Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1436481
www.postmagazine.com 20 POST NOV/DEC 2021 OUTLOOK DIRECTORS COVID. Suddenly post was all remote, and that's OK for some things, like visual effects, if you're all set up with the right monitors and so on. But I think it's very difficult in terms of editing if you're unable to be in the same room with your editor. And COVID is a threat in other ways. For instance, on King Richard we also found that we still needed addi- tional photography after the studio had seen the cut. We needed crowd shots and reaction shots for the big climactic match at the end of the third act that we hadn't been able to get at the height of COVID. So the studio let us shoot for two more days, but that then obviously de- layed and shifted our post schedule, and added a few extra weeks to it, and that can be very challenging for all the other departments who need their elements in order to do their jobs. So it was a race to the finish line." OUTLOOK: "Obviously the pandemic has decimated the movie business and the- ater-going, but I'm an eternal optimist and I feel optimistic about the future. The box office is doing far better now. People are going back to theaters and feeling more comfortable leaving their homes. Yes, there's far more competition now from streaming platforms and TV, but I feel people will always want that big-screen experience with all the great sound and so on. There's just no substitute." MIKE MILLS C'mon C'mon, Beginners, 20 th Century Women Acclaimed indie writer/director Mike Mills is a master at creating semi-auto- biographical, small, intimate films about big issues, including family dynamics, love and the human condition. Beginners, which won an Oscar for star Christopher Plummer, is loosely based on his father. 20 th Century Women is a love letter to his mother. C'mon C'mon was inspired by his young son and parenthood. STRENGTHS: "The really big one is that post gives you so many chances to get it right. You do many cuts of your movie and show it to people, and then adjust and you learn. You have the time to figure out the mistakes, try it again and then move on." WEAKNESSES: "It's always a money/ time problem. You always need more of both, and there's this ticking clock. It's not the same pressure as in a shoot, but you always feel it, even when you have a very long process, like on C'mon C'mon, where no one even knew we were making the movie, and we were able to spend nearly a year off and on editing, partly because of COVID." OPPORTUNITIES: "For me, it's the chance to do more writing as I'll rein- vent a scene or even add a scene that wasn't in my script. Post gives you the opportunity to figure out something new about your film that you just didn't understand either in the writing process or in shooting it. But all of a sudden you get it in post, and it's like the last chance to jump out of the plane. So it's this opportunity to continue writing, and really to start over again. For instance, on C'mon C'mon we ended up doing a few days of re-shoots, and there's a bit where Joaquin [Phoenix], who plays this radio journalist, is reading an essay, and it wasn't in the script, and it perfectly described his character. I had a bunch of extra footage of all the interviews we did with the kids, so we went through all the material and found moments that really worked, and we ended up with this whole brand-new scene, which worked so well. And those sort of things can only happen in post." THREATS: "It's losing your plot and losing your conviction. Once you start showing your film to people, you inevitably get criticism and some bad responses, so you have to hold on to that original feeling and vision you had for the film. And I really rely on audiences and their reactions — but it's not like I do test screenings to complete strangers. During the edit I probably show a film at least 15, 20 times to friends — and at least 30 of them, which is a lot of people. And I real- ly invite them to be critical, and that's key to me in understanding a film and how it relates to the world. The truth is, as a writer/director, by the time you're deep into post, you've lost the plot a long time ago, and what it actually means to other people. It's like you're driving your car by only looking in the rear-view mirror a month into the edit. You've seen it all too many times and you've lost all objectivity." OUTLOOK: "The pandemic has changed so much about going to the movies, but I'm still a huge fan of that community experience you only get in a big theater full of strangers and with a big screen. It's like this magical, pagan, anti-capital- istic experience, which I increasingly find really beautiful and strange — a bunch of strangers sit down and watch this dream in a dark room. What a weird thing! Sadly, I feel it's an endangered species Mike Mills and Joaquin Phoenix on the set of Cmon, C'mon.