Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/69535
director's chair William Friedkin — Killer Joe H OLLYWOOD — Even if he never directed another film, William Fried- kin would always be remembered as one of the greats thanks to two iconic and highly influential films — 1971's thrilling The French Connection, for which he won the By IAIN BLAIR Academy Award for Best Director, and 1973's chilling The Exorcist, still considered by many to be the greatest horror film of all time. But while never prolific, Friedkin has never stopped working, and his eclectic credits include such films as Rules of Engagement, To Live And Die in LA, Cruising, Bug and Sorcerer. His latest, Killer Joe, is a twisted crime thrill- This film vet not only likes digital, he loves it. er/black comedy starring Emile Hirsch as Chris, a 22-year-old who finds himself in debt to a drug lord. To solve his problem he hires a hit man, Joe (Matthew McConaughey) — a creepy, crazy Dallas cop who moonlights as a contract killer — to dispatch his mother, whose $50,000 life insurance policy benefits his fragile sister Dottie (Juno Temple). Here, in an exclusive Post interview, Fried- kin talks about making the film, his love of post, and why he's such a big digital fan and is not sad to see the end of film. POST: What do you look for in a project, and what sort of film did you set out to make with Killer Joe? WILLIAM FRIEDKIN: "This was based on IMAGES: CHRIS.GARCIA@42WEST.NET William Friedkin on set with Emile Hirsch: "If I could have made as much money becoming an editor as I did as a director, I would have become an editor." a play by Tracy Letts, who also wrote Bug for me, and we're on the same page in our world view. I'm always interested in people whose backs are against the wall, who do very strange things to try and escape their fate. Those kind of characters — with equal parts good and evil — and stories always attract me. All my films have been about that con- stant struggle, for our better angels to thrive over our demons. I love his writing and it always starts with the script and the story." POST: Tell us about the shoot. How long was it and why did you shoot in New Orleans, not Texas where the film is set? FRIEDKIN: "It was just 19 days. I rarely do more than one or two takes. There's some- thing radically wrong if you have to do more. That's not just because I'm trying to move fast and save money, but I believe in spontaneity more than in perfection. We shot in Louisiana for the tax incentives and I found very similar locations to the ones in Dallas where much of this is set. I wasn't out to make Dallas a char- acter as I did with New York in The French Connection. I was more interested in the char- acters. And we didn't really shoot much in 12 Post • June 2012 The film was shot on Alexa — Caleb Deschanel was DP — and edited on an Avid by Darrin Navarro. it looked as good as the digital we did at Laser Pacific [now owned by Technicolor], so I'm a big fan. We got the sharpest possible focus on the characters' eyes, and that for me was the key to the whole movie — to see into their souls and eyes when they're lying and vicious." POST: Your editor was Darrin Navarro who edited Bug for you. Tell us about the editing pro- cess. Was he on set? FRIEDKIN: "No, I don't like to cut while I'm shooting. I'm so tired by the end of the day that I just need to crash. When I first began directing, I had editors show me a rough cut and I couldn't focus on it. So Darrin didn't show me anything until after the shoot. Of course he saw all the dailies and made his notes. He began as an assistant on several of my films and he's great to work with. He's very receptive and intelligent. "He had a lot of misgivings about the sex- ual and violent nature of this material, since he has a young daughter, but he realized it's a www.postmagazine.com creative work I do is with the editor, and the post sound and mixing." POST: Where did you do the post? FRIEDKIN: "We did most of it at Laser Pacific — all the color timing and digital work, and we just rented cutting rooms in Holly- wood and cut on an Avid." POST: How many visual effects shots were there? FRIEDKIN: "Not many, and the ones that look like visual effects shots — such as all the lightning shots — were real, shot on 16mm, which we made look amazing in post by heightening the flashes and enriching the blacks. The actual effects shots were things like mattes where we shot from inside a dark room to a very hot, sunny exterior with back- grounds that just blew out. So we had to do some enhancements in post, and then Digital Post Services in Louisiana did some work. We also added some red flashes to all the gun- shots at the end." New Orleans apart from the stages. We shot in smaller towns." POST: Talk about the look of the film and working with DP Caleb Deschanel, whose credits include The Natural, Being There and The Patriot. FRIEDKIN: "We shot it on the Arri Alexa and were one of the first films to use it. It was also the first time for Caleb, but we all did a crash course on it. It gives you great results in the DI, and I just did the 35mm at Technicolor, for the few theaters left that play 35mm, and great script and he contributed in all areas — not just in editing it but in post, which he supervised right to the end." POST: Do you like the post process? FRIEDKIN: "Love it! It's my favorite part and what I most look forward to and enjoy the most. If I could have made as much money becoming an editor as I did as a direc- tor, I would have become an editor. Seriously, I love editing and the post process. To me, the filming is nothing more than materials for the real filmmaking — the cutting. Most of the