Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/9707
DIRECTOR’S CHAIR that need shooting, then I know right away. “So he was on the set and he set up his Avid and a little screening room in an office in the town, and then we’d watch dailies and he basically edits as I shoot.Then after the shoot, we moved the edit suite to Windmill Lane in Dublin, and by then we already had our first assembly.Then we’d break down each scene, discuss any changes, and carry on from there. It’s a great relationship be- cause he’s someone I can totally trust and rely on, and if something’s not working he’ll always tell me. He’s very specific, and it’s al- most like shorthand between us after all these years.” POST: How many visual effects shots are there and how did Framestore get involved? ing on it — supervising sound editor Sarah Gaines and sound effects editor and re- recording mixer Tom Johnson. They did a great job, as we needed a very inventive, unique soundtrack, and we used a lot of un- derwater sounds and whale calls and dol- phin sounds, that kind of thing.” POST: Did you do a DI? JORDAN: “Yes, at Framestore, with the DP and colorist Brian Kingsman, who also did a great job.You pretty much have to do a DI these days. All the old lab processes of color timing and so on are now digital, and I love it. It allows you to go in and work on a single frame or part of a frame if you want, which gives you incredible freedom in post. It can be over-used if you’re not careful, but I think we did a great job and I was very happy with the fin- ished look we got. I think the film has a sort of magical look to it.” POST: Is film dead? JORDAN: “I’m afraid it is, al- though I love film. It’s probably on its last legs now.” POST:Will you shoot a digital film soon? JORDAN: “The technology’s really catching up with film and I feel I should explore the possi- bilities.The whole thing now is 3D, and I’d do a 3D movie but Framestore handled the DI for Ondine. JORDAN: “There are hardly any visual ef- fects shots in the entire film.The reason is because I wanted to make a fantasy film with no effects shots whatsoever. I wanted it all to be real and in-camera.The only effects shots done by Framestore, who are in Lon- don, were some very basic wire removal and clean-up stuff.Apart from those, the film has no effects shots.” POST: How important are sound and music to you? JORDAN: “Music is critical for me, al- though sometimes I really like to see a film without any music at all, such as Dog Day Af- ternoon. Did you know that there’s not one note of music in that from start to finish? Which is kind of music in itself [laughs]. “On this, I used Kjartan Sveinsson, who plays keyboards with Sigur Ros, the Icelandic band.They recorded all the music in Iceland and then they sent the files and we did all the mixing at Ardmore. “I’m very involved in all the mixing, which I really love, and we had a great team work- 18 Post • April 2010 it’s got to be appropriate subject matter. I might do my next film digital.To be honest, it’s hard for me to get really excited about it, but I think the move to an all-digital world now is inevitable.” POST: What are the advantages of being based in Ireland? JORDAN: “I’ve been based there most of my career, and it’s where I live. It would have been easy for me to move to LA, but I don’t think I would have survived there. I think less in terms of Ireland and Hollywood than in terms of what I need to get a film made, and the ironic thing is that often it can be far harder to get a little film made than some big Hollywood picture, where you have the whole studio machine behind you.” POST: You’ve also produced nearly all the films you’ve made, so you must also really like producing? JORDAN: “No, not entirely. I much prefer writing and directing to producing, but I have to put on my producer’s hat in order to get www.postmagazine.com a project off the ground. Someone has to do it, don’t they? So it’s more a matter of neces- sity than choice — especially when it’s a small independent film like this.” POST: What’s next? JORDAN:“Before this I was working on a project called Heart Shaped Box, but it fell through, and now I’ve adapted the Neil Gaiman book The Graveyard Book, and I hope to do that next. I say ‘hope,’ because in this business you never know.” POST: What’s the current state of indie film? JORDAN: “Not good. In fact, I think there’s a real crisis, especially in distribution. And it seems to only be getting worse. I mean a platform release is a thing of the past now.We premiered this at the Toronto Film Festival, and there were so many films there without a deal.” POST: A few years ago you formed a new company, “The Company of Wolves,” with DreamWorks. What happened to that arrangement? JORDAN: “I don’t have it anymore.The idea was to develop projects under the agreement, to give them access to smaller independent projects made in Britain and Ireland. But those kinds of deals just don’t exist anymore — or at least, only for very few people. And sometimes they’re more trouble than they’re worth, as you get tied to a big studio when it’s not really necessar- ily the best place to be. So, I have no regrets about that being over.” POST: You’ve made the big studio films in the past, so what’s your take on the current state of Hollywood? JORDAN: “I think it’s all changing so rapidly now, so it’s a very weird time, espe- cially because of this whole credit crunch. Audiences are going to movies, but the stu- dios seem to have stopped making any seri- ous films at all. It’s a great time to be in exhi- bition, but very strange for Hollywood, which now seems to crank out tiny varia- tions on the same old plots, and they’re all aimed at 14-year-old boys who’ll go two or three times to the same film. “It’s a little bit depressing, but then I’m very comfortable with the set-up I have and the way I work. I have absolutely nothing against Hollywood. I had a great time work- ing there.The reason I left and came back to live in Ireland was because of my kids, so I could bring them up there.”