1. Hi, my name is Paul Anderson,
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2. and I was a producer on the movie.
I also wrote and directed it.
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3. And I'm here with Richard Yuricich.
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4. Hello, I'm Richard Yuricich,
visual effects supervisor.
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5. I've worked with Paul before,
and excited about this movie.
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6. So, yeah, Richard and I
did Event Horizon together.
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7. And Richard also worked on
such little-known movies
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8. as 2001, Blade Runner,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
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9. to name but a few.
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10. And most recently,
both Mission Impossible movies.
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11. But I couldn't wait to get back
to Resident Evil.
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12. All of the visual effects in the movie
were actually done in London.
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13. The company that did the opening credit
sequence was called Smoke & Mirrors,
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14. but the company that did absolutely
everything else
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15. was The Computer Film Company,
who, again, worked with us on Event.
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16. The Computer Film Company
was awarded all the work,
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17. and the deal was so that they could do it all,
an in-house boutique.
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18. So we had a boutique on the film.
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19. It was easy to control that film.
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20. This very first shot, this is funny because...
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21. The very first day Paul set me up
with the producers
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22. because this is our first added shot,
we were over budget. The first day.
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23. It's an inside joke,
there was not enough room on the stage,
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24. and Paul came up and said, "Hey,
we want to do this, but don't tell Jeremy."
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25. Yeah, the end piece of this shot
was actually done...
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26. Practically, we were actually
tracking into the set
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27. with bits of black taped to either side,
so from here on in is real,
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28. and everything else beforehand
was done as a visual effect.
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29. We reduced the image.
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30. This guy actually operating the claws
is an expert at claw operating.
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31. We had to fly him in 'cause these things
are just unbelievably difficult to operate.
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32. I spent half a day doing it.
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33. It's almost impossible to pick anything up
with these claws.
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34. It looks really simple
but it's really, really difficult.
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35. And if you just saw that,
there's a slight continuity lapse
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36. because the guy behind the visor there
is wearing a mask.
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37. And, of course,
later in the movie you'll discover
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38. that he's not supposed
to be wearing a mask.
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39. He did a good job operating this.
Very difficult.
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40. This is our slow-motion CG vial.
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41. Meant to match the break.
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42. Yes, but two shots where it's flying
through the air are the CG shots.
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43. This aerial perspective was added
to suggest the gases
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44. being drawn in and then exited.
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45. That was about a 400% blow-up.
That shouldn't work. That worked real well.
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46. Yeah, the pull-out from the vent.
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47. That's why the shot looks a little grainy
at the start,
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48. is because we enlarged it so much
to kind of get right into the vent.
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49. And also that rotation on that shot
was added later.
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50. 'Cause that was never intended to be,
you know, the rotate and pull-out.
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51. It was just a random shot of a vent
that we kind of grabbed and used.
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52. These puppies, of course,
are gonna return later on in the movie.
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53. Rather more unpleasant form.
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54. This is one of my favourite things
in the movie,
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55. is the Red Queen point-of-view shots,
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56. the security camera shots,
'cause there's so much detail
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57. in each one of these shots.
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58. And I think that'll be one of the joys, for me,
anyway, about watching it on DVD,
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59. is being able to freeze-frame
and see all the details in the...
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60. Yeah, those weren't originally
part of the film,
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61. but when you came up with the idea
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62. and wanted to do them,
it was a really good addition.
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63. There's another thing
that took us over budget,
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64. but we didn't go over budget.
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65. It was a really nice storytelling tool.
It was really done well.
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66. Yeah, I think a difference between
this movie and most studio movies, anyway,
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67. is with a studio movie
when you go over budget,
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68. the studio just says, "Okay,
we want that shot. Go over budget."
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69. This is actually an independent movie,
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70. which meant we had a finite amount
of money, and we could never go over it.
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71. So whenever Richard says,
"I'm asking for additional things,"
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72. he would always have to strike
the balance of, if I wanted something more,
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73. and he chose to give it to me,
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74. it would mean we'd have to lose
something else,
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75. or do something we planned to do,
and do it cheaper.
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76. We'd have to really get clever if we could.
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77. Was it AMX that did the work on the...
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78. Yeah. Another company in London that did
all the graphics on the Red Queen stuff.
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79. And supplied the elements
to Computer Film Company.
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80. They're very bad spellers as well.
They had to redo these shots a lot of times.
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81. 'Cause when we did freeze-frame them,
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82. we discovered loads of things
were misspelled.
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83. Well, that was discovered by the French girl,
Muriel Gérard,
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84. who was the visual effects coordinator,
so all the misspells, yeah. Is that right?
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85. Yes.
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86. That was really great shot there with the...
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87. There was a reflection of Alice in...
I'm sorry, not Alice, the...
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88. - Of the scientist.
- The scientist in the lens. That was added.
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89. These CG were added.
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90. This is the first of the model shots
that you'll see in the movie.
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91. How long was that lift shaft?
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92. It was 25 feet.
In scale it represented 12 storeys.
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93. But we photographed it in such a way
'cause you wanted to make it look...
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94. I think it was 14.
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95. It was one-fourth scale.
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96. So everything in that shot's practical,
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97. apart from the counterweight
that comes towards us.
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98. And then all these wires.
That's all added CG afterwards.
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99. And all the dust coming up from the bottom.
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100. But the elevators themselves and the shaft
are all miniature.
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101. And inside the elevator,
it's a rather complicated special effect
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102. of just shaking the camera.
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103. Again, the brakes coming on there
is all miniature,
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104. with CG sparks added afterwards.
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105. Halon!
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106. Stop it!
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107. Stop it! Stop!
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108. Help!
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109. Mortality decreasing.
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110. This shot here,
where the guy's pressing against the door,
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111. I was always really embarrassed
'cause I could never get the extras
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112. to stop pressing against the glass door
so hard that they bent out.
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113. So they're all
supposed to be suffocating in there,
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114. but if you go back and look at that shot,
you can see the doors just bending badly.
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115. Because it's all just plastic.
They can actually push their way out.
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116. This is the second or third day
of shooting, wasn't it?
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117. This was the third day of shooting.
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118. It was incredible because the elevator
was counterweighted... Counterbalanced?
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119. Yeah, the elevator in this set
would practically go up and down,
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120. so everything in this scene
was done practically.
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121. So, you know, when her head slams towards
the top of the door
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122. at the end of the sequence,
that was really happening.
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123. It was a really nerve-biting moment
on the set.
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124. We didn't have the hydraulics,
but it was a nice system.
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125. Again, saving some dollars.
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126. I'm stuck. You're gonna have to push.
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127. To make it extra safe
when the elevator drops to the bottom,
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128. just in case Indra, who's the actress here...
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129. Her head snapped forward
when the elevator stops
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130. and slammed into the ground.
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131. We actually put a fake floor in,
so when she falls, she puts her arm on it,
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132. and you can actually see the floor bends
'cause it's all breakaway.
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133. There it goes. She just bent the floor there.
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134. Push her out of the way!
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135. Didn't we repair a little bit of that, too?
Not on that shot. We didn't have to.
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136. It's great.
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137. Coming up is another visual effects shot
that was never planned.
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138. We did a straight pull-out
from Milla's eye here
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139. with the camera just flat.
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140. And then we thought it'd be really classy
to add the rotation to it.
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141. But that was all done afterwards
as a visual effect.
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142. Yeah, didn't we flop that first eye
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143. so we could use the right eye
that we pulled out of, I think?
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144. That's right. The very big close-up
of the eye where she wakes up as well.
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145. Also, in order to get the pupil to move,
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146. we were shining very bright lights
into her eye.
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147. And so you removed the lights, right?
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148. We had the reflection of the lights
in her eye.
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149. If you go back you don't see them at all.
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150. Not that it mattered, but for an editorial cut,
we had to flop the eye.
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151. It was a left eye close-up,
but we pulled out of the right eye.
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152. Left eye. I had my eyes flopped.
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153. And we end up using
exactly the same eye shot
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154. at the end of the movie in the white room.
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155. This time with the lights
reflected in her eyes.
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156. The colourisation you did here...
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157. Paul did the re-colourisation
on this montage.
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158. Her flashback.
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159. We cut the sequence
and then we had the sequence scanned in,
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160. so it became a digital sequence.
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161. And then we really played
with the colours there.
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162. It's fabulous.
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163. You know, really de-saturate
a lot of the image,
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164. but then we also put a travelling matte
around her eyes and lips
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165. so that we could keep the blue
of Milla's eyes and the red of her lips
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166. while losing the colour
in the rest of the shot.
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167. There's a great second unit shot
coming up soon,
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168. which is her point of view
through the window.
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169. And this is the second unit with, literally,
just a window and a piece of curtain,
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170. sitting in a carpark waiting for it to get dark
to get her point of view shot.
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171. I have to admit I didn't understand that cut
when she started to write down what he did.
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172. You fooled me on that because the script...
I didn't know what was happening there.
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173. I had to see the movie to understand that.
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174. - But you understand it now, right?
- Very much, yeah.
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175. - Had to watch the DVD to understand it.
- No, I had to watch the release.
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176. Such a long stretch and no visual effects.
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177. - No.
- Just acting.
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178. Actually, this studio is on the very street
where I first started working
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179. doing Charlie Brown cartoons
as a cameraman.
