Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541878
www.postmagazine.com 15 POST NOV/DEC 2025 OUTLOOK FILMMAKING world, and I think that the goal is to say, whenever we get a little lost, 'Why are we making this movie?' And in Last Days, it was all about trying to connect with the lead character's humanity, and use every element, from the framing and the camera moves, to the editing and the sound. Everything is geared towards that in post. And I think, to me, that is the most important element." THREATS: "It's the age-old issue — money. It used to be that you shoot, then you come home, and you post and get to breathe, be with your family and really reflect. But now post and mixes are being moved all around the world. I think what happened to production is starting to happen to post. I've seen it, but I haven't experienced it, and I don't know how to process that yet, because I have a certain rhythm, and I have certain expectations of the post journey. Part of what's great about being away for months is coming home, right? Money always is a part of what we do in post. You just hope it doesn't become a detri- ment to the process." OUTLOOK: "As a kid, all I wanted to do was go to cinemas, but now kids don't want to go, and recently I took my 16-year-old son to see three films over a weekend, and it was like dragging him there, so I started bribing him with candy and soda, but it wasn't enough. But then he started enjoying the cinema expe- rience, and I could see that people are returning to the theaters again. Yes, you can watch things on your phone or TV, but there's still something great about going with your friends or family, sitting in a dark room with strangers, and laugh- ing or cheering together. I miss that, and I got that back, and I see it building right now, and I hope it continues." RYAN COOGLER Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, Sinners, Creed The director/writer/producer launched his career with Fruitvale Station, which won the top audience and grand jury awards at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. His commercial breakthrough came with Creed, which reinvigorated the franchise, and he followed that hit with the acclaimed blockbusters Black Panther, Wakanda Forever and Sinners. STRENGTHS: "I love all the filmmaking process, but post production is super important for me as a director and as a writer. I'm still writing in post. I'm still adding lines in ADR and in the edit. Post production is also important because it's a little bit of a changing of the guard. It's a new set of people who I'm working with every day. I'm the one constant, so it's very important that I show up and that I'm totally involved. For instance, on Sinners, my editor Michael Hawver was there in New Orleans with us, and some of his assistants were there on-set essentially every day. And our compos- er, Ludwig Göransson, was also there throughout production. And I'm there talking to every actor, every department head, making every single decision. So my institutional knowledge of how we shot the film is also extremely important in the post production process, where you punch the film up in every way." WEAKNESSES: "I think test screenings are always so helpful, and that feedback affects editing and post, but it is also a frustrating process to test a film. And on Sinners we were always testing the mov- ie in a very bad state in terms of the visu- als, as we shot on both Ultra Panavision 70mm and IMAX 65mm, but we were testing an image that wasn't represen- tative of what it was going to be. Once we went to the scans, we never tested with the IMAX aspect ratio. We never tested with a film reel. So we were always testing a little bit handicapped, and that for me as a filmmaker is always tough, but you always learn so much. And you have to test, in my opinion. You have got to put it out there and see what your average filmgoer thinks about it. But the risk is sometimes you get a leak here and there, and falsehoods and inaccuracies can spread so fast now. "For instance, the first time we showed the film, we showed two very different versions. One was a radical experiment; the other one was more the film as it ended up. We had a situation where we had a leak from the radical experiment test screening. And suddenly you got articles about what happened in your test screening and how it went. It's like, 'Man, this is an interesting time to make movies.' But at the same time, it's always worth the risk, I think, to get the film in front of people who can give you an idea of how the public is going to react to it." THREATS: "You never have enough time or money, and I've never been on a movie where a shot wasn't missing something that I remember wanting. Somehow it slipped through the cracks of all of the things that everybody's processing. It's like, 'Hey, what happened to that thing?' Because I was there, I knew to ask for it. And then it's like, you're in the middle of post and you realize it's missing, and you have to go track that down. And that takes more time and money." OPPORTUNITIES: "All those post elements become exponentially more important as you get closer to the finish line with that last little piece of color grading or that last decision. Right at the very end of post on Sinners we were still discussing what type of film outs we were going to do, like the five-perf film- out that's just in five theaters nationally. That was an 11th hour decision, and approval came after we were on track with the 15-perf 70mm IMAX, and after Sinners' Coogler says he wants to push the limits of the theatrical experience.