A Man Called Otto Director
Talks Post and VFX

By Iain Blair

A Man Called Otto tells the story of Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks), a grumpy loner who no longer sees the purpose in his life following the tragic loss of his wife. Otto is ready to end it all, but his plans are interrupted when a lively young family moves in next door.

Based on the New York Times bestseller “A Man Called Ove,” the film was directed by versatile helmer Marc Forster, whose credits include World War Z, Quantum of Solace, Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner. I spoke with Forster about making the film, working with the VFX, and how he handled Hanks’ demanding cat co-star.

Can you talk about the look you and your DP Matthias Koenigswieser went for, given that there are a lot of flashbacks?
I wanted it to look and feel very real and grounded. We shot in Pittsburgh in the winter, so all the present-day scenes are quite gray, and the colors are not really popping. It’s all very monochrome.

When we go into all the flashbacks, they’re much warmer and with much more color, because Otto’s thinking about his wife and all his happy memories of her. We shot in this cul-de-sac, and in the flashbacks, the neighborhood is bright; it’s spring, and the trees are green. In the present day, it’s a finished housing development, but since it was winter, we needed a lot of VFX to deal with the flashback visuals.

Where did you do the post?
We did all the post in London. We cut it in offices in Soho and mixed all the sound at the new De Lane Lea studios, which are just incredible… I highly recommend. We had a great sound team — supervising sound editor Simon Chase and mixers Chris Burdon and Gilbert Lake. We did ADR at Molinare. Then, because composer Thomas Newman is based in Los Angeles, we recorded the score there.

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