The vet filmmaker arrived in Park City for the 40th Sundance this weekend to show a spooky ghost story titled Presence shot entirely from the ghost’s perspective.

During the post-premiere Q&A, he explained why he backtracked on his edict.

“I’ve been very vocal about the fact that visual reality, one person point-of-view VR doesn’t work, is never going to work as a narrative. Nobody wants this thing on their head. They want to see a reverse angle of the protagonist with an emotion on their face experiencing the thing,”

“I’ve been beating this drum hard for a long time, that it’s never going to work. The only way to do it is you never turn around. You never turn around. I’ve been saying for years you have to turn around or it doesn’t work.

The plot follows a family who moves into a new home only to recognize an unsettling presence inside. The story was filmed from the POV of the ghost, with the camera moving throughout the house as the apparition.

Soderbergh wore martial arts slippers while sliding around the house “as a ghost” to make as little noise as possible while manning the camera (using at14 mm lens).

His favorite part of filmmaking process is the editing, and there was surprise when Soderbergh revealed that it was three-week shoot.

He elaborated: “Editing is where it’s all happening. There’s no analogous tasks in any other art form. You’re bringing it all together, all the elements. Sound, picture — it is the best. It’s the reward for being on set. The power of it still amazes me. How you can change the intention of something just by reordering shots or holding them at certain length, pulling out lines, giving a line to somebody else.”

Added Fox: “I’m traumatized. I hadn’t even read the script, I am gonna be honest. But when Steven calls, I trust him.”

Liu explained that Soderbergh “really didn’t give us notes” beyond geographical moments. “There was no extraneous direction,” she said. “Theater was my first love, and it was like going back to that time again.”

Sullivan, who plays her husband, agreed. “No one has ever shot a movie like this before,” the actor said of the shoot, which took place on location in a home in New Jersey. “It was Steven running up and down the stairs in martial arts slippers trying not to make any noise.”

The film marked yet another collaboration between Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp, both of whom were in Park City in 1989, Soderbergh with his career-defining Sex, Lies and Videotape and Koepp with Apartment Zero.

Presence was one of the festival’s more anticipated titles as it’s available for acquisition. There were a number of buyers in the audience, including Neon’s Tom Quinn (and several of his top marketing execs), Searchlight’s David Greenbaum and Roadside’s Howard Cohen.

Soderbergh offered about the family living in the house is that “they’re really fucked up,” to which Koepp replied, “that sounds interesting … so that was my guidance. It was like: Point of view of the ghost, I’m in this house, this family’s really fucked up, and I went from there.”

Sundance director Eugene Hernandez noted how nostalgic the festival is this year with presenting its 40th edition. He expressed his gratitude to Soderbergh, Koepp and crew for returning to their old grounds. “I hope he won’t mind me saying that when we invited the film, he said he was clutching his pearls with appreciation,” Hernandez explained. “You’ve been such an important part of the story of this festival and to have you guys, the two of you here on this 35th year of the time you were here with a film for the first time is super meaningful for us. I hope it was rewarding for you to watch it with all of us tonight.”