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180. We're in LA, right at the moment.
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181. - Right now.
- Excuse me. Yeah.
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182. Hello?
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183. - You started with Charlie Brown?
- Charlie Brown, yes.
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184. I was working in aerospace on jet fighters
with inertial guidance,
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185. and an opportunity came up
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186. for a struggling business who needed
somebody that worked very cheap.
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187. And I was a photographer and a friend,
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188. and wonderful, I got a chance
to start working with Nick Vasu
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189. at Nick Vasu Animation,
and his major client was the Charlie Browns.
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190. - What were you doing on jet fighters?
- Inertial guidance systems.
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191. - Right.
- So they knew where they were.
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192. Hopefully they worked.
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193. I remember thinking
when Gary Powers got caught,
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194. I thought, "Oh, my God,
I hope he didn't have our system."
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195. That's an awful big jump
from jet fighters to Charlie Brown.
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196. - Yeah, it was a while back.
- Jet fighters to 2001, I can see that.
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197. Hello?
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198. All these crows are CG, right?
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199. Computer generated crows, yes,
and a colour-timed shot, so it fit.
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200. It was a nice job.
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201. It's 'cause we shot most of the movie
in Germany
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202. and we couldn't find one trained crow
in Germany,
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203. never mind a whole tree full of them.
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204. I really liked those cuts here.
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205. Now there's a puck being pulled
across the floor on a string
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206. to a camera position.
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207. Yes, that shot was just
a straight wire removal.
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208. Amazing how well those things work
when you've gotta save some money,
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209. which has made
the story of making the movie fun.
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210. One of the things I have to say
about working with Richard,
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211. and it's interesting, having done two
pretty heavy visual effects movies with him,
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212. is that whenever I want to do a visual effect,
the first thing Richard will always say is,
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213. "Do you have to do a visual effect?
Can't you do it for real?"
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214. And I think that's
a really good approach to have
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215. because I think your argument is
real is always best, right?
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216. Yeah. Well, it's good...
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217. You always handle it very well,
so when we do that, it always looks best.
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218. But my favourite scale is one to one.
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219. Nobody ever questions
the scale of the miniature.
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220. I hope people understand
what I meant there.
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221. - Yeah, you build it for real.
- Build it for real, do it for real.
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222. You can't let the special effects
get in the way of telling the story
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223. and making the movie.
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224. You're just trying to help get the story told.
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225. No. We take him with us.
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226. You can't do this!
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227. Blow me.
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228. Still no visual effects.
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229. So tell us about the mothership
from Close Encounters.
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230. You told me a story about that.
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231. While we're waiting for something
interesting to happen in Resident Evil.
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232. Let me see, I think it was the amount
of electricity...
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233. Wasn't there something stuck
to the bottom of it?
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234. Oh, yeah.
You know, the miniature builders...
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235. Everybody's gotten credit for doing this,
and I didn't do this,
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236. but R2-D2 can be seen
standing on the mothership,
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237. and most people would never see it
until they've looked real closely.
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238. And I believe it was probably Greg Jein,
a fabulous, fabulous miniature builder.
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239. He and his madmen in his department.
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240. They had all sorts of little things,
Volkswagen buses,
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241. - and F104jet fighters...
- Stuck to the bottom?
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242. Yeah.
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243. But the mothership... I mean,
the R2-D2 really shows up.
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244. And it was fun because
when they were doing Star Wars
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245. and Close Encounters at the same time,
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246. we were all such friends,
it was the same community.
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247. We knew what they were doing,
they knew what we were doing,
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248. and we had these inside jokes,
and that one really paid off.
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249. It took years for some of the people
that worked on the film
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250. before they even noticed it.
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251. I think you see it
when Melinda Dillon's on the ship
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252. and there's a shot over her shoulder when
the mothership first crosses the screen.
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253. You know, the gentleman I worked for,
Nick Vasu, had a partner,
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254. took a partner named Jim Dickson,
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255. and he went over to England
to work with Douglas Trumbull,
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256. he'd worked with Douglas before,
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257. and helped set and build
the slit-scan camera.
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258. When Jim came back, they'd gotten a call.
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259. They needed somebody to work
on the rostrum camera on 2001,
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260. and my speciality was working on opticals,
and optical elements, and rostrum shots,
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261. so I was a natural, and so I got the job.
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262. - It was really very fortunate.
- Not bad for a first credit.
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263. Great experience, I call it the Class of2001.
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264. Julia Phillips once asked me...
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265. Steven Spielberg, really, asked me
where I learnt that stuff
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266. when we were doing Close Encounters.
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267. And I said I attended nine months of school
in the Class of2001.
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268. Actually, at the completion
of Close Encounters,
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269. they gave everybody on the crew a diploma,
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270. "Graduating Class of CE3K," and
it was signed by the head of production.
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271. John Veitch, Steven Spielberg, of course,
and Julia Phillips.
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272. - Now, back to Resident Evil.
- Back to Resident Evil.
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273. The Class of Resident Evil.
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274. So, coming up, I think we've got
the first of our model shots,
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275. 'cause we built two big models.
One was the elevator shaft,
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276. and the other was a train tunnel
with a model train in it.
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277. And this is the first probably
least favourite of my shots coming up.
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278. Yes, it actually wasn't a planned shot.
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279. We just did a camera test and shot this, and
editorially it became a good piece to use.
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280. Yeah, I think it was a good shot to show
that the train is leaving the station.
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281. I never felt that the... It's interesting,
'cause the paintjob we did on the station,
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282. maybe because you were never intending
for us to use it, was not very good,
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283. so you had to clean the shot up a lot.
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284. Cleaned the shot.
Grain and paint was added, yes.
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285. Again, the miniature was built... Most of
the monies dedicated to the miniature
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286. was given to Paul
so they could build a real train
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287. 'cause we weren't going to do that at first.
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288. So that train was built
by the special effects crews in Germany
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289. and it worked really well.
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290. Yeah, the real train you see is pretty much...
It's the size it is in the movie, obviously,
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291. but it's all made out of wood.
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292. It runs on rubber tyres,
and there's a metal chassis,
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293. but it's a construction of wood,
and if you look closely at it,
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294. when it's moving pretty fast,
it's wobbling quite badly.
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295. So when we built it, the reason we could
do that to the monies, fund them over there,
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296. was that we were only gonna have two,
or three at the most, train cuts,
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297. - and I believe we ended up with five or six.
- Yeah.
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298. How long was the model train?
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299. The model train was 130 feet long
with an arc in it.
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300. The train itself was eighth scale,
and it was propelled along the track
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301. by a cable
whose power was given to it by a drill plug,
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302. I think it was a Black & Decker drill,
to move the train along.
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303. - So the track was 130 feet long?
- Yes. 130 feet, yes. Excuse me, 130 feet.
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304. - How long was the train itself?
- Oh, the train itself?
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305. Oh, boy, I think it was, again, eighth scale,
I think it was...
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306. - Two feet long?
- Two...
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307. - It was about three feet long, yeah.
- Three feet long.
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308. With little men in the doors.
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309. There you go,
that's a model shot right there.
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310. Model shot.
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311. Actually, they tilt up
so that the lights on the train
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312. could match the lights on the miniature.
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313. This is one of my favourite locations
in the movie.
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314. It's the reason why we went to Berlin
to shoot the movie.
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315. 'Cause they had this fantastic
underground station
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316. right beneath the Reichstag,
which is the German parliament.
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317. And they'd built 90% of it
but they hadn't finished it,
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318. so none of the flooring is done,
none of the tiling on the walls.
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319. But it looked pretty amazing, and really,
the only thing we had to put in there,
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320. we put some barrels and boxes in there
and we put our own train in there.
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321. But otherwise, everything you see is real.
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322. Cinematographer David Johnson
had to block up all the light sources
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323. that seemed to come from the ceiling 'cause
it was daylight that came through there.
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324. We were about two storeys
beneath the ground.
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325. So he had them blacked out,
and they were illuminated.
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326. And we obviously built that door there.
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327. I want to know who you people are
and I want to know what's going on here.
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328. Now!
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329. You and I have the same employer.
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330. We all work for the Umbrella Corporation.
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331. The mansion above us
is an emergency entrance to the Hive.
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332. This is towards the end of the shoot,
we shot this.
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333. Like, when directors run out of ideas on
how to cover a scene with a lot of people,
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334. it's always like, "Make the camera
go round and round them."
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335. These work well, they're nice cuts.
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336. It's always really difficult
with a scene like this
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337. because you have
so many different eye lines.
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338. That's why you end up doing something
like going round and round.
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339. Because otherwise,
if you do normal coverage,
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340. it takes forever
to get all the eye lines correct.
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341. The imagery was added to that little
computer as he turned to the screen
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342. so that was tracked
and the flat imagery was added.
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343. And then this is an entirely CG shot, right?
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344. This is something that was never intended
to be in the movie to start with,
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345. this whole 3D map of the Hive.
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346. And we looked at the first cut of the film,
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347. and it became obvious that it was very
confusing as to where these people were.
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348. A lot of people who watched the movie
went, "Well, I don't understand.
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349. "Are they still underneath the mansion?
Where have they gone?"
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350. So the kind of size and scale of the Hive
never really came through
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351. until we did the maps, and then suddenly,
everyone's confusion disappeared.
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352. And I thought the shots
ended up great as well.
