Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512899
www.postmagazine.com 17 POST NOV/DEC 2023 OUTLOOK O O OUTLOOK O OUTLOOK FILMMAKING prepared as I can be, and I want friends and family to be as honest as possible with me and their feedback in those early screenings." OUTLOOK: "My last film, Dumb Money, was a $25 million indie film about a real- life story, and it's very hard to find a foot- hold in the theatrical experience now for a film like that. Obviously, you've got all the big-budget, tentpole, superhero films that are a great experience in a theater, with great sound and so on, but I really hope that smaller films will still resonate with audiences, and that the community experience of going to see a film in a the- ater will survive. The business is always changing and I'm pretty hopeful about the future." GARETH EDWARDS Godzilla; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; The Creator The British writer/director's acclaimed sci-fi thriller debut feature, Monsters, established Edwards as a multi-faceted filmmaker. Hollywood quickly took notice and tapped him to direct Godzilla, the hit 2014 reboot of the famed franchise, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first installment of the Star Wars anthol- ogy series and a billion-dollar box oŸce global blockbuster. STRENGTHS: "Making a movie's a bit like running around a supermarket and piling everything into the trolley, and post is the kitchen where you take all the ingredi- ents and actually make the meal, and I love post. I find shooting the film very traumatic, like being at war, but however hard post gets, you're still sitting on a sofa, not sweltering in a jungle or freez- ing. There's no problem that you can't solve in post." WEAKNESSES: "Lack of time. You're always racing to screen it in post. You have to show it to people and get feed- back, change it, show it again. Often you feel you don't have the time to just make your film, as you're always trying to please an audience, so when the film's finally locked, you don't want to have any regrets — any little niggles that you've missed something. But it's nearly im- possible to get there, because you need about four years to experiment with all the stuˆ you can do in post — VFX, sound and so on — and really feel there's no better version of it out there. Like they say, 'It's never really finished — just abandoned.'" OPPORTUNITIES: "I think the conflict you often get between people in post is a great opportunity. I complain about it at the time, and you get a lot of pressure and very persuasive arguments about why you should or shouldn't do some- thing, whether it be from the studio or editorial, and all that may make post a bit less enjoyable, but I think it makes for a stronger film in the end. It's very tempting to just surround yourself with yes-men and do exactly what you want, but when you look at other directors who've done that, I feel their films start to suˆer. Having that conflict and being challenged is ultimately a great chance to improve your film." THREATS: "I actually think post is going to get better. Does anyone look back to the days of editing on a Steenbeck and wish they could go back to film bins and trims? But it's weird because as the tools have improved and it all went digital, I feel that the movies are maybe not as good. All my favorite films are pre-digital. So maybe every time post and film- making gets easier, it doesn't make for a better movie. Maybe making it easier has also threatened the artistic process. Maybe you should really have to spend time thinking about exactly where you're going to cut, because before digital, the hassle of re-editing was just too much. I find this super fascinating as someone who's always harkening back to the classic movies of the '70s and '80s — the films I grew up with — which had so many limitations. They're the high bench- mark for me — the level I always strive to reach as a filmmaker." OUTLOOK: "AI is obviously going to be a big factor, although it's very hard to predict what will happen. I think it will help democratize filmmaking a bit more, so you might be able to paint, or edit, or create VFX without having the same skill set you need today. Whether that will be a great thing for cinema or not is hard to say. I do think that if you took someone from the '30s and showed them a random, generic film of today, their mind would be blown, right? But it doesn't blow our minds. We don't care. We're not interested. That tells you that as all the tools and equipment get better, we take it for granted and place more value in things that are truly exceptional. It's amazing what you can do now on an iPhone and a laptop, and the gap between the amateur and the profes- sional is getting smaller and smaller. What hasn't changed is that the very exceptional people and things that are created are the most important and highly-prized in the world." Edwards on the set of his most recent film, The Creator.