Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/49492
Todd Phillips' Hangover 2. one and working on a film and the studio's not sure when they'll even release it. Executives can't help themselves but try to tinker with a movie until it's gone. So it's nice having that date when you know you'll be done. I know people who have worked on films where the release date keeps getting pushed, and then everyone starts second-guessing and they move past their instinct and get to a place where they start changing stuff, and maybe there was a far better cut of the film before." OUTLOOK FOR 2012: "Unfortunately, I think our business is more and more driven by marketing rather than the creatives in deter- mining what movies will and will not get made. I find that saddening. Look back at all the amazing films of the '70s, which were based on people not having all this marketing data now available. There was a much bigger gut reaction to things. I do think the hope is that audi- ences generally want something new and fresh, and are begging us to ignore the data." TODD PHILLIPS Director The Hangover 1 & 2, Due Date, Road Trip, Old School Hollywood's hottest comedy director pulled off the genre's most difficult feat — an even more successful sequel, Hangover 2, which he co-wrote, and has grossed a staggering $582 million worldwide, making it the most successful R-rated comedy of all time. STRENGTHS: "Directors are by nature control freaks, and you don't control anything as much as you do in post. So I think every director loves post, because it's in your DNA to want to control it all. You can hear a single line and go, 'It's not quite right, let me just take it from this take and put it in his mouth.' So you can just do magic in post. Movies and directing are magical, and so much of that magic happens in post. Post is where the whole movie is rewritten, and I always view it as a writer, because I also write my own movies. So for me it's the final draft. I see it as a writing exercise and your last shot at the script. Get it right in post and the whole movie works. Get it wrong, and whatever footage you have probably won't work." WEAKNESSES: "I think the big weakness now is that you have so much technology available to you that sometimes it can just confuse what your original intentions were. So you have to be very careful, especially with elements like visual effects and the DI. If you're going for reality, which is what I try to do in my movies, then you have to main- tain that sense of reality. If you're going for fantasy, then you're in hog heaven with post nowadays. But it's trickier if you're going for a real- feeling look and tone. It's easy to get carried away in post now." OPPORTUNITIES: "Again, with all the new technology out there and coming along every day, there are just so many opportuni- ties and options out there. When I was shooting in the streets of Bangkok for Hangover 2, there were many times when I realized, 'Oh man, we can't get this shot here,' and then I realized that in post I could remove the big billboard that was literally in the middle of the shot, or whatever the problem was. So it frees you up so much now. You no longer worry about leaves looking like it's fall, because I know I can just change stuff in post if I have to and give it a bit of color. I love that. So if you know ahead of time just what's available to you in post, it can really free up your shooting approach." www.postmagazine.com Post • December 2011 21