INT: How do you prepare the night before the first day's shoot?
SL: It's not a very pressured night. So much has been prepared already. I take cameraman out to see locations with art director on the first day he is on, there is no point in arriving on set and figuring things out. Heads of department have been out, the big crew travel is the last thing that happens before rehearsal starts. There is a gradual building up of the production so by the first day we have already been at work. [INT: So before everyday of shooting, is there any homework or creative process you look at to prepare for each day?] Not unless something disturbed me in the rushes, it is usually too late to revisit it.

INT: When you get to work, how would you describe your process in starting the scene up?
SL: There are two contradicting things. I like to get something easy, so we get off quickly. But I also like to, for example if there are many extras, to get the toughest scene right away so that it is behind us. You can always tell in 30 seconds what your crew is like. Who's good, who's bad, who knows there work and who doesn't. So that kind of shakedown is over after the first day.

INT: How do you deal with the "hurry up and wait" process of feature filmmaking?
SL: I know that work is being done, but I'm also impatient. I have a very fast personal tempo. I don’t leave the set because I don't like to be off the set. And I like to be there in case of questions so that no one has to get me from a mile away. Also, my presence is good in that the crew works faster. Speed is important, it's not a financial thing, but because it is very good for the actors. The less they sit, the better the performances.

INT: How do you work with actors? Obviously you have worked with some of the greatest actors in motion picture history.
SL: It varies with the actor. I can work any way. I have experience with English actors, who tend to work from the outside in, and American actors tend to work from the inside out. Rarely is there a difference in the final result. It's my job to work whichever way the actor needs. I don't make the actor conform to my method. I become whatever they need. This involves the rehearsal process. There needs to be a set degree of mutual respect. My awareness of what their foibles and tastes are. I get along with so-called "difficult" actors because the rehearsal process lets them in and gives them as much knowledge about me as I have about them. It's a very comforting feeling because it's a shared experience. I respect and love acting, I'm aware of the very basic cost of actors, all good work is self-revelation. What more can you reveal than your actual physical self in the state of whatever the role calls for? They are always using parts of themselves, I understand that the process can be painful.

INT: On the set, do you have a set behavior for eliciting performances from actors?
SL: No, there's no set way but there is always further exploration. The very fact that you're on the set now has brought a new reality to it. The fact that you're shooting now brings a new reality to it. I have found most actors are at their best in the early takes. There is always a shot that goes eighteen takes. There's always at least one of those on a movie. I generally feel that if we don’t have it within four takes, generally then we have done something wrong. Either in the staging or we've left something unresolved from rehearsal.

INT: What do you do when you aren't getting what you want from the actors?
SL: It depends if I think it's possible to get it. There are times where you do give up. Generally, it's been rehearsed. I tell the actors don't play it for life. Mark it, make sure every prop is there, all the mechanics are cleared up right away. It is important that the mechanics aren't a source of disturbance. First walk through I am behind the lenses with operator besides me, then I send the actor back for make-up and I work with the second team. Call the actors back on. I tell them don't work, this is just a walk through to make sure the cameraman has no corrections. One of the things that is unacceptable to me is the cameraman coming in to adjust in between takes. He can have as much time as he wants in his own rehearsal, but when they say "I got it. It's fine," that's my time with the actors. Especially in scenes of high intensity, I will sometimes say don't cut and we go again. Keep momentum.

INT: Any anecdotes about difficult people?
SL: I don't repeat stories, that’s why I get along well with them. I really don't.

INT: Do you let the actors see dailies?
SL: It depends, some cannot see themselves. Generally I don’t mind them seeing dailies at all, unless I see them using it destructively. If they come to dailies and the next day their concentration isn't there, I don't let them come anymore. Some of them can't look at themselves. PACINO can do that, he can watch his dailies but stay outside the part. It's amazing. So it goes from that to the example of FONDA who was incapable of looking at himself.

INT: How do you relate new technology to your style?
SL: I never use a monitor. The 24 frame Sony has changed filming. I've always been very unhappy with the filmmaking process. Number one, what it cannot give you is what your eye sees. The blue in the sky is not the blue in the film because it’s a chemical process. Video is all electronic, it's exactly what we're getting -light waves and frequencies, you get exactly what the eye sees. In addition, because film is a chemical process, the lighting is much more critical. If you shift 15 degrees, you better re-light. This prevents you from using multiple cameras. Given the choice I would always use video and multicameras. When I did 100 CENTRE STREET, they main reason I did it was to use that camera. And we were doing an hour show in seven days as opposed to the normal eight to eleven. If we ever went past 5:30, people would call in sick the next day. There, I was using live television technique. I was cutting from camera to camera in a truck. When I was off camera 1, he was going to a new lens so that I had complete distinction in the lenses. Genuine live technique, slight photographic compromises. RON FORTUNATO can do richer work with two cameras, and still richer work with one camera, but it was adequate.

INT: Do you storyboard?
SL: Never, it's all in here. [INT: You don't give camera and production set ups?] No, I also like to leave things open for myself. I like to see how the performance is developing. I like to leave myself a lot of freedom and leave the actors with freedom also.

INT: How about in coverage? Who do you cover first?
SL: I don't do the master, I shoot only what I think I want. If it’s a static scene, in order to spare him the actor the agony I will try to do it with two cameras with no compromise in lighting. If I want a medium and a close up, I will do two camera set-ups. Or I'll shoot his medium and close-up at the same time on that side and the other person's medium and close-up on the other side.

INT: Have you ever used a roving camera to give the operator a certain amount of freedom?
SL: I have never done that, but it sounds very constructive. The reasoning is I have a rigidity of my own, but without a sense of superiority. I tend to see it only one way. I wouldn’t know what to tell the operator to look for. I should try it and see what they come up with.

