For his fourth film, Bird has tackled the fourthMission: Impossiblemovie.
Does it get any less scary, the process of moviemaking, and everything associated with it?
I dont think so if youre doing it right.
I think if you get too comfortable with it, then somethings missing.
I think that you ought to be a little frightened.
But I dont think people focus on sound enough.
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What struck me aboutGhost Protocolis that your use of sound at times is quite exquisite.
So what was your thinking?
How easily could you fit your silences into such a frenetic film?
I think that people forget about the power of it.
They also forget that contrast is what makes things have impact.
And what that does is reduces the impact of fast cutting.
It starts to become like a metronome, and you tune out of it.
That same thing holds with music, or with film, or with sound.
Thats what keeps it alive.
Have you seen Robert ZemeckisA Christmas Carol?
Fortunately, I live in the Bay area, they are all converged there.
Walter Murch, Ren Klyce who does David Fincher films.
And they all work in and around Skywalker.
I think that its a huge part of the process, and I agree with you.
Apart from one moment inGhost Protocol, you clearly let us see whats going on throughout.
Only the sandstorm…
Yeah, that was the point.
Even in the sandstorm, though, you hold your shot.
[Laughs] Yes!
I think my favourite action directors are Spielberg and James Cameron, and John McTiernan at his best.
I dont think action films get any better thanDie Hard.
And I comparedDie Hardwith one of the sequels.
And all of the pace that was missing in the original photography was then forced in by editors.
I didnt get that from the third one, which I still quite like.
But I think thats part of the difference.Yeah, thats true.
Also, the first one was shot by Jan De Bont, a terrific cinematographer.
Out of interest, are you aHudson Hawkfan?
Ive not seen that film in a billion years!
Well, Ive always thought its underrated.
Its Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello singing 50s numbers while they go and rob places.
In terms ofGhost Protocol, I thought it was an interesting and effective way to play with expectation.
But Dean Martin was the icing on the cake for me, just pulling away from expectation.
It ties into your use of music in the film.
Because you commit to a full score, which youve always done.
I remember the extras onThe Iron GiantDVD, with you sat next to Michael Kamen.Yeah, yeah.
And you were very precise in the positioning of your beats there.
Why and Im glad you do do you hold the musical score so important?
I love film music at its best.
Its what I listen to when I write.
I listen to score.
And theyre awake to the structure of storytelling.
Hes really concerned with the storytelling aspect.
Well,The Iron Giantyou were clearly up against all sorts of problems…Yeah, yeah!
Particularly because we only used two lines of dialogue and two shots from the previous versions.
It was kind of crazy.
[Laughs] But the script was continually evolving while we were making it.
It was a very tight schedule, the movie was the biggestMission: Impossiblein terms of set pieces.
The scale of it was enormous.
Actually,Ratatouillewas perfect happening before this.
Do you thrive working like that?
I sure hope not!
[Laughs] I would like to think I would be in a more reasonable situation.
So there was still that feeling of youre behind by thirty points, going into the fourth quarter.
Maybe I do need it, but I sure hope I dont.
If you throw in the kitchenware ofRatatouille, then flying has been important in your previous three films.
With this one, though, the problem was surely gravity?
But certainly, you might get away with cheats more in animation.
Hand drawn you have less choice, but real human beings are odder beasts!
Everybody knows what a human moves like.
Especially the human beings!
I think theres that.
It is a little more catch as catch can.
The take that is in the movie is one take.
Its a whole minute long scene in one take.
We did other takes before it, but that take, we used it in real time.
That kind of thing, when you see it happening, the energy you get from it is amazing.
Theres two terrific actors just being natural and making something magic right in front of your eyes.
Going back over what weve been talking about, it sounds like the script that was the hardest bit?
The nuances of information, which these films really have in spades, was a real challenge.
If the audience becomes confused, they start to disconnect, and you dont want that either.
It kind of drive us crazy a little bit.
I understood that it came with the territory.
When theMission: Impossiblefilms are working at their very best, its the build up thats really fun.
I think it cut in a little bit.I think that there is a couple of things that work.
Everybody knows that the clock is running, and that we live in an ADD culture.
And I think that often times, people are selling short the delight the audience has in expectation.
And I was very interested in that long scene in the bar, how he would react to it.
And he loved it.
The tension of waiting for the thing to explode was amazing.
And he loved it.
Most filmmakers dont give people that delicious thing any more.
A very interesting thing happened onThe Incrediblesat one point.
We had the longest animated film that theyd made at Pixar by far.
And there was this desire, this nervousness about the length.
And I had it in storyreel form, and I played it for everybody.
It was not nearly as action packed as I remember?
And I hadnt changed one frame.
That was a big lesson to me.
I ended up putting all the stuff back, and its in the movie.
The greatest special effect is caring about the characters.
Theres been talk of doing 3D.
Theres been talk of doing a limited digital release, kind of like Blade Runner had.
And all of them kind of blossom and fade.
Now, were having more serious discussions about doing something in anticipation of the Blu-ray.
But I dont want the Blu-ray to simply be a higher resolution version of our DVD.
Theres a lot of good stories there that havent been told about the struggles that we went through.
Well see what happens, but we are in discussions about it right now.