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353. Yeah, your idea of adding the infra-red
human imagery,
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354. really good to explain the story.
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355. The Hive has its own defence mechanisms,
all computer-controlled.
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356. Again, this is all digital colour timing.
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357. Which, eventually...
All movies are going to be timed like this,
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358. rather than going to a lab
and doing a chemical process.
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359. 'Cause when you time a normal movie,
colour time it,
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360. the actual control you have over the colours
is very limited,
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361. whereas when you do it as a digital shot,
you have all the colours of the rainbow,
Copy !req
362. you have incredible little...
Copy !req
363. The changes you can make in slight green
and slight blue is quite extraordinary.
Copy !req
364. The range is quite deep.
Copy !req
365. There! Those are the technical words
I was looking for.
Copy !req
366. But you could also fix a shot up, or two,
if you keep a little secret,
Copy !req
367. something you always didn't like,
Copy !req
368. and I think you got an occasion to do that
in the sequence.
Copy !req
369. So this is really a neat methodology.
Copy !req
370. Actually, if you go back and you look at
that last flash back sequence
Copy !req
371. where Milla remembers collapsing,
there's some great shots left in there
Copy !req
372. where there's a guy standing there
with a clapperboard.
Copy !req
373. That's just for one frame.
Copy !req
374. If you have the patience to go through it
frame by frame,
Copy !req
375. there's loads of great flash frames
of just a guy with a clapperboard.
Copy !req
376. There's a man standing beside the bathtub
for no reason whatsoever.
Copy !req
377. I think it's one of the camera assistants
in another shot.
Copy !req
378. I don't know where it's at,
but just like on Close Encounters,
Copy !req
379. where we wrote the crew's name
on the mothership in a matte painting,
Copy !req
380. we had all sorts of names written
on one of the set-pieces here,
Copy !req
381. but I don't know where it's at.
It'll go unseen by the audience,
Copy !req
382. but if you were to buy the prop
you'd see everybody's name.
Copy !req
383. I didn't know that.
Copy !req
384. That's actually a view
of downtown San Francisco.
Copy !req
385. That's the Transamerica building
on the right there.
Copy !req
386. It was great fun working on the film because
all the actors, especially Milla and Michelle,
Copy !req
387. really liked the visual effects, so it was
really kind of fun to go on the stage.
Copy !req
388. This is a CG flare added, and the
cable bounce, to a cut of the miniature.
Copy !req
389. And the shot beforehand where you see
Pasquale, who plays J.D.,
Copy !req
390. dropping the flare, we added a
computer-generated cable in the foreground
Copy !req
391. so it would match with the shot afterwards.
Copy !req
392. That's my favourite kind of CG, is where you
just don't even know it's an effects shot.
Copy !req
393. Were they standing on a forklift?
Isn't that the set in front of them?
Copy !req
394. The foreground set piece
when they threw it down?
Copy !req
395. - Oh, when they throw the flare down?
- Yeah.
Copy !req
396. - No, that was... We built a scaffold tower.
- Built a tower, yeah.
Copy !req
397. And they were about 30 feet off the ground.
Copy !req
398. This was, actually, the first set we shot on
Copy !req
399. and was one of the last sets we shot on,
as well.
Copy !req
400. So it was standing for
about three and a half months,
Copy !req
401. and, you know, got very wet
and it got very damp.
Copy !req
402. And... God, it stank really bad.
Copy !req
403. The other thing,
talk about adding pressure, was
Copy !req
404. the film's only motion control shot.
We'd avoid motion control equipment
Copy !req
405. and think of another way to do it,
but the only motion control shot
Copy !req
406. was the very first shot in the film
with Milla standing in the pristine set,
Copy !req
407. and then we had to come back later
and match that same move.
Copy !req
408. So we had little markers on the floor
and laser measurements,
Copy !req
409. and we moved the equipment out,
and it actually came...
Copy !req
410. We don't do that too often, but it matched.
Copy !req
411. We've got Milla standing
Copy !req
412. and we had, like, seven pieces
of photography there.
Copy !req
413. Hey. You okay?
Copy !req
414. - Here.
- No.
Copy !req
415. - I'm fine.
- Please, come on.
Copy !req
416. It's cold in here.
Copy !req
417. Are you...
Copy !req
418. Do you remember anything
from before this?
Copy !req
419. No. Nothing before the train.
Copy !req
420. Back to that motion control shot.
Copy !req
421. I believe the first day we shot
Milla only has a reference,
Copy !req
422. but we have the laboratory workers
moving up and down the hallway
Copy !req
423. in their clean clothing and...
Copy !req
424. Yeah, we had the corridor clean,
Copy !req
425. - which is where you end up at.
- End up, yeah.
Copy !req
426. And, then, we came back,
Copy !req
427. probably like a month later,
where the corridor's all destroyed
Copy !req
428. and shot that part of the shot.
Copy !req
429. And Milla, we shot her in her red dress
when the corridor was destroyed.
Copy !req
430. So even when she's in the shot
and the corridor's pristine,
Copy !req
431. she's actually taken
from the other part of the shot.
Copy !req
432. We shot her against a blue screen.
Copy !req
433. All right, we're behind schedule.
Copy !req
434. So let's move it.
Copy !req
435. And one of the reasons
for doing that, actually, was that
Copy !req
436. at the start of the shoot,
when we're shooting the clean corridor,
Copy !req
437. we still hadn't locked down
the final look for Milla's dress.
Copy !req
438. So, if you look somewhere on the DVD,
hidden somewhere,
Copy !req
439. I believe, is the original camera test.
Copy !req
440. She originally had a blue dress,
and then we ended up changing it.
Copy !req
441. This is a really interesting shot
Copy !req
442. 'cause this is, like,
three different shots combined, right?
Copy !req
443. Right here, yes.
Copy !req
444. Her arm's gonna come up on the window,
and it was repositioned.
Copy !req
445. It was moved more screen right
so that the composition was more pleasing.
Copy !req
446. And, then... So originally that shot,
the wide shot, there was no push-in, right?
Copy !req
447. - There was no push-in.
- It's a fake push-in we did afterwards.
Copy !req
448. The hand, is that from a different shot?
Copy !req
449. The hand?
Yes, the hand's from a different shot.
Copy !req
450. Again, it was pulled over to the right, so...
Screen right.
Copy !req
451. And, then, the eyes opening
was animated as well.
Copy !req
452. Yeah. 'Cause you wanted...
For impact you wanted to make the move-in.
Copy !req
453. And to do the move-in,
the hand was off-screen, so we brought it in
Copy !req
454. and it...
Again, composition, which is usually...
Copy !req
455. The whole reason
for doing all of this, obviously,
Copy !req
456. is that it was very difficult for Anna Bolt,
the actress,
Copy !req
457. to, like, hold her breath
and pretend she was dead
Copy !req
458. for, like, 15 seconds
and then suddenly come to life.
Copy !req
459. - She was fabulous.
- She spent a lot of time in that tank.
Copy !req
460. We didn't have to remove any bubbles
or anything.
Copy !req
461. J.D., you and Rain keep the prisoner here
and secure the exit.
Copy !req
462. Sir, halon levels
are nonexistent in this room.
Copy !req
463. I think the system malfunctioned.
Copy !req
464. All right. There may be survivors.
Copy !req
465. Give me a search line, but keep it tight.
Copy !req
466. Oh, the boom at this...
Copy !req
467. So do you want to tell us
what you did here?
Copy !req
468. Yes. Originally we had planned
for a camera way high to extend the set,
Copy !req
469. but this camera is booming up wild,
Copy !req
470. and there are blue screens just behind
the man here on the right, and on the left,
Copy !req
471. and, actually, the whole back end of that set
is painted in and tracked in,
Copy !req
472. so it's a moving matte painting.
They did a nice job.
Copy !req
473. But if we had time, Paul was gonna have
another set of lights going down the right.
Copy !req
474. It's sort of an unfinished shot,
but it's a real good shot.
Copy !req
475. - Is that fair to say?
- Yeah.
Copy !req
476. Yeah. No, I think...
I mean, that was one of those shots that...
Copy !req
477. - You know, you've got to release the movie.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
478. And there's always, like, three or four shots
you're still working on
Copy !req
479. and you would like to, kind of, work on
for another month.
Copy !req
480. But, you know, the movie has to come out.
Copy !req
481. I just realised we only had,
as far as foreground sets, these containers
Copy !req
482. that Milla's leaning against, there were only
maybe 12 real back in that shot.
Copy !req
483. Many of them were just CG and added.
Copy !req
484. Yeah. And a lot of the practical shots
that we did as well.
Copy !req
485. A lot of the background tanks that you see
are just cardboard cut-outs.
Copy !req
486. Because they'd, kind of, fallen off
into the darkness,
Copy !req
487. and I think you really notice that.
Copy !req
488. What do they keep in these things?
Copy !req
489. How do I know?
Copy !req
490. This is pretty cool.
Copy !req
491. Heat signatures and the...
Copy !req
492. And the large breasts
that one of the animators added to Milla.
Copy !req
493. She noticed that, obviously.
Copy !req
494. I think he thought he was working
on Tomb Raider for a moment.
Copy !req
495. You know, these screens are practical,
and then, as they change...
