Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/4585
S C H A I R lots of changes, which affect all the ideas you had in your head. So in that sense, post is like a learning process for you." POST: Your visual effects super- visor was Oscar-winner Craig Hayes, who joined The Orphanage after co- founding Tippett Studios, and whose credits include Jurassic Park, Robo- cop and The Matrix: Revolutions. What did he bring to the mix? WOO: "I'd never worked with him before but I'd seen all his work, obviously, and he came highly recommended by the guys at The Orphanage [which has since closed]. "He's such a nice guy and he's so smar t about visual effects and he knows ever ything, but the most impor tant thing for me was that he really cares. After he got the script, he studied the histor y and read a lot of books about the period, so he knew all the charac- ters and the stor y better than a lot of the Chinese on the film! That's very unusual. "So when we started to design all the CG shots, he was able to solve a lot of problems since he knew it all inside out. If I'd mention ticular shot I wanted, he knew exactly deal with it. And sometimes we'd run budget problem for the visual effects. If a bit over, I'd sometimes suggest shot, and he'd always say, 'No, no, it's a great shot, let's just tr y and work. We'll find the money some- else and keep the shot.'" How many visual effects shots are how did it break down? "There are hundreds — I lost and The Orphanage did most of Pixel Magic and Café FX also did we had a huge team of animators, compositors and so on. We didn't do any vi- effects work in China. Although I use a visual effects in my films, I don't really working with them that much, but I enjoyed doing them on this film." How important are sound and music "They're more important than di- often, and good music can give you a inspiration. I always like to listen to while I'm shooting, and especially when I'm cutting the film. And for this, I wanted a ver y international feel to the music, which is why I chose Taro Iwashiro, the Japanese composer, pianist and conduc- tor, to do the score. "I didn't want it to sound only like a Chinese film, but like a film for people in ever y countr y. And we had the Australian and Chinese teams working together on the sound mix because one of the main reasons I wanted to make this film was to tr y and draw the audience back to the- atres and make them feel, we'd better see this on the big screen and get the great sound. People watch DVDs of movies at home, or on their computer s, and they don't know what they're missing. That's why I designed such huge battle scenes with great sounds, to make audiences real- ize it's a special experience." POST: Do you have any interest in shooting digitally? WOO: "To be honest, I'm not that ex- cited about it. I still prefer film and I just feel that no matter how good the digital format gets, a movie's a movie and you'll never re- place the look and feel of film. Of course the whole post process now is digital, and that works really well and makes it more efficient and cost-effective, but I will always shoot on film if I can." POST: What's next? WOO: "I have several projects I'm devel- oping, including one in China called The Fly- ing Tigers. It's a true story about the Ameri- can volunteer pilots who fought with the Chinese against the Japanese in World War II, so it's another epic, although the main focus is on the friendship between the Chi- nese and the Americans. We'll have a lot of air fights. So there'll be a lot of CGI com- bined with real planes. I hope to start shoot- ing that next summer in China." POST: What's your view of Hollywood right now? Healthy or sick? WOO: "I think all the big studios are struggling at the moment, and the bad econ- omy has taken a big toll. It seems that they're only interested in making either the big-bud- get sc-fi or fantasy films, or the ver y low- budget comedies. All the films in the middle have gone, and it's a pity. But I'm optimistic that the business will come back, because ever yone in the world still loves to watch Hollywood movies — and not just the ones with amazing visual effects, but the hear tfelt ones as well."