Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533763
more, and added ADR gags and jokes in the post-production process. So, it was a really deep, ongoing refinement that is much more akin to how you would make an animated movie, I think, than a typical live-action film." Was there ever a point where you felt, if you didn't get the CG dwarfs right, the whole film might not work? "In the first edit it felt like they were basically postvis or previs, or very early animated versions of those characters, and you couldn't really feel their emo- tions because the face work, which is so much a part of the emotional depth of a character, with all the nuances and the micro gestures — where their heads turn, and where their smile dips, and where the eyelids show the micro emotions — was not in that first cut. So it took a long time, a lot of imagination and patience to work through that. To find the level of nuance and humanity and moments of real emotional authenticity in those characters was a real challenge." How tough was the actual shoot, as you had a ton of locations and all the sets to deal with? "It was logistically hard, but most of that sat on the assistant director and the line producer. I would just talk about how much time I needed in each place. We built so many of the sets on the back- lot of Pinewood, and shot in some real locations, like the woods. The key was doing a lot of preparation, and so much work can be a slog, and you can lose sight of what you're doing if you're not vigilant. But every time you stepped onto a set you were stepping into this magical world, and it was very palpable." Where did you do all the post? "Primarily in London, and partly in Montreal for the VFX with MPC and Framestore. And our animation director would come out to LA, and we would go back to London. And we did a lot of Zoom calls with Montreal. There was work done in India and all around the world with a variety of vendors, as is the case with most big movies these days. Post took a couple of years, because the strike happened right in the middle of it, which put us on hiatus for a while." You had two editors. How did that process work? "Mark Sanger was editing on-location in England. And then when we went on hiatus, he went to work on another film, and we just didn't have an editor for a long time. So we brought in Sarah Broshar, who has worked with Steven Spielberg for many years, and she's just incredible and brought a really delicate touch to the finishing of the film. She and Mark were not working simultaneously, but they were in communication to a degree, and we kept on etching away at the most streamlined, emotional version of the movie." You began as an editor, so you must love editing? "Yes, and that background's given me a kind of freedom and a vernacular as a director. I think the editorial process is a fascinating one and so misunderstood or underestimated. It really is a kind of writ- ing, both from a structural perspective, but also in delivering so much nuance to the performances, and to the emotional depth and attitude of a film." You had a lot of VFX vendors, so who did what? "It was primarily MPC and Framestore, and the animals and most of the dwarfs were done by MPC, and Framestore did some of the birds and some of the set extensions. And Crafty Apes, Lola, Cheap Shot, Passion and Vitality also did work. The most difficult visual effects shot to get right was where Snow White is swinging Dopey around in 'Whistle While You Work,' because it involved interac- tion with a live-action character and the CG Dopey. We had to shoot the motion capture section first, then we reshot it, and then we shot her moments between that. And then it had to interact with real objects within the room that she had interacted with. So, it was really quite complex and by far the most technical three or four minutes I've ever done. That process probably took two or three years to complete." What about the DI? Who was the colorist and how closely did you work with them and the DP? "It was Yvan Lucas at Company 3, and he tries to emulate the film color-timing, photo-chemical process as a guideline. He has such a beautiful eye and under- stood the magic and whimsy that we were trying to create. "Our DP, Mandy Walker, really led the charge on the DI, and she had so many visual references, starting with the original animated version of the film and how we wanted the queen's costumes to feel dark, but still have texture and layers. And all that drove a lot of the conversa- tion around the color. But you also want it to feel emotional, vibrant and specific. "The sets were painted in a way so that when the evil queen comes to town, it loses its color and becomes much more muted, and the blues were real dominant in that moment. When Snow White gets to the forest and to the cottage, there was a much more vibrant color palette, with a lot of color separation and a touch of warmth that contrast with the Queen's world. And that was a language that was developed early on and was carried through to the DI, which was a very elaborate, long, steady, carefully-constructive process. "I spent more time in the DI on this movie than on any other movie. That's how crucial it was to how the final film looks. It's designed to deliver delight, and I think we all felt that the entire way through the process of making the film." www.postmagazine.com 11 POST MAR/APR 2025 Framestore and MPC handled most of the VFX.