How strict is Jon Favreau as a showrunner?
Bryce Dallas Howard: Jon simply says, “Show me.” We have several shows over several weeks and months. In terms of filming, you may only have fifteen days for the episode. Sometimes you shoot one after the other, sometimes in blocks and sometimes you work on different sections, montages or scenes due to the internal test screenings. Depending on what is really needed. You are the director, writer and responsible for visioning the episode. You don’t have to talk to Jon about everything all the time. And that’s great fun. You can go other ways than in the script because the work starts so early. When filming actually begins, regardless of whether we shoot the material in blocks for other episodes on consecutive days or depending on the set, the shoot can take weeks or months. But there was already a process in preproduction where you basically finished your episode. This gives you a much better overview and all the details when shooting. And because of that it feels like everyone is pulling in the same direction. Of course, in post-production we throw everything away and start all over again. (laughs) Then we build it from scratch and try to figure out what else could happen. Because the visual effects are so omnipresent, we hand over sequences to ILM in the pre-visual phase. For the directors it is a total of at least a six-month process with a few breaks. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, on the other hand, are under constant power. But for me it is an intensive initial phase of three weeks in which I work with the Pre-Vis department and get the story off the ground. After that, it’s just like every single week, no matter how long it takes, until the actual shoot. You work with the editor and the various departments on your own episode. But, as I said, it’s a lot of fun because you are encouraged to try things out and then present them. When I ask him if you could arrange entire sequences one way or another and do it that way, he just says, “Yes, just do it and show me.” In a way, that’s the democratization of creativity, because it’s us gives everyone the opportunity to have a say and really be heard. But it’s about the implementation and not just about the person who can best present their ideas.
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