The man who walked away from movies, and came back when he found the right story.
That story wasLogan Lucky, now playing in UK cinemas.
And I had to do the whole thing over; days and days of stuff.
Does that ever happen on set?
Not necessarily recording failures, but…
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No.
Unlike a film camera, which you’re able to hear running.
But no, I havent had the experience of losing something.
Thats what I heard, anyway.
Thats got to ruin your day.
Yeah, I dont know what you would do, thats just terrible.
There are multiple redundancies built into our process.
Because you had a rough cut really quickly after the film was wrapped.
Were you cutting through the filming?
Yeah, every night.
Look, I dont shoot long days, because at a certain point I find peoples efficiency reduces drastically.
Once you get to the ten hour mark you could see people starting to drift.
Unless its some stupidly complicated sequence it takes me about two hours to get a rough together.
Then go to bed.
If Id had that ability earlier in my career, the work would have been better.
Im happy that its here now, trying to take advantage of it as often as I can.
Than being able to see the result of your work quickly.
On the subject of celluloid, it seems very odd the vinyl collectors…
Well thats different.
How bigs the collection?
Not massive, but look, this is an interesting distinction to make.
The very, kind of tactile, thing.
At least for someone like me, is fun.
But thats kind of a private endeavour.
I just dont think they care what the capture medium is.
Its interesting that you mention the audience.
Certainly youre much more generous in the way you talk about the process than a lot of people.
And as a filmmaker, trying to figure out as theyre watching out film, what matters to them.
What do I do about that?
Do I feel that its potentially fatal to the film if I dont address this?
Youre constantly having this dialogue with yourself and this abstract group of people.
I dont mind that, its a public art from.
Its different every time.
Its just something you have to deal with when you makes stuff, the timing is really crucial.
Ive said to many people,Sex Lies[& Videotape], that was just timing.
They were just ready.
They were like Ok, finally.
That was just our good luck, to kind of appear at that moment, at that festival.
Youre talking about the audience response.
I assume, given the way that youve distributed the film, youve been following audience response.
It was released in the US this weekend, what has the response been, particularly in the South?
They didnt show up.
We got a better critical response than I ever imagined we were going to get.
They kind of stayed away.
There has to be some element of that.
Theres something thats keeping them away.
Its really odd, Im really hoping I can figure it out.
I wouldnt do anything different.
Lets put it this way, we capped our marketing spend at twenty, that was the plan.
Typically, its thirty plus, sometimes forty.
The audience for this movie did not show up.
Our biggest grosses were in cities.
Twenty-five of the top thirty screens for us were in New York and LA.
We didnt spend any money there.
It played like a what they call a smarthouse movie, and thats not what we made.
Could that perhaps, Mr Soderbergh, be because of the name on the movie?
Sure, absolutely, but thats sort of a separate issue.
Dont they love bowling?
Presumably the technology is pretty close.
Its something that Ive thought about.
That money goes to the theatres.
So its a couple of million dollars to make 3,000 DCPs, but its something that Ive thought about.
Sort of what Im doing with Kafka.
I think youd have to conceive it that way.
Youd want it to be really, really different, I think.
Thats kind of what it is.
As is clear, editing something I like to do.
Well, its still, I think, a unique way to experience something.
And the appeal of the sort of Netflix/Amazon streaming platform model is twofold for a filmmaker.
The second is not having to stand the pressure and scrutiny of the weekend box office return.
I think it depends on the piece.
Again, I think it depends on the film.
and I said, Yeah actually, it would.
And so they came to New York, and they saw it, and they went Holy shit!.
Anyone going into a theatre looking at that, that just looks like a proper film.
Theres no indication that that was shot on anything other than a high quality digital camera.
Did you use standard lenses?
You used cinematic lenses?
Yeah, although they were tiny.
Its shocking, when you see it.
Its shocking what you could do.
This is the only real issue.
If like me, youre into selective focus, thats something you have to give up.
What it meant was wide and close.
Here I can just fucking Velcro it and just shoot it.
Was the idea of strapping a lens to an iPhone the genesis of the movie?
It seems youve been liberated by this technology.
How do you feel that democratisation has affected the rest of the industry?
I dont think so.
Not in any significant way.
Maybe in the long tail part of it.
But in terms of the mainstream business, I dont think its really changed much.
Would you like to see it change?
Im not going to convince them to do anything different, that would be a waste of my time.
A success to me is the ability to keep working.
I would have made it.
So if thats the way youre thinking, this is a really exciting time to be a filmmaker.
Youve got to be talented, obviously, but the opportunities are there.
So presumably youll be going back to doing this sort of thing again?
It sure seems like it.
I sure had a good time.
Im curious what those things that you cant do are…
Multiple-destination dolly masters.
If you touch the thing its ruined, theyre that sensitive.
Thats going to happen eventually.
When you see it on the screen, no one will know.
I dont know yet, I havent seen it.
Im dying to get a look at this stuff.
Are you going to make that data available to the public as well?
In terms of how the film performed, generally speaking, and who saw it and where?
Steven Soderbergh, thank you very much.
Logan Luckyis in UK cinemas now.