INT: Have you ever relied on the DGA in your dealings with producers or executives?
SL: I have never had that problem, and I have had some horrific experiences. I did a picture with DAVID MERRICK, that man is a beast. Whatever had to be done, I just took it out on myself. I never called on anybody to try to help me. He knew nothing about movies. I ordered a crane for two days and he just told the production manager not to give it to me. I just sent him a memo saying, "Dear David, without the crane, I don't know how to shoot this screen." I told him he needed to come up with a new shot list for the movie.

INT: How do you work with the editor?
SL: There used to be a cliche that the films are made in the cutting room. That's nonsense. It can be ruined. Until I worked with an editor over two or three pictures, I don't allow them to cut the sticks off without me being there. The longer I am with an editor, the more I trust them. The only exception to that was DEDE ALLEN because she was unique. You could feel it as soon as you met her. There were times where she would realize my intention better than I could. I used to roar with laughter when people would say they could recognize DEDE ALLEN's editing work in a movie. She was so great an editor she considered her job to become the director in the cutting room. Her instinct about what the director wanted was what mattered to her most. She cut different with GEORGE ROY HILL than with me. She cut it differently.

INT: Does your script supervisor mark takes or do you do it mentally?
SL: I remember it but I want a complete record, but a good script girl is very important. No script notes and you will be lost. [INT: So that means your editor isn't assembling scenes while you shoot without you being there?] I love TOM SWARTWOUT but if it's a new editor I stop them. Because I really started him, he knows my tastes thoroughly. [INT: I started as an editor and I guess the biggest thing for me was to let go. It was finally letting go and discovering that moment when you thought you knew how the scene worked but you needed a new way to see it.] Right, but it's a peculiar point to let a picture go. Until it is not working, it is important to carry through on the original concept. Everything has been based on an idea, how can you let go of the most critical thing? The basic answer is simple, what do you want to see at this moment? No place is this more articulated than in the cutting room. With everything headed in that direction, it seems to be an egregious error to let it go.

INT: What about music? Have you already chosen music? What's your process in terms of music?
SL: The music situation is complex. To me, music has to be treated like another character. I hate Mickey Mouse scores. Music has to have a function that is not being expressed by any other element in the script. if you can't find that function and the composer can't find it, then don't do a score. DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK didn't have scores. SERPICO had 14 minutes. You don't have to have a score unless you can create a reason. How can we create a function for a new element in the movie? All in all, just as an individual piece of work, RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT's score for MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS was one of the best. HOWARD SHORE'S SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, PROKOFIEV's ALEXANDER NEVSKY were also great. They contributed something absolutely extraordinary. RICHARD contributed a sense of nostalgia, appeal to old times. In the '30s and '40s there used to be CARMEN CAVALLARO and EDDY DUCHIN, very rococo, front people for orchestras. That's what I heard in the movie, and the style RICHARD emulated. [Levin's producer interjects] RICHARD decided to make the train a character. He wrote a theme in waltz tempo. Now it was not only back in the '20s, but back into the 1890s. He made the train delicate.

SL: There's a sweet story about that.The English do tend to be eccentric. I know how dangerous generalities are but that one's not a dangerous one. My soundman on the set was a train nut. He came to me and said, "Sidney, could I be involved with the sound effects and the mix?" He had volumes. I went to his house, there was a bookcase full of train sounds. I was thrilled. I was delighted. We get to the first major cue came when the train leaves Istanbul, and SIMON with sound editor had spent weeks on that take. There were nine wheels, and they had nine different sounds. We spent a day and a half laying it in. Even though I had been at the recording session, I had never heard it on a 700 watt speaker like in the mixing room. We put up the music and we're listening and it was glorious. As I said, one of the best scores I'd ever heard. We spent six hours balancing effects and I knew it was impossible after hour four. One of the two was going to have to go and it wasn't going to be the music. I chickened out, I didn't dare tell SIMON to his face. I went home and called SIMON on the phone so I wouldn't have to face him and tell him that I was throwing out the effects. We kept just one, the moment where the steam is releasing. But to me, it's wonderful when the score can contribute that much. It has to make a contribution on its own.

INT: You mention SERPICO only had 14 minutes of music, was it score or licensed music?
SL: It was all score. [INT: And why was that unique?] I love DINO DE LAURENTIIS but his taste in music is s***. Good producer too. I didn't want any score and I knew that was revolutionary. I hadn't done a film without a score at that point. And DINO's Italian! No music and an Italian producer! My God! We finished the movie and that was the last movie I did without final cut. Final cut includes audio elements. I knew if I didn't somehow handle it he would go get NINO ROTA, a fine composer, and put down a carpet, wall to wall music. It would have destroyed the reality. In the best sense, DINO is a snob. He tries not to interfere when he works with the best. MIKIS THEODORAKIS had been imprisoned by Greeks as a leftist by right wings. Literally, that day, he had gotten out of prison in Athens and flown from Athens to Paris. I knew he would be right because if there was going to be anything, it needed to be folkloric in feeling. I knew he would be desperate for money, and when I told him there was 75,000 in it he was on a plane like that! The plane was late, it arrived at 2 AM right from Kennedy and we ran the picture for him. He said it doesn't need any music. I said there is this fee, and I don't want to tell DINO there will be no score because he will take it to Rome. He had a theme on cassette and he also had a small cassette player and it was perfect. I said, "What was the least we could get away with?" He came in the next day, he looked, I said, "I know this is a big problem for you. Why don't you decide where you want music?" There was also a problem that he was touring with an orchestra, meaning he couldn't do the arranging himself, but I got wonderful BOB JAMES to do the arrangements. He would fly out and meet THEODORAKIS and we wound up with 14 minutes of music.