Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/312687
www.postmagazine.com Post • May 2014 13 very calm period where you can finally sit down, really see what you have, and then begin to carve out the film." POST: Where did you do the post? PFISTER: "We set up all our post offices on The Lot in Hollywood, and did all the edit- ing there. And D Neg would shoot over files and we'd give notes. Every day we'd have a CineSync session with them and then a Skype session where we could go over shots and what they were doing, so it was a great set up." POST: The film was edited by David Rosen- bloom, who also cut Immortals and Friday Night Lights. Tell us about that relationship and how it worked? PFISTER: "I loved his work, especially on The Insider, and he has a terrific sense of per- formance, which was very important to me as a newbie. And he's a great collaborator in terms of the visual imagery I wanted in the film. He wasn't on the set but we did old- school dailies every night. David, myself, and the DP and his crew all sat in a trailer and watched film dailies, just like I did with Chris Nolan for years. It's the best way to do it, as I could lean over to him and tell him what takes I liked and so on." POST: How many visual effects shots are there in the film? PFISTER: "There's over 500 total, with some pretty complicated ones." POST: What was the most technically diffi- cult shot to pull off? PFISTER: "I'd guess that all the shots fea- turing the nano-technology were very difficult to pull off. I was obsessed with finding some- thing really original that had never been seen before, and the nano-technology became a bit of a character in the story, so it had to look really impressive. It took a long time to get it right, and poor Nathan would keep trying stuff until finally we were like, 'That's it!' But I absolutely loved working with all the VFX and all the team at D Neg. I flew over to London for a week to meet them all and I'd work with all of them again in a heartbeat. That whole part of post was really one of my favorite parts of making the film." POST: Can you talk about the importance of music and sound to you as a filmmaker? Where did you do the mix? PFISTER: "We did the mix at Technicolor on the Paramount lot, which was just amazing for me. I had a really great team of sound edi- tors and mixers, and it's hard to overestimate the importance of music and sound to your film. Composer Mychael Danna, who won the Oscar for Life of Pi, wrote a wonderful score, and I can't really imagine the film without it — that's how important it is. Same with all the sound effects and so on." POST: The DI must have been vital. How did that process help? PFISTER: "Enormously. I had a great timer, Mato at Fotokem, who also did the dailies. We actually did a film finish first and struck a complete answer print with Mato, who I've worked with for 25 years now. He color-timed my very first film, with Roger Corman — and then I creat- ed a DI with another timer, Sparkle, at Technicolor, who I've also worked a lot with over the years. He does all my commercial work, and he also did all the color work on the dailies, so he knew the film better than anyone, and I was right in my comfort zone. I had all these great people I've worked with on tons of projects, who all really stepped up to help me do my first film." POST: Did the film turn out the way you hoped? PFISTER: "It did, but I learned that any film is this sort of organic beast that takes on a life of its own, especially in post. When I look back on the process now and what I was expecting, it did change as I went along." POST: What's next? Do you want to direct again? PFISTER: "As soon as I can. I loved the whole experience. Have I given up being a DP forever? I don't know, but the bottom line is I have no plans on doing any shooting. In fact — and this is a scoop — I just joined David Fincher's new company, Reset, to direct com- mercials, which is very exciting for me. I can't wait to direct again." POST: Is film dead? PFISTER: "Absolutely not. There are still enough filmmakers — including Chris Nolan, Spielberg, JJ Abrams, Paul Thomas Anderson, and also a lot of indie guys, who love film and only shoot film. Chris is very angry that film projection has virtually gone, and I agree with him. As a DP, there's no question that our 35mm print is still the best version you can see of this film. It still has the best contrast, color saturation, deep blacks and so on. And in terms of capture, they brag about 4K digital cameras, but there's no question that 35mm anamorphic film is between 8K and 10K. And when you blow it up side by side you can see there's still no comparison. Do audiences notice or care? I don't know, but I honestly don't think film is dead, whatever they keep saying. Why would we trade our oil paints for a set of crayons?" Technicolor handled the film's DI. Editor David Rosenbloom cut the feature, which stars Johnny Depp.