Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541878
OUTLOOK FILMMAKING we were on track with Dolby HDR, and it paid off." OUTLOOK: "My whole goal is to give the audience a visual and aural experience each time. That's become increasingly important to me the more I work in this industry. And I think it's a product of me recognizing the existential threat that this form of entertainment — seeing a movie in a dark room, with a giant screen, surrounded by strangers — now faces, especially with all the cell phones and all the streaming. Things that are competing for human attention right now. And I'm obsessed with doing the things that only movies can do theatrically — the visual and the audio — and I'm always trying to push the limits and take advantage of that whole experience." BILL CONDON Kiss of the Spider Woman, Dreamgirls, Chicago, The Twilight Saga The director/writer began his career as a film journalist and screenwriter. He won an Oscar for his 1998 debut Gods and Monsters, and has since become one of Hollywood's top directors, with a diverse body of work that includes the Oscar-winning Dreamgirls, Kinsey, The Good Liar and the final two parts of the mega-franchise The Twilight Saga. STRENGTHS: "As a writer, it just feels as if it's the final draft, and I do think you have to go into post with this kind of blank-page approach. We have all this material now, so what is it? Let's look at it and see what it really is. And, as opposed to being a writer alone, working on the script, you have a wonderful editor who is just looking at the film and responding to that. So, I think it's the reinvention of it that's so exciting." WEAKNESSES: "I think I'm sort of half- way in the Soderbergh world, where I'm not sure that having a lot of time in post is so necessary, honestly. I really like to work fast and instinctually. What I don't like — and never will like — is the focus group at a test screening. I think it's an entirely artificial construct, and I'd rather have people I know and trust see it and give their feedback. And it's not just friends. I have smart people around who can also be quite tough with their opin- ions. I just don't believe in focus groups, but I think almost every studio financier lives or dies by it, and that's a shame." OPPORTUNITIES: "If I go back to Twilight, there was this massive battle in the second movie, and that was some- thing that we mostly created in post, and it was just remarkable when I look back to 13 years ago. At the time, dealing with all the VFX was quite a steep learning curve for me, but it was amazing to realize what opportunities it gave you. Like, 'Oh god, it'd be great to have this moment, and that moment.' When you're dealing with mostly digital creatures and things, you can do it. I think I was shocked by how much you can create in post. And in general, I would say the thing that cuts across the movies I do is that they are mostly heightened experi- ences that are hoping to deliver a certain amount of emotional connection and pleasure. And I think that is the great thing that happens in post — the combi- nation of editing rhythm with sound and music, even when it's not a musical. But a movie like Breaking Dawn is entirely driv- en by the score. That is the big thrill of post, when you see all those things come together, and it feels like everything gets lifted emotionally." THREATS: "I've worked in many different areas, from big studio films to smaller projects, which are entirely independent, such as Kiss of the Spider Woman, and there are certain areas in post where everybody thinks they're an expert. And my feeling is that unless you've been really under the hood and gone back and looked at every frame of film, and tried it a thousand ways, you should trust me when I say, 'This is the best version.' I really do believe that, and so, the worst thing is when you hear the boilerplate complaint. You can write it down before they even say it, such as: 'Oh, it's just too long.' Really? Where? What would you cut? After as many years as I have spent making films and working on post, you kind of lose your patience for those conversations." OUTLOOK: "Look at all the great films out or coming out right now — A House of Dynamite, Hamnet, Sentimental Value, Lost Bus, One Battle After Another, The Long Walk, If I Had Legs, Roof Man, It Was Just an Accident, Tron, Ballad of a Small Player — all in theaters, right? So, that reminds me of what it was like when we all went to the movies all the time and loved movies, and now this post-pandemic lull is over, it's time for the audience to step up. So, for the grown-up audience that bemoans the fact that it's only Marvel movies now, well, that's just not true. So I'm optimistic Kiss of the Spider Woman represents some of Condon's indie work. Bill Condon