Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1496872
Boulevard and set up all the editing there [Pivotal Post provided the Avid systems], along with all the postvis effects team. That was great, as we had a very tight post schedule, so I could just move back and forth, and we could see how all the visual effects were shaping up, give notes and keep them moving forward. Because of all the work out there and not enough places that can do it, it's not easy getting all the VFX done. We ended up using over a dozen vendors all over the world, including Labyrinth and Pixomondo. That means in post you end up with several VFX houses handling a series of shots that may not match and marry up correctly, so you need really good eyes watching all that. We also did some of the sound work there, and then we did all the scoring and music in LA too." Do you like the post process? "I love it. As an actor, you never get to see that whole side of filmmaking, and now I can't wait to get in the edit, and I'm very involved with every aspect of post. I'm there every day." Talk about editing with three editors — Chris Lebenzon, Jim May and Josh Shaeffer. How did that work? "I got Chris Lebenzon to edit it, and I'm a huge fan of all his work. He'd just come off Top Gun: (Maverick), and he was the main editor. Josh was on during the shoot and doing the assembly, and then he went off to do King Kong, and Chris came on. But then he had to leave for a bit, so Jim came on to cover for Chris, and Jim and I worked together for a while until Chris was able to come back. So I had different editors for little bits of time, and it was a bit like keep- ing spinning plates going, but you need more than one editor with all the action stuff and set pieces in a film like this. It all went pretty smoothly in the end." What were the big editing challenges? "It's always about pacing and tone, and telling the story the best way you can. Our initial assembly was just two hours and ten minutes — not too long, and it was all working, which was great. There were all these moving parts — the action, the romance, all the locations, the twists and turns, and it really helped that this was the third film Chris and Ana have done together. They're really good friends and they just have this wonderful chemis- try on-screen. But dealing with all the ac- tion was a big challenge, because I didn't have enough time to always previs it. "For instance, the restaurant sequence was the bulk of our shoot and the longest time we spent on any one set — about ten days. A lot of it, I was building as we went. I had a lot of shots and stuff planned, and sometimes they worked, but some- times they didn't. We had this big, long, elaborate Spidercam shot we did that just didn't work in the edit. Chris took it out and cut into it, and created a whole other bit with the B-camera roll. It's something I really love now, the moment where they start working together. And we have that great music track 'Uptown Funk' by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson. Fixing stuff like that in the edit is the big benefit of having such an experienced editor as Chris. He was like, 'Don't worry, it's there, and I'm going to be able to find a version of it that's maybe not what you initially visualized, but we'll work with what we've got.' And we had a great 2nd unit, led by Garrett Warren, who works a lot with James Cameron, and he shot the hell out of everything. I basically gave him carte blanche to go and shoot whatever he thought was fun and dynamic and inter- esting, so he gave me a wealth of material and really good extra coverage we could cut in as needed." All the VFX play a big role. What was involved? "There were a lot more to deal with than on my other films, and I like working with them, but I'm always aware of how you can lose authenticity and honesty in your film if you're not careful with the visual effects. I had a great VFX supervisor, Mike Wassel, and we did all kinds of things, like reference Indiana Jones in the bus chase, and then use VFX to complement what we shot. I love the fact that we shot the whole Khyber Pass sequence in a quarry outside Atlanta, and then created all the Afghanistan mountains and landscape with VFX, and it's totally seamless." Where did you do the DI and how important is it to you? "We did it here in LA at Company 3, with colorist Sean Coleman. Sean did the DI with Sal on The Offer, so they already had a working relationship. The DI [is] very important to me, and Sean had to walk me through a lot of it this time, as I'm so used to doing it just for a normal theatrical release. But as this is a streaming movie, it's a very different beast, and you have to bear in mind that people may be watching it on their phones or at home, so we did various versions of it with different definitions so I could understand how it'd look. I wanted it to look very cinematic and big-scale right from the start, and Sean did a great job in dialing in really rich colors, and the blacks are really dark and crunchy, and all that helps give it that edge and mood I wanted. I'm really happy with the way the film turned out." www.postmagazine.com 11 POST MAR/APR 2023 Three editors collaborated on the cut. The color grade took place at Company 3. Director Dexter Fletcher: The shoot spanned 12 weeks.