have to answer to anyone, and I get final cut. So I've put myself in a place where I don't have to deal with that, but then I have to deal with lower budgets. And I won't do any test screenings. I don't believe in them." OPPORTUNITIES: "I'm always very open to what the film gods will send me in post — happy accidents, serendipity. Sometimes I don't want to know exactly what's coming, as I make hybrid movies that embrace documentary techniques. So if it rains on a shoot day, I love it — even if it's unscripted. I just work it into the scene, and I like having a lot of choic- es in my edit. So editing and post is 50 percent of my directing, and it's where ultimately the film is birthed." THREATS: "It's always time. That's the only constraint, and it's usually only a festival deadline that makes me speed up in post. That's exactly what hap- pened with my new film, Red Rocket. We suddenly had to get it ready for Cannes, and it was a real rush to get all the visual effects done in time. Otherwise I'm really happy to keep edit- ing and working on a film." OUTLOOK: "When we shot Red Rocket, the world was shut down because of COVID, but it's opening up again, so I feel pretty positive. And I've been going to a lot of screenings of it, and there's so much energy in the audiences and excitement. People have really missed the big-screen experience, and I think there's a huge desire to see films — all kinds of films, not just the huge franchise blockbusters." Simon Rex and Sean Baker during the filming of Red Rocket.