Post Magazine

February 2010

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E D I T T H I S ! loosely based linear form.There were so many characters and so many dif- ferent situations happening we had to move scenes around so you were never away from a par ticular charac- ter or stor y point for too long. This way the audience stayed with the overall story." POST: Were you on set? HERBERT: "I only popped down to set a few times to show Guy cut footage on the laptop or to second unit to make sure pick-up shots were going to match. I'm not a big fan of on-set; there's lots of sitting around waiting, and the day seems to drag. "On Revolver we tried to edit on set for like a week but gave up. I would be on an Avid Xpress laptop getting my picture feed, but while they are turning over on a take I could- n't work because I would be digitizing. After the take people would be mov- ing their equipment around and I'd have to move my station while they where setting up for the next take, so I never really got anything done." POST: Was there one scene that stands out as being more difficult than the others? HERBERT: "The big challenge was the hallucination scene, as originally it was shot and scripted as Sherlock performed the same ritual that Black- wood had performed at the crypt in the start of the movie; the idea being Sherlock was at a loss — he couldn't put the clues together to solve the case — so Blackwood appeared in the room and they had a conversa- tion. Then he woke up to Irene and Watson, which is in the movie, and then there was another montage af- terwards of him playing the violin and trying to work out the clues. "In your final act, you need it to star t pacing up and there were two montages together, which slowed the movie down and confused issues, so we made the montage as one and took Blackwood out. This seemed to simplify it. Then we had to come up with the stylistic look, which I used Final Cut Pro for as there's an effect they have on there called a Lumi- nance Dissolve that I can't find on the Avid.This helped to create the look it needed — a standalone feel from the rest of the movie." POST: Can you talk about working with the visual effects shots? HERBERT: "The end scene of the picture on Tower Bridge was the largest — pure greenscreen. Before we had started principal photography, the visual effects team [Dan Barrow and Chazz Jarrett] and Guy had cre- ated a previz, an animation of how the scene will look. However on the day of shooting — which was in New York — they decided to change a large section of the shots, which made the scene a million times better. It was fun to cut because you have to use more of a creative side of editing as your cutting a scene with just green in it, so it's a rhythmic thing. Once you selected a take and handed it over to Framestore or DNeg, they star ted work on the effect, which is a huge cost, so it's hard to go back after turn- ing over the first cut." The script was in such a "loosely based linear form," it allowed Herbert to focus on pacing and performance.

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