Copy !req
496. When you see the logo, that was practical,
Copy !req
497. but otherwise, the imagery was tracked
onto the screens after the edit
Copy !req
498. to explain the story.
Copy !req
499. They're real right now.
Copy !req
500. As with all the screens
throughout the movie.
Copy !req
501. 'Cause I believe
you rewrote some stuff later.
Copy !req
502. - Changed the way it was gonna be.
- Yeah, I think.
Copy !req
503. I mean, these kind of screens
are always great for, like, plot points
Copy !req
504. that you haven't quite explained properly
in the movie,
Copy !req
505. and you want to, like, put some
little bit of plot work in there.
Copy !req
506. So it's always good to have
some nice computer screen close-ups.
Copy !req
507. It's a really unique set here.
It's like the funnel set.
Copy !req
508. It's like the whole crew trying to get through
the opening of a funnel.
Copy !req
509. It had to be built that way.
Copy !req
510. One of the interesting things about this set,
well, like a lot of the sets in the movie,
Copy !req
511. is wherever possible, when we constructed
a set, we tried to build camera tracks in.
Copy !req
512. So, for example, here, you know,
when we're cruising behind Colin Salmon,
Copy !req
513. you can see on the floor
there are four black lines
Copy !req
514. and those are actually tiny little dolly tracks.
Copy !req
515. And we had a dolly
that could run down the corridor.
Copy !req
516. 'Cause, otherwise, you know,
you can only go so far with the track
Copy !req
517. before you end up seeing the track
unless you build it into the set.
Copy !req
518. We did that in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Copy !req
519. - down the hallway.
- That's right.
Copy !req
520. It's a great camera trick.
Copy !req
521. This was added later.
Copy !req
522. So there, you know, we're running down
that camera track on the floor.
Copy !req
523. Normally if you pulled back that far,
Copy !req
524. you'd start seeing the track on the floor
in front of you.
Copy !req
525. Checkmate.
Copy !req
526. Move up.
Copy !req
527. This is one of my favourite sequences
in the movie coming up, the laser sequence.
Copy !req
528. - What is that?
- That's what will shut the Queen down.
Copy !req
529. Delivers a massive electrical charge.
Copy !req
530. Scrambles the mainframe
and forces it to reboot.
Copy !req
531. Some kind of dormant defence mechanism.
Copy !req
532. - Opening the door tripped it.
- Put it back to sleep.
Copy !req
533. Working on it.
Copy !req
534. - Would you open that door now, please?
- I'm trying.
Copy !req
535. Want to talk us through this sequence,
Richard?
Copy !req
536. Sure.
Copy !req
537. What's that?
Copy !req
538. Actually, we had a story board
to use as a guide
Copy !req
539. but we always knew, Paul, actually...
You mentioned
Copy !req
540. you knew you'd get into some trouble
on the editorial.
Copy !req
541. We placed this laser, off colour laser,
Copy !req
542. according to the edit.
So we had to wait till...
Copy !req
543. It was very difficult for the actors,
and we'd carry little sticks saying,
Copy !req
544. "There's your eye line," etc.
Copy !req
545. This is the blood that we added,
which I thought was pretty cool.
Copy !req
546. It advances...
Copy !req
547. This dolly shot here,
the whole crew, and the camera,
Copy !req
548. and everything is reflected in that back wall,
Copy !req
549. so the back wall had to be shot clean.
Copy !req
550. We shot lots of elements
so that the artists at CFC,
Copy !req
551. supervised by Mark Nelmes,
could paint out that back wall.
Copy !req
552. Replace it. Get rid of the reflections.
Copy !req
553. So we shot it wild, without a motion control.
Copy !req
554. - There's just so much to say here.
- And that's...
Copy !req
555. That's actually the head falling off.
Copy !req
556. When Liz May Brice's head falls off.
Copy !req
557. I look back at that shot,
Copy !req
558. and you can actually see,
for, like, half a second,
Copy !req
559. you can see some of the camera crew
reflected in the glass.
Copy !req
560. And I literally only noticed that
after watching this thing,
Copy !req
561. like, 200-250 times.
Copy !req
562. The lines were added. This head was...
Copy !req
563. This is all in miniature and it was done as...
Copy !req
564. We talked a lot about this, actually.
Paul wanted to play a reflection,
Copy !req
565. we played the whole thing in reflection,
leave it up to the imagination.
Copy !req
566. I think it was a very powerful shot.
Copy !req
567. You think... What I also think, you know,
with Colin Salmon's head falling apart...
Copy !req
568. I mean, what you're seeing inside there
is all anatomically correct.
Copy !req
569. I mean, you see his brain as it would be,
you see the inside of the skull.
Copy !req
570. Richard had
a full-size model of Colin's head.
Copy !req
571. - Firstly, he had his head cast...
- Cast.
Copy !req
572. so that we'd have a perfect replica
of his head.
Copy !req
573. And then we actually built
the inside of his head.
Copy !req
574. So you kind of see what you'd really see
if someone's head was chopped up.
Copy !req
575. But I think if we'd chosen to stay
and keep the head in focus perfectly,
Copy !req
576. we would have gone into
a real ratings problem.
Copy !req
577. You know, I don't think
we would have gotten R rating in America.
Copy !req
578. It would have been NC-17,
Copy !req
579. which, of course, no one will release.
Copy !req
580. So, I think if we hadn't pulled focus
to the reflection in the door,
Copy !req
581. see the body fall apart,
we would've had to cut away from it anyway,
Copy !req
582. you know, which would have really ruined
the sequence
Copy !req
583. 'cause it's kind of nice to see
that head fall apart and see what's inside it.
Copy !req
584. And I think the only reason
we get away with it
Copy !req
585. is because it's just slightly out of focus.
Copy !req
586. We start pulling focus
after the lines are registered in his head.
Copy !req
587. So that close-up,
Copy !req
588. that's actually a combination
of Colin's face for real,
Copy !req
589. - a miniature of his head...
- Yes.
Copy !req
590. When I say miniature, although it was, like,
full size. It was, like, one for one.
Copy !req
591. One to one, yes.
Copy !req
592. And then, you literally made that fall apart.
Copy !req
593. Yes. We held it together with magnets
and strings and poles.
Copy !req
594. And we'd say, "Okay, ready. Action."
And all the poles will be pulled out,
Copy !req
595. and the pieces would fall. It was really...
Copy !req
596. We did a real quick test,
and, again, we got to save some money.
Copy !req
597. Again, we took some monies
that were dedicated to that
Copy !req
598. to take back to the train set.
Copy !req
599. - Or somewhere else.
- The train set.
Copy !req
600. But it worked real well,
Copy !req
601. the miniatures crew headed by Chris Howes.
Copy !req
602. So it was the miniature crew
that actually built the body?
Copy !req
603. Yes. Yes, we did the moulding
and the body, and...
Copy !req
604. So the miniature was the train,
the elevator, and
Copy !req
605. dicing of Colin.
Copy !req
606. The knife that fell, incidentally,
had the little steam added to it.
Copy !req
607. That knife was magnetically connected
to his belt back in the corridor,
Copy !req
608. and Paul hit a micro switch when it fell,
and then we added the laser to sync.
Copy !req
609. Here's the Red Queen.
Copy !req
610. She'll try to deceive us, confuse us.
Copy !req
611. I wouldn't advise this.
Copy !req
612. We had an actress play the part
of the Red Queen, so the eye lines...
Copy !req
613. And she was then removed, the young lady.
Copy !req
614. That same lady was cyber-scanned
Copy !req
615. so that she could be recreated later in CGI.
Copy !req
616. The lines and the reflections
were minimised
Copy !req
617. so that we could photograph quickly.
Copy !req
618. I think you shot this in two days,
didn't you? It was a tough set.
Copy !req
619. Yeah, I shot that whole sequence
in two days.
Copy !req
620. - And it was difficult to shoot.
- It was very difficult, yeah.
Copy !req
621. Because every shot required three passes.
Copy !req
622. We'd shoot with Michaela, who's the actress
who played the Red Queen,
Copy !req
623. with Milla and Martin looking at her.
Copy !req
624. Then we'd have to shoot the same scene
again, but with Michaela gone.
Copy !req
625. And then we'd have to do a clean plate
with nobody in it.
Copy !req
626. So you're kind of having to shoot everything
three times.
Copy !req
627. Yeah, but after half the day was
mass-producing, Paul, you just blasted...
Copy !req
628. This, the water was added later
to a miniature.
Copy !req
629. We couldn't afford... I think it was
very expensive to do the real rain in the set.
Copy !req
630. So we got lucky,
Copy !req
631. and the second unit got to shoot that door
and the door slamming open.
Copy !req
632. If you were to see that without the water,
Copy !req
633. you'd see the man on the other side
of the door that slammed the door open.
Copy !req
634. And then we built a three-quarter scale
water tank with about 800 gallons of water
Copy !req
635. and just dumped it,
and then it was basic superimposure.
Copy !req
636. That pulse forces the circuit breaker
to shut down her mainframe for 30 seconds.
Copy !req
637. After that, if I don't have her board,
she can reboot.
Copy !req
638. Going back to the Red Queen,
Copy !req
639. I mean, the original idea was that
she was going to be totally synthetic.
Copy !req
640. So, really, the actress was only there
as a reference.
Copy !req
641. And we built a 3D CG Red Queen,
and it just...
