French visual effects veteran Cedric Nicolas-Troyan served as the VFX supervisor on the 2012 global hit Snow White and The Huntsman , which grossed nearly $400 million and won him an Oscar nomination for his work. Now he's back for the prequel, The Huntsman: Winter's War , but this time he's moved up to the director's chair for his feature-film directorial debut. The fantasy action-adventure once again stars Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron in their roles from Snow White and the Huntsman, joined by Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain. As evil Queen Ravenna, Theron betrays her good sister Freya (Blunt) with an unforgivable act, freezing Freya's heart to love and unleashing in her an icy power she never knew she possessed. Retreating to a kingdom far to the north, Freya raises an army of Huntsmen as her protectors, with the only rule that no two of them should ever fall in love. As a war for domination escalates between the two queens, the hero standing between them is Freya's most elite Huntsman, Eric (Hemsworth). Alongside fellow warrior Sara (Chastain), the only woman who has ever captured his heart, Eric must help Freya vanquish her sister or Ravenna's wickedness will rule for eternity.
So who will win the war between good and evil? He isn't telling, but here Nicolas-Troyan, who was still deep in post at the time of this exclusive interview and whose VFX credits include work on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, The Ring, and One Hour Photo, talks about making the film, the challenges involved, and his love of post.
You definitely jumped in the deep end for your directing debut. How did you prepare for such a huge, complex production?
I didn't have much time, as the train was moving and I had to jump onboard. I was actually developing other projects with Joe Roth, the producer on this, and with other studios to direct, and I felt ready. It was [a matter of] finding the right opportunity to cross over into directing, and suddenly Joe called me about this after Frank Darabont left the project, and he offered it to me. It was already in pre-production, and I had no time to agonize over it. I just jumped.
Did you get any advice from directors you knew on how to handle the job?
Luckily, I've been working with top directors for 20 years, and as a VFX supervisor, you're always there early in the project and you're the last to leave. So you sit on the set beside them, and that was the best directing school' you can have. You watch and learn so much that way, and after also doing second unit on Snow White, I knew I was ready to direct. And, obviously, my background in VFX made it a lot easier to take on a movie like this. I know what can be done and what can't, and how to spend wisely. The big thing was trying to make the best decisions for the movie and sticking to them.
What sort of film did you set out to make?
It's actually a sprequel' - a prequel and a sequel (laugh). I wanted to stay true to the world established in the first one and expand from there.
What were the biggest challenges of making this, as it's always tough trying to top a huge hit?
The big one for me was the tone. You don't want it too declamatory and Shakespearean with the actors or it'll be too over-the-top, but you don't want to make it too modern either, as it'll look just like a guy in a costume. So you have to walk a very fine line between fantasy and reality. It's a tone departure more than anything else. Visually, we stay in the same world, just not as dark, and tonally it's not as dark. The story has dark points, but I was interested in being a little lighter and getting in and out of darkness and drama, and not staying too gloomy. I love humor and I like a bit of self-deprecation, so it was important not to take it all too seriously.
How was the shoot?
We shot it all in England, at Shepperton and on location in Wales and Somerset. It was just 74 days - I finished a day early - which is pretty fast. We had just 14 weeks of prep, not enough for a movie this size, but we managed to pull it off.
Where did you do the post? How long was the process?
We did all the editorial here in LA at Tribeca West, and it's been over 27 weeks so far [at the time of this interview]. We're in the middle of mixing at the Hitchcock stage on the lot at Universal, and then we'll do the DI at Technicolor in Hollywood.
Do you like the post process?
I do, a lot. As a visual effects supervisor, I've spent a lot of time in the past 20 years in postproduction, so it's very familiar to me. But to be honest, I actually prefer being on the set with actors. I think that's my favorite part of making a film, more than prepping and more than post. But I'm very comfortable in post. The weird thing is that for me, post is harder than filming. It's where you put the whole movie together, and you have all this time to think about it and start second-guessing yourself.
When you shoot, you're under the gun and you're just going. It's like being on the battlefield. But in post, you sometimes have too many choices. I have a military background in part, so I have this sense of making a quick decision and sticking with it and moving forward. And sometimes in post there is a bit of a lag happening, and even though I'm used to it, I miss that forward movement. But I do love post and seeing all the hard work come together.
The film was cut by Editor Conrad Buff IV, who won the Oscar for Titanic and who cut Terminator 2, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Snow White and the Huntsman, among many others. How did that relationship work?
As we worked together on the first one, we already had a close relationship, and when I got this, it was very clear to me that he should also cut this one. Look at h
