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October 2012

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director's chair H By IAIN BLAIR Martin McDonagh — Seven Psychopaths OLLYWOOD — Writer/producer/ director Martin McDonagh won an Academy Award for "Best Live This writer/ producer/director still believes in film. Action Short Film" for Six Shooter, his first foray into film, and followed that project with his feature film debut, the critically-acclaimed In Bruges. Starring Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes and Brendan Gleeson, the gangster action/comedy premiered at Sundance in 2008 and won McDonagh a BAFTA Award and an Oscar nom for Best Original Screenplay. In his new film, the accurately titled Seven Psychopaths, McDonagh spins a tale about some incompetent dognappers and vengeful mobsters that reunites him with Farrell, along with a stellar cast that includes Woody Har- relson, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits — and a pampered shih tzu. Behind-the-camera talent includes DP Ben Davis (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Debt), production designer David Wasco (Inglourious Basterds, The Royal Tenenbaums), editor Lisa Gunning (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Love You More) and composer Carter thing much more cinematic than Bruges." POST: Is it true you were unsure about tackling this complex and multi-layered story as your debut film, even though you already had the script? McDONAGH: "Yeah. It was written just after Bruges, but the scope of this was just too big — and the cast was far bigger, and there was so much more going on, with all the flashbacks and different stories and shootouts, and just the look of it. I just didn't McDONAGH: "We had a 41-day shoot, starting last November through January, and it was all in Los Angeles, and then out in the Joshua Tree desert. I like shooting. The prep is hard but once on set, I find it quite joyful." POST: This was your first time working with DP Ben Davis. What did he bring to the mix? McDONAGH: "He's got a brilliant eye for the cinematic shot but he's also a great driving force on set. He's helpful and nurturing, but he also drives you through it. I'll block a scene Martin McDonagh on set (standing, in black parker): "As good as they say the digital stuff is getting, it never felt quite good enough for all the night shooting and stuff with fire we had to shoot, so we went back to film." Burwell (In Bruges, Where the Wild Things Are). Here, in an exclusive Post interview, McDonagh talks about making the film, his love of post, and working with animals. POST: You started off as a playwright. What was the biggest adjustment you had to make as a filmmaker? MARTIN McDONAGH: "Scope and the size of the canvas, and to tell stories in images as much as in dialogue. It's still a learning pro- cess. After I've written a script I still feel the need to pare it down. I'll get a bunch of blank storyboards and then start going through every single scene to make them really visual, and that sometimes goes back into the script." POST: How would you describe this film, and what sort of film did you set out to make? McDONAGH: "It's a black comedy, like Bruges, but I wanted it to have an epic quality. So the whole trip to the desert evokes visuals of westerns, and I wanted to create some- 12 Post • October 2012 feel I had the ability, so I did In Bruges first, as it was more of a character and relationship study, set in one place, and more like the theater work I was used to. After I'd made Bruges, this didn't feel so far out of my grasp. It was still a bit scary, but I felt I'd learned enough to have a go at it." POST: What were the biggest challenges of making this? McDONAGH: "Probably coming up with all the images for all the stories within the stories, and the Tom Waits flashbacks. They had to be completely image-based, almost. There's a touch of narration but they had to be told completely visually. That was the big- gest learning curve for me. Acting-wise, and relating to the actors and dialogue, was fine, but trying to capture something truly cine- matic was the biggest challenge." POST: Where did you shoot and how long was it? www.postmagazine.com out and he'll come up with some brilliant angles or ways of telling in one shot what I thought would take five. We had a limited budget — less money than Bruges and twice as much to do, so he was crucial to keeping the momentum up and condensing story- boards and still being ultra-creative." POST: Did you shoot film or digital, and what guided your choice? McDONAGH: "Early on we discussed which way to go, but Ben and I saw a bunch of tests of the newest digital cameras and nothing quite matched up to film for us. As good as they say the digital stuff is getting, it never felt quite good enough for all the night shooting and stuff with fire we had to shoot, so we went back to film." POST: The old Hollywood cliché is, never work with animals or kids. You have a dog and rabbits. How tough was it? McDONAGH: (Laughs) "It was actually

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