Copy !req
642. We got so used to looking at the cut
just with the actress standing there,
Copy !req
643. that when eventually we ended up
with just the visual effect,
Copy !req
644. that was really disappointing
because we felt it lacked humanity.
Copy !req
645. It just felt too synthetic.
Copy !req
646. So what we ended up doing is putting
the actress back into the shot slowly.
Copy !req
647. So what you see is a combination
of the very, very expensive 3D CG,
Copy !req
648. but also just with the very, very cheap
actress standing there.
Copy !req
649. And I think I was really happy
when we did that
Copy !req
650. because you just see
a little bit of life in her eyes.
Copy !req
651. It adds a little bit of humanity back to her.
Copy !req
652. Well, I really like how it turned out for you,
Copy !req
653. because it definitely looks like
it was something that was built
Copy !req
654. by the head programmer.
Copy !req
655. Yeah, the idea was to keep the hologram
as realistic as possible.
Copy !req
656. In fact, Richard, you did a lot of research
on what holograms really look like.
Copy !req
657. J.D., we got a survivor!
Copy !req
658. And that visual effect
was pretty much a result of that.
Copy !req
659. We tried to imagine, if you really had...
Copy !req
660. You want a laser projection,
a hologram projection,
Copy !req
661. what would it really look like if you had
the finest technology available today?
Copy !req
662. And that's pretty much
what we tried to recreate.
Copy !req
663. It's the same with most of the technology
in the movie, actually.
Copy !req
664. When we were constructing the lab sets,
we did a lot of reference work,
Copy !req
665. just to see what real labs look like,
Copy !req
666. and a lot of the technology we used
in the labs were real props.
Copy !req
667. Yeah, there's very little
that's actually science fiction in the movie.
Copy !req
668. It's almost science fact.
Copy !req
669. I'll fire.
Copy !req
670. I mean it!
Copy !req
671. Damn you.
Copy !req
672. This push-in into her eyes
was added afterwards as well.
Copy !req
673. Just add a bit of dramatic effect.
Copy !req
674. A couple of wire removals there.
Copy !req
675. I shot her five times.
Copy !req
676. I'm really happy with how this set turned out
Copy !req
677. because I got to say,
when we were shooting it,
Copy !req
678. it was a complete nightmare,
only having 12 of these boxes.
Copy !req
679. But when you watch the movie,
it feels like you're lost in a forest of them.
Copy !req
680. There's a whole labyrinth of them.
Copy !req
681. But in reality, it was just...
Copy !req
682. Every single shot, we were struggling
just to fill up the background.
Copy !req
683. She's gone. She's gone!
Copy !req
684. Added to which
we shot this whole thing on location,
Copy !req
685. and it was in the basement of a hotel
that was still under construction in Berlin.
Copy !req
686. And it was so cold. This was probably
the crew's least favourite set.
Copy !req
687. They were so glad when we got out of here.
Copy !req
688. - It's not possible.
- Why not?
Copy !req
689. There was going to be a choreographed,
Copy !req
690. it was a different way,
choreographed key drop,
Copy !req
691. and again, to allocate some visual effect
monies to other visual effects,
Copy !req
692. you rewrote this sequence,
Copy !req
693. and it played really well
with the way it happens with the keys.
Copy !req
694. They're real keys, not CG keys.
Copy !req
695. What the fuck are you talking about?
Copy !req
696. Wait.
Copy !req
697. Quiet.
Copy !req
698. This guy can really dislocate his foot,
which is why that looks so good.
Copy !req
699. 'Cause it just shouldn't be like that.
Copy !req
700. His foot shouldn't look like that.
It's not natural.
Copy !req
701. His shoulders also popped out as well.
He could dislocate the shoulder.
Copy !req
702. As much as possible, we tried to use
actors and extras for the zombies
Copy !req
703. that could do awkward and weird things
with their bodies.
Copy !req
704. And then everyone actually went to
what we call the zombie boot camp.
Copy !req
705. 'Cause there were hundreds
and hundreds of people
Copy !req
706. who wanted to appear in the movie
as zombies.
Copy !req
707. And we only took, like, one in 10 people
who applied to be in the movie.
Copy !req
708. Because I really wanted the zombies
to have a realism to their movement.
Copy !req
709. Everybody trained for about a week or
two weeks before they appeared on camera.
Copy !req
710. And they were told, "You have a broken leg,
Copy !req
711. "and that means the leg has to be twisted
this way, you have to move in this way,
Copy !req
712. "you can't move too fast."
Copy !req
713. And the thing what had stopped happening
Copy !req
714. was everyone doing their own
schlocky zombie movement.
Copy !req
715. Which could have ended up a little bit
like Thriller, Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Copy !req
716. Those two zombies with part of their face
missing was done later in CG.
Copy !req
717. Yeah, the one where the woman turns,
and there's half of her face missing.
Copy !req
718. And also there's the guy
who we always thought
Copy !req
719. looked like Quentin Tarantino with the tie.
Copy !req
720. Watch the tank! The tank!
Copy !req
721. I think that for me, that's a good use of CG
Copy !req
722. because most of what
you're looking at is real,
Copy !req
723. like most of Quentin's face
is just makeup effect, right?
Copy !req
724. - Yeah.
- And really, the only CG in it
Copy !req
725. is something that's impossible to do with
makeup, which is to take his nose away.
Copy !req
726. Move!
Copy !req
727. We had one of those "stable-unstable"
props in the visual effects room
Copy !req
728. so that depending on the mood of the day,
Copy !req
729. you could flip it up and make it "stable"
or "unstable," the environment.
Copy !req
730. And we knew when to and when not to
have a meeting.
Copy !req
731. I don't know if you heard about that one.
Copy !req
732. No, I haven't. I don't understand.
What do you mean?
Copy !req
733. I had... On my desk, was one of the props
from there that said "stable" or "unstable,"
Copy !req
734. and depending on how things were going,
we'd move the sign up.
Copy !req
735. "Stable," they'd come in...
The producers could come in or...
Copy !req
736. So when "environment unstable"
was on your door,
Copy !req
737. no one was allowed to come and see you?
Copy !req
738. - Yeah, that's the way it worked.
- Yes. Rather good idea.
Copy !req
739. It came from the production office.
Copy !req
740. So they were suggesting you were unstable.
Copy !req
741. No. We were all unstable, yeah.
Copy !req
742. The stuntman who did this full body burn
Copy !req
743. underneath the tank with Eric Mabius,
just great.
Copy !req
744. We burnt this guy, like, 30 times,
and he never complained once.
Copy !req
745. 'Cause there's no visual effects here.
Copy !req
746. The guy's wearing a Nomex suit
which protects him from the heat.
Copy !req
747. And he's wearing
a little fireproof gel on his face.
Copy !req
748. But otherwise we just burned the guy,
over and over and over again.
Copy !req
749. I think he went through 10 costumes,
Copy !req
750. 'cause even though the suit was fireproof,
after a while, the fire does burn through.
Copy !req
751. And also we could just set light
to Eric's leg there.
Copy !req
752. He let us, like, again, set light to him.
Copy !req
753. And I think, going back to Richard's
favourite saying, "One for one is best."
Copy !req
754. If you can really get the actors
to participate in stunts,
Copy !req
755. and put them on fire, then you always
end up with the best results.
Copy !req
756. Zero, four, three, two... No, fuck!
Copy !req
757. - What?
- Zero, four, three...
Copy !req
758. - What is the code?
- Zero, four,
Copy !req
759. zero, three, one, nine, six, five.
Copy !req
760. - Got it?
- See how easy that was?
Copy !req
761. This scene really works well in the movie.
Copy !req
762. At one of the screenings that I went to,
a bunch of kids in front of me said,
Copy !req
763. "Oh, man, what a haze."
Copy !req
764. Grab my hand, man! Come on!
Copy !req
765. Obviously, you're gonna make
an undead movie,
Copy !req
766. you have to watch all of Romero's films,
'cause he is the master.
Copy !req
767. And also what you realise is once you've
made three of these movies as he did,
Copy !req
768. you pretty much run out of ways
to shock the audience with the zombies.
Copy !req
769. So I'm not ashamed to say
Copy !req
770. that obviously this scene is completely
stolen from Day of the Dead.
Copy !req
771. There's a scene
where somebody opens a door,
Copy !req
772. and there's a bunch of zombies
standing there,
Copy !req
773. and they grab him and eat him alive.
Copy !req
774. This is a reverse-printed shot here.
Copy !req
775. Lickeris 3D CG added to pieces of
background plates that already existed.
Copy !req
776. We went through all the background plates,
Copy !req
777. and Paul and Alex edited a sequence
that the Licker could be added to.
Copy !req
778. Because when we first started the show,
Copy !req
779. I guess the introduction of the Licker
hadn't been decided yet...
Copy !req
780. Yeah. Originally, we weren't
going to have that scene
Copy !req
781. where the Licker climbed out of the box, so
we never shot the door coming off the box.
Copy !req
782. And so what happened was that
we just had a bunch of shots that...
Copy !req
783. When you go and you shoot in a set,
you tend to just shoot a lot of spare shots,
Copy !req
784. just in case you might need something.
Copy !req
785. And this is like one of the times
when it really paid off,
Copy !req
786. was we'd done a bunch of shots
that just had boxes in them, with no actors.
