Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/54443
director's chair needed to be the one who hasn't seen all the footage. So a week after I finish shooting, Ron has a cut, and then I can just watch it like any movie, and it's the only chance I have to be that objective. Then I go into the editing room and work on it. On my next film, Cosmopolis, which I've shot already, I did my director's cut in just two days — a record!" POST: Do you like the post process? CRONENBERG: "I like it very much, though I don't mind it being as short as it seems to be now. Really, the biggest part of post for me now is the sound mix, not the edit. I just don't spend a lot of time in the editing room." POST: Where did you do the post? CRONENBERG: "In Toronto, at Deluxe. We also did all the sound mixing there too. Since it was a Canada-Germany co-produc- the trans-Atlantic liners coming to New York, which are combinations of live foot- age and CGI. I have even more visual effects shots in Cosmopolis." POST: Tell us about audio and the mix. How important is it in your films? CRONENBERG: "Huge, and it's also the least glamorous and least-covered aspect of the whole filmmaking process. Before 3D, sound gave you that three-dimensionality, so it's so crucial to have the ambiance right, the footsteps right, the whole tone right. I have a great team I've worked with a lot, including my mixer Orest Sushko and sound editors Wayne Griffin and Michael O'Farrell. Orest works in LA, but he has a deal that allows him to always come back to Toronto to mix my films, and he'll be in Paris when we do the mix for Cosmopolis. with the Arri Alexa, the first time for Peter and me. And Peter, who's not a tech head and is quite a traditionalist, said he never wants to go back to film again." POST: So is film dead? CRONENBERG: "It's dead. It's like stills. Who shoots stills? Only stills photographers and fashion photographers and you're trying to differentiate yourself from everyone else, so you shoot massive Polaroids. Film's dead — no question." POST: So do you think you will shoot digi- tally from now on? CRONENBERG: "Absolutely. It was a question of working with Peter, and as my DP he loves digital now. We had this film showing at various festivals, and I remember coming in at the end of one screening and I thought, 'Oh no — they're projecting it on film,' because I This German-Canadian production got its DI and post at Deluxe Toronto. tion, we had to spend money in Canada." POST: How many visual effects shots were there in the film? CRONENBERG: "It's actually my biggest visual effects film so far — we have over 220 shots, all done by Mr. X in Toronto, who have done a lot of stuff for me. Once again, talking about the look and sense of nature, all the Burgholzli clinic interior scenes are sets, so it means that the greenscreen is what your windows are. They're all green- screen and then have to be replaced by shots of Lake Zurich and so on, to give the feeling there of that openness, that you can run out of the Burgholzli and be in this orchard. So any time you see a window, it's a greenscreen shot. "If you're moving the camera, it can be quite a complex visual effects shot to get the perspective right and the out-of-focus level proper appropriate to the lens you're using and so on. Then are all the shots on 14 Post • February 2012 "I'm very involved in the mix, and that can take a long time, but no one bothers me during ADR, say, unless they feel we need to loop something." POST: Did you do a DI? CRONENBERG: "Yes, also at Deluxe Toronto. I've done a lot of DIs and I love digi- tal. I can't wait to get rid of film, to be honest. I still remember the first time I saw a Moviola, since the first films I edited were on a Movi- ola, and this editor showed me how to use one in just 10 minutes, and I said, 'I can't believe this is right! It tears your sprockets, it's so noisy you can't even hear the sound.' So when flatbed systems came in, I thought, 'This is an advance, but they're still pretty primitive.' It was so obvious that the film version of word processing was necessary, and though I have an affection for typewriters, I was so happy to get rid of those too. So I'm all for the digital revolution. "We shot this on film but shot Cosmopolis www.postmagazine.com could see the weave. The film was moving around and squirming and wiggling, and you just don't get that with digital. I've actually been digital for years." POST: Tell us about Cosmopolis. CRONENBERG: "It's based on the novel by Don DeLillo, all about this one day in New York, and I have a great cast — Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamatti, Juliet Binoche. We're doing the post right now and then mixing it in Paris." POST: Any interest in doing a 3D film? CRONENBERG: "I lived through all the 3D movies in the '50s, and it worked then — up to a point. So I'm not convinced it's even necessary, although a few like Avatar really work in 3D. "The thing that excites me about movies is not what's enhanced by 3D. But then again I like playing with toys, so if there was a project that might benefit from 3D, might try it." I