Copy !req
787. So in that sequence of three shots,
where we tip up to the box,
Copy !req
788. the front of the box comes off, and then we
go to the side shot of the Licker coming out,
Copy !req
789. those were shots that originally had
no flame in them, no smoke in them,
Copy !req
790. and no Licker in them,
and all that was added afterwards.
Copy !req
791. But that's something I learnt very quickly,
doing visual effects movies,
Copy !req
792. is if you have a set,
and you're going to tear it down,
Copy !req
793. you better just shoot a bunch of shots,
just do them really quickly,
Copy !req
794. 'cause you never know
what you might need.
Copy !req
795. Sure came in handy there.
Copy !req
796. - So, zombie dogs, eh?
- Zombie dogs, yeah.
Copy !req
797. We put a lot of effort into the zombie dogs.
Copy !req
798. This was the last scene we shot in the movie
during principal photography.
Copy !req
799. And it was one of the reasons
why we stayed on budget, I think,
Copy !req
800. is that everyone always said,
"If you go over budget,
Copy !req
801. "we're gonna have to cut the dog scene."
Copy !req
802. And Richard and I so wanted
to shoot the dog scene,
Copy !req
803. we had to stay on budget.
Copy !req
804. And also we realised quite quickly that
Copy !req
805. what we were asking of the dog trainers
and the prosthetics people
Copy !req
806. was something that had never really
been asked of them before,
Copy !req
807. which was to do
an extended action scene with dogs.
Copy !req
808. Firstly, has never really been done before.
Copy !req
809. And then also the idea of
putting makeup on dogs
Copy !req
810. again, has never really been done before,
Copy !req
811. so we really needed the whole length
of the shoot to prepare for this scene.
Copy !req
812. It was touch and go whether the scene
was gonna be in the movie.
Copy !req
813. There were some sequences...
And, Paul, I called you "the gang of one"
Copy !req
814. because you really wanted to do this
and you saw how it was gonna work.
Copy !req
815. And I believe everybody was happy that this
happened. I mean, we're real thrilled with it.
Copy !req
816. The dogs took their makeup real well,
which we didn't think they would.
Copy !req
817. Their teeth were modified in CG later.
Copy !req
818. Again, you have to wait
till the sequence is edited
Copy !req
819. so that you can minimise the work
and maximise the efficiency.
Copy !req
820. So, whenever you see the dogs...
Like over the dog's shoulder,
Copy !req
821. or the dog in a wide shot, I mean,
if you go back and you freeze the DVD,
Copy !req
822. especially on the wide shots,
you see that they actually have
Copy !req
823. none of that decomposing flesh makeup
on their faces.
Copy !req
824. And the reason for that was
the dogs would just eat the makeup.
Copy !req
825. Anything within range of their tongues
they would just eat, 'cause they liked it,
Copy !req
826. so it was impossible
to put makeup on their faces.
Copy !req
827. So whenever we went to a close-up, Richard
would have to take flesh from their body,
Copy !req
828. in CG, obviously,
and then track it onto their faces.
Copy !req
829. And that's why,
once we started getting into doing that,
Copy !req
830. we thought we may as well chip their teeth
and make them look really gnarly as well.
Copy !req
831. Take an ear away.
Copy !req
832. Plus, the dogs... You learned real quick,
I didn't zero in on who they were,
Copy !req
833. but of the dogs,
two of them were superior actors
Copy !req
834. and they were used sometimes to play
stand-ins for the dog right next to them.
Copy !req
835. Yeah, we actually shot the sequence
with four dogs.
Copy !req
836. Like here, these are two dogs
used seven times. Or four times.
Copy !req
837. Yeah, we could only shoot
two dogs at a time
Copy !req
838. because you can't really get more
than two dogs in one room
Copy !req
839. 'cause they distract each other,
even if they're trained.
Copy !req
840. But, yeah, as Richard was mentioning,
some of the dogs are better actors
Copy !req
841. and some of the dogs
could do things better.
Copy !req
842. There was one dog
that was very good at snarling,
Copy !req
843. and there was one dog
that was very good at chasing,
Copy !req
844. and there was one dog
that just jumped through the window.
Copy !req
845. That's all the dog was trained to do.
So, actually, that one dog, this dog here,
Copy !req
846. that's chasing Milla
throughout the whole sequence,
Copy !req
847. is a combination, ultimately,
of fourseparate dogs.
Copy !req
848. When Milla kicks the dog,
we can talk about this, I believe,
Copy !req
849. that's called the dog on a stick.
There was a man standing in that scene
Copy !req
850. with a stick attached to the dog,
holding it in place for Milla to kick,
Copy !req
851. so that scene was done with three different
pieces of film. Split-screened.
Copy !req
852. One's Milla kicking a tennis ball,
then Milla kicking the dog on a stick,
Copy !req
853. and then the dog jumping through
in another piece,
Copy !req
854. and it was split-screened together to
make it look as though it happened at once.
Copy !req
855. She did kick a dog so that the physics of
her foot action did play against something.
Copy !req
856. - But it was a dummy dog, it was a stand-in...
- Rubber dog.
Copy !req
857. - Yeah, Milla never kicked a real dog.
- From $80,000 to $29.95.
Copy !req
858. That was the original budget, $80,000?
Copy !req
859. Yeah, they would have done a great job, but
we didn't have the money to do a CG dog.
Copy !req
860. Yeah, that's if we wanted to build a CG dog.
Copy !req
861. And also, I think
the real dog just looks better as well.
Copy !req
862. I love that dog sequence, actually.
Copy !req
863. When Milla slams the door in the dog's face,
Copy !req
864. and then turns around
to see the eight dogs,
Copy !req
865. you can see the dog she just locked
in the room jumping up behind.
Copy !req
866. You can see its head, and it's great 'cause
that's just a rubber dog's head on a stick.
Copy !req
867. It's a guy behind the door jumping
up and down with this rubber dog head.
Copy !req
868. It was a lot of work in that room
with the dogs.
Copy !req
869. First of all, you had to respect the dogs,
they were really good,
Copy !req
870. and all the pieces of equipment necessary
for the dogs to run and jump from,
Copy !req
871. for their trajectories,
very much like a stuntman,
Copy !req
872. so there was a lot of equipment,
wire removal, bluescreen work,
Copy !req
873. measurements of the room.
It was a nice job done by CFC.
Copy !req
874. There's the 3D cartridge that could spell
Copy !req
875. - the ownership of the... I'm sorry.
- The Umbrella Corporation 9mm cartridge.
Copy !req
876. Yeah. That's obviously a CG shot.
Copy !req
877. But just to go back to the dogs, obviously,
one of the things I get asked a lot is,
Copy !req
878. "Were the animals mistreated in any way?"
And of course they're not.
Copy !req
879. That whole sequence was
built around the comfort of those dogs.
Copy !req
880. In fact, the whole set was
kind of constructed around
Copy !req
881. what the dogs could and couldn't do.
Copy !req
882. The floor on the set was made of rubber
so that the dogs could have traction
Copy !req
883. 'cause there are certain things
that dogs don't like running on.
Copy !req
884. The dog that jumped through the window
Copy !req
885. was trained to, originally,
just jump through an empty window,
Copy !req
886. and then a window with a bit of...
What's that clear stuff called?
Copy !req
887. - Visqueen?
- Yeah, jump through the visqueen,
Copy !req
888. the plastic, to start with.
Copy !req
889. And then eventually,
for the one shot we did that's in the movie,
Copy !req
890. it jumped through very, very thin
sugar glass, which is completely painless.
Copy !req
891. And we know it's painless
because we had a great animal trainer,
Copy !req
892. and he said,
"My dogs don't do anything I don't do."
Copy !req
893. So anything we wanted the dogs to do,
like jump through the sugar glass,
Copy !req
894. he would insist on putting his head
through the sugar glass first.
Copy !req
895. And if he felt anything, he said,
"That's it, my dog's not doing this."
Copy !req
896. We filmed him doing it,
I think there's a piece of film showing it.
Copy !req
897. Yeah, they were great guys.
In fact, the dogs ended up with a fan club.
Copy !req
898. There was special housing
out behind the stage,
Copy !req
899. and people at lunchtime
would go visit the dogs.
Copy !req
900. Yeah, they were lovely dogs.
Copy !req
901. They don't look like it in the movie,
but they were just very nice.
Copy !req
902. There are hundreds of thousands
of us who think the same
Copy !req
903. all over the world.
Copy !req
904. Some of us provide information,
Copy !req
905. others give their support.
Copy !req
906. Some take more direct action.
Copy !req
907. Like you.
Copy !req
908. If your friends had been
a little more thorough,
Copy !req
909. they would've seen
right through my false ID.
Copy !req
910. Quite often the dogs,
in the close-ups where they're snarling
Copy !req
911. and growling and looking really intense,
it's because the dog trainer
Copy !req
912. is standing just behind the camera
with their favourite teddy bear or chew toy
Copy !req
913. and he's just waving it at the dog.
Copy !req
914. And, of course, at the end of the take,
they let go of the dog
Copy !req
915. and the dog just goes off and grabs teddy
and tears it to pieces.
Copy !req
916. We needed something concrete.
Copy !req
917. It was a very physical set with Milla
running around and jumping a lot.
Copy !req
918. One of the stunt coordinators
played the actor that got kicked.
Copy !req
919. That's right. Jaymes Butler is the zombie
that gets killed in the lab.
Copy !req
920. When she goes to get the gun,
it's really neat to see how he's moving a bit,
Copy !req
921. and you wanted to leave that cut in there,
so the audience didn't know
Copy !req
922. whether he would come to life
or she'd get the gun, or not.
Copy !req
923. Yeah, well, the idea's to set up a false scare.
You think the zombie's gonna come to life,
Copy !req
924. and then, actually, the scare comes
from the dog jumping through the window.
Copy !req
925. So, one last thing about that dog scene
is that
Copy !req
926. when Milla runs up the wall,
that's actually her doing that.
Copy !req
927. There's obviously a wire
attached to a harness underneath her jacket
Copy !req
928. to get her up there.
But she was quite notable for me, anyway,
Copy !req
929. because she did all of her own stunts
in the movie.
Copy !req
930. There's literally only two things
she didn't do,
Copy !req
931. which she wasn't allowed to do
for insurance purposes.
Copy !req
932. And she was so angry when
we wouldn't allow her to risk her life
Copy !req
933. in those two sequences
Copy !req
934. that she just walked around in this
terrible mood for a couple of days.
Copy !req
935. But I think it's one of the things
that makes her action scenes good, is
Copy !req
936. when you see stuff happening,
it's really her,
Copy !req
937. so I could get in there with the camera
and really shoot the actress doing it,
Copy !req
938. rather than having to go for a wide shot
and use a stunt double.
Copy !req
939. The interesting thing about
her training for that sequence,
Copy !req
940. it took a while to train.
Copy !req
941. It was a duplicate set built
across the way in another building
Copy !req
942. because we'd train the dogs in one set,
so Milla had to train in another.
Copy !req
943. Yeah, it was all about the dogs,
that sequence.
Copy !req
944. There was no movie-star treatment for Milla.
Copy !req
945. It was like,
"I'm sorry, the dogs are in your set.
Copy !req
946. "You have to go and practise next door."
Copy !req
947. If someone doesn't hear from you,
they'll send backup or something.
Copy !req
948. Right?
Copy !req
949. What? What's wrong?
Copy !req
950. We don't have much time.
Copy !req
951. You know those blast doors we passed
on the way in from the mansion?
Copy !req
952. They seal shut in just under an hour.
Copy !req
953. If we're not out of here by then,
we're not getting out.
Copy !req
954. What are you talking about?
They can't just bury us alive down here.
Copy !req
955. Containing the incident
is the only fail-safe plan they had...
Copy !req
956. The fabulous Michelle Rodriguez.
Just talking about insurance...
Copy !req
957. The insurance company objecting
to Milla doing several stunts.
Copy !req
958. Whenever you insure an actor or an actress
for a movie,
Copy !req
959. there are certain things that they are,
of course, forbidden to do, which...
Copy !req
960. I think Michelle read through her contract
Copy !req
961. and decided to do all of them
while we were shooting Resident Evil.
Copy !req
962. So we'd, to our horror, discover
that if we ever gave her a weekend off,
Copy !req
963. she would go sky diving,
which you're not supposed to do.
Copy !req
964. - She's terrific.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
965. Both these women were just great
to work with, really good fun.
Copy !req
966. That homicidal bitch killed my team.
Copy !req
967. And the nice thing about both of them was,
Copy !req
968. they were very, very committed
to Resident Evil.
Copy !req
969. They were both huge fans
of the video game.
Copy !req
970. And we had actors who, every morning,
they wanted to be on the set.
Copy !req
971. They really wanted to be part
of Resident Evil.
Copy !req
972. And the same was true
with a lot of the crew as well.
Copy !req
973. A lot of the crew
had already played the game,
Copy !req
974. and if they hadn't,
I made sure that they did play the game.
Copy !req
975. So that when we were designing the sets,
for example,
Copy !req
976. our production designer, Joseph...
Our production designer...
Copy !req
977. Richard Bridgland.
Copy !req
978. Sorry, I was on Event Horizon there
for a moment.
Copy !req
979. - I was about to say Joseph Bennett.
- Yeah, you were.
Copy !req
980. It's having you sitting in the room, Richard.
Copy !req
981. Well, Richard and Richard.
Richard Yuricich and Richard Bridgland.
Copy !req
982. We changed our name to Bernie
because there was a great gaffer,
Copy !req
983. Bernie Grill, who was a massive man,
nobody messed with Bernie,
Copy !req
984. and Bernie Eisinger.
Copy !req
985. So we figured if we called ourselves Bernie,
nobody'd ever holler at us.
Copy !req
986. Nobody caught on,
but all the way through the show,
Copy !req
987. - I called him Bernie and he called me Bernie.
- Yes.
Copy !req
988. - Did you catch onto that?
- No.
Copy !req
989. I didn't get the kind of
"stable" and "unstable" thing either.
Copy !req
990. We just didn't figure anybody'd holler
at Bernie Grill or Bernie Eisinger.
Copy !req
991. Safe name.
Copy !req
992. So, back to Richard Bridgland,
our fabulous production designer.
Copy !req
993. He watched a lot of the game
and he played a lot of the game,
Copy !req
994. so a lot of the sets we designed and built
have a feeling that they're from the game.
Copy !req
995. We used the same kind of colours
that were used in the game.
Copy !req
996. And some things we just recreated
as much as we could,
Copy !req
997. for example, the train, is pretty much based
Copy !req
998. on the train from Resident Evil 2,
the video game.
Copy !req
999. And also, David Johnson,
my cinematographer,
Copy !req
1000. he would always be trying
to shoot the movie
Copy !req
1001. as though it were shot in the videogame,
Copy !req
1002. 'cause the videogame has a lot of
signature sequences,
Copy !req
1003. signature ways that things are shot.
Copy !req
1004. For example, when Milla is in the lab,
in the dog scene,
Copy !req
1005. where she's reaching for the gun
from the zombie that you think is dead,
Copy !req
1006. you know, we go to an overhead shot,
Copy !req
1007. and those overhead shots
are very much a signature of the game.
Copy !req
1008. Why did you kill everybody down here?
Copy !req
1009. The T-virus escaped
into the air conditioning system
Copy !req
1010. and an uncontrolled pattern
of infection began.
Copy !req
1011. The virus is protean,
Copy !req
1012. changing from liquid to airborne
to blood transmission...
Copy !req
1013. The entire crew is a great family.
I have never seen as many people
Copy !req
1014. go to other departments and take a look
at what was going on, especially the girls.
Copy !req
1015. Milla and Michelle.
Copy !req
1016. Yeah, they'd be forever hanging around
in the construction department.
Copy !req
1017. They're really interested
in every single aspect of the movie.
Copy !req
1018. It's great to work with them that way.
Copy !req
1019. and then you become one of them.
Copy !req
1020. A check of my systems indicates
my main drive circuit breaker
Copy !req
1021. has been disabled.
Copy !req
1022. May I ask why?
Copy !req
1023. Insurance. We need a way out of here.
Copy !req
1024. If you refuse to help at any time,
we flip the switch.
Copy !req
1025. Understand?
Copy !req
1026. After you.
Copy !req
1027. - What the hell is this place?
- The utility tunnels.
Copy !req
1028. This set, for example, is straight out
of a Resident Evil game.
Copy !req
1029. You know, this looks very Resident Evil.
Copy !req
1030. This is all a set that was constructed.
Copy !req
1031. And it was very, very difficult to shoot in.
It was very tight, very claustrophobic.
Copy !req
1032. You know, it was really difficult
getting five actors in there,
Copy !req
1033. never mind a camera crew and lights.
Copy !req
1034. - Why are you listening to her?
- Enough already!
Copy !req
1035. But I think that's one of the things,
you know, we're very aware of,
Copy !req
1036. is that zombies are only scary
if they're in tight, confined spaces.
Copy !req
1037. I mean, that's something you learn
from Romero's movies
Copy !req
1038. is that when they're in the open,
Copy !req
1039. these things are just easy to run around,
they're easy to push over
Copy !req
1040. and, you know, they become jokey.
You know, they become funny.
Copy !req
1041. And that's why Romero's movies, you know,
deliberately turn into comedies
Copy !req
1042. for part of their running time,
Copy !req
1043. is 'cause the zombies, themselves,
are funny.
Copy !req
1044. And with this movie, we didn't want that.
Copy !req
1045. We wanted the zombies to remain
as scary as possible,
Copy !req
1046. which is why
we limited the amount of screen time,
Copy !req
1047. the amount of time
they're actually on screen.
Copy !req
1048. And whenever you see them,
there's a lot of them.
Copy !req
1049. And it's always in a tight, confined space
Copy !req
1050. where there's just no getting away
from them.
Copy !req
1051. It was just enough of space to do
what's happening here.
Copy !req
1052. Go on up! Move it!
Copy !req
1053. Shit. Okay.
Copy !req
1054. Again, this is a set that was constructed
with a lot of camera track in it,
Copy !req
1055. so once they get up onto the pipes,
Copy !req
1056. we had camera track built into the rails,
Copy !req
1057. hanging from the ceiling,
so that we could follow the actors.
Copy !req
1058. A lot of this fight scene with Milla
was shot at a 120 frames a second,
Copy !req
1059. so it was, like, super slow motion.
Copy !req
1060. And then we speeded the frame rate up
and slowed it down,
Copy !req
1061. so in some shots you're
going from very, very fast to slow motion.
Copy !req
1062. So on the Avid, the edit was done
at whatever frame rate they wanted
Copy !req
1063. and then we'd match it later.
CineSpeeding it, they call it.
Copy !req
1064. Rain? Rain.
Copy !req
1065. What?
Copy !req
1066. We have to do something
about your wounds.
Copy !req
1067. I'm fine.
Copy !req
1068. I said I'm fine.
Copy !req
1069. You like that, don't you? Huh?
Copy !req
1070. You like the way it tastes, don't you?
Copy !req
1071. So here we've got the actors,
Copy !req
1072. you know, they're seven feet up,
sitting on these pipes,
Copy !req
1073. and we still have to shoot them,
Copy !req
1074. and there really was nowhere
for the camera to go.
Copy !req
1075. So all these shots looking over
Michelle's hand, for example,
Copy !req
1076. what we did was,
we'd take the roof of the set off,
Copy !req
1077. and then my cameraman
would be hanging there
Copy !req
1078. suspended from a bungee cord,
Copy !req
1079. so that he could, you know,
he could literally step out into space
Copy !req
1080. and he was still suspended,
so he could hover up there with the actors.
Copy !req
1081. There weren't many wires used here.
It was just all physicality.
Copy !req
1082. And then these shots are using
the hidden camera track.
Copy !req
1083. You know how stages have four doors
on them and exit doors?
Copy !req
1084. This is about the only stage
I've ever worked on
Copy !req
1085. where the set was so big
and encompassed so much of the space
Copy !req
1086. that if you knew you went to certain sides
of the set, you'd walk outside
Copy !req
1087. and go around to another entrance door.
Copy !req
1088. Coming up is the one stunt
Copy !req
1089. that Milla wasn't allowed to do
by the insurance company.
Copy !req
1090. And it's just as she jumps off the pipe.
Copy !req
1091. And the reason is
those cables that are holding the pipe up,
Copy !req
1092. they were scared that...
Copy !req
1093. The reason why the pipe is dropping
is 'cause those cables were released.
Copy !req
1094. That one of them,
'cause they're under high pressure,
Copy !req
1095. would, kind of, spring back
and could potentially wrap around her neck
Copy !req
1096. and strangle her.
Copy !req
1097. Which, of course, nobody wants.
Copy !req
1098. - Help him.
- I can't.
Copy !req
1099. - What are you waiting for?
- I can't focus!
Copy !req
1100. I can't see!
Copy !req
1101. - Kaplan, go up!
- Get up there!
Copy !req
1102. You almost got it. Keep going!
Copy !req
1103. - Come on! Come on!
- You can do it!
Copy !req
1104. You got it!
Copy !req
1105. - Okay, Kaplan.
- Just stay there!
Copy !req
1106. Hold on. We're gonna come get you.
Copy !req
1107. Cut this wire and throw it to him.
Then we can go get him.
Copy !req
1108. Hold on!
Copy !req
1109. One of the unique things
we did on this movie is,
Copy !req
1110. our production designer
was also our costume designer,
Copy !req
1111. so Richard Bridgland filled both jobs,
Copy !req
1112. which, if you look at movies
made 50 years ago, was not that uncommon.
Copy !req
1113. Quite often the production designer
and the costume designer
Copy !req
1114. would be the same person.
Copy !req
1115. Because what I wanted was a very
de-saturated look for some of these scenes.
Copy !req
1116. For example, all these scenes down here
in the access pipes.
Copy !req
1117. And if you look at the scenes,
really, they're almost monochromatic.
Copy !req
1118. You know, the only colour that you'll see
is a sudden, like, the red of Milla's dress.
Copy !req
1119. Or the red of the blood, or, occasionally,
the blue of Eric Mabius' shirt.
Copy !req
1120. The rest of the scene almost looks like we
put it through bleach bypass process,
Copy !req
1121. you know, we've done
some kind of post-production process,
Copy !req
1122. and actually we didn't.
Copy !req
1123. What we did was,
because Richard was filling both jobs,
Copy !req
1124. you know, he would build a set
that really had no colour in them.
Copy !req
1125. And also, he'd give us costumes
that, again, had no colour in them,
Copy !req
1126. so when you do see the splash of red
Copy !req
1127. or the splash of blue
it really does have impact.
Copy !req
1128. All these zombies, for example,
are all just dressed in shades of grey.
Copy !req
1129. Or off-white.
Copy !req
1130. You're gonna have to work for your meal!
Copy !req
1131. Talking about the claustrophobia,
Copy !req
1132. and keeping the sets
very, very tight and confined
Copy !req
1133. to enhance the claustrophobia
and keep it more scary.
Copy !req
1134. This is the first movie
that Rich and I have done in a while
Copy !req
1135. that we actually shot 1:85
rather than widescreen.
Copy !req
1136. For example,
Event Horizon was widescreen. It was 2:35,
Copy !req
1137. and that was a deliberate choice because
although I prefer widescreen as a ratio,
Copy !req
1138. I think it's more cinematic,
Copy !req
1139. it is a lot less claustrophobic,
Copy !req
1140. and I always knew we were gonna shoot
a lot of this movie in big close-up.
Copy !req
1141. I wanted a lot of big close-up
of people's faces.
Copy !req
1142. And the problem with widescreen is
if you go in for tight close-ups,
Copy !req
1143. even if it's the tightest close-up possible,
you know, just eyes and mouth,
Copy !req
1144. you still end up with a huge amount
of the screen which is empty space
Copy !req
1145. which, I think, kind of works
against the claustrophobia.
Copy !req
1146. The introduction of the Licker there
that we saw that you had added,
Copy !req
1147. I don't remember what we had to do there,
but the rain is falling,
Copy !req
1148. and I think the set had to be enhanced
'cause it was a major blow-up...
Copy !req
1149. - Well, again, that was...
- ... in size?
Copy !req
1150. Yeah, that was a sequence
that was never gonna be in the movie,
Copy !req
1151. the Licker running by the wall,
and then we added it afterwards.
Copy !req
1152. And what it was, was it was just
a snatch shot of an empty corridor.
Copy !req
1153. It was actually for a scene after Milla and
Michelle had just walked out of shot,
Copy !req
1154. and we only had about 24 frames,
one second worth of film,
Copy !req
1155. so what we had to do was slow it down.
Copy !req
1156. So if you look at the drops
they're actually dropping in slow motion.
Copy !req
1157. Just to provide us with enough footage
to then insert the creature.
Copy !req
1158. This is that motion control shot.
Copy !req
1159. So it was the first day of the movie
and about the 30th day of the movie.
Copy !req
1160. - So the elements here are what?
- The actors have been separated.
Copy !req
1161. The clean actors have been separated,
so it's three pieces of film there.
Copy !req
1162. The clean set is separated
with Milla in her wardrobe.
Copy !req
1163. The actors in the background were
on another piece of film,
Copy !req
1164. but it was all motion control,
and they were bluescreen separated.
Copy !req
1165. - So how many elements in all?
- I believe there are seven elements in there,
Copy !req
1166. but that's so you could have
all the people passing over each other.
Copy !req
1167. The way you designed the scene,
the way you wanted them fading in,
Copy !req
1168. the final timing of the scene
for when the real set came in,
Copy !req
1169. was a decision that was made
at editorial stage, I believe.
Copy !req
1170. Yeah.
Copy !req
1171. That's one of the tough things
making a movie like this is,
Copy !req
1172. a lot of the visual effects take so long to do
Copy !req
1173. that even while you're shooting the movie,
even before you've completed shooting,
Copy !req
1174. you're having to make decisions about
how the movie is cut
Copy !req
1175. just in order to get the visual effects done
to meet your release date.
Copy !req
1176. So it kind of makes...
Copy !req
1177. It makes the difficult job
of shooting an action movie even harder
Copy !req
1178. 'cause after you work, like, an 18-hour day,
including preparation in the morning,
Copy !req
1179. you then have to go to the cutting room
and make really important decisions
Copy !req
1180. when you're just dog tired.
Copy !req
1181. And that's not to say
you can't change those decisions later on,
Copy !req
1182. but it's just expensive if you do
Copy !req
1183. because you're throwing away months'
worth of work that's already been done.
Copy !req
1184. I can't remember.
Copy !req
1185. The truth.
Copy !req
1186. I don't remember the truth.
Copy !req
1187. The ramp that held
the motion control system had to be built,
Copy !req
1188. and all the marks and things,
so it took a lot of cooperation
Copy !req
1189. from a lot of departments
to understand what was going on,
Copy !req
1190. and we really had great cooperation
from department to department here.
Copy !req
1191. As Richard said, that motion control shot
was one of the first things we shot,
Copy !req
1192. and it actually took half a day
to do our first shot
Copy !req
1193. 'cause motion control's always slow,
Copy !req
1194. so I think people thought
Richard and I were completely insane.
Copy !req
1195. Completely out of control. Every single shot
we did was going to take half a day.
Copy !req
1196. This set was a particularly difficult one
for the actors to shoot in
Copy !req
1197. because they spent a couple of weeks
in this water,
Copy !req
1198. and if we'd heated the water,
we would've had steam rising from it,
Copy !req
1199. which wasn't the look I wanted,
Copy !req
1200. so it was pretty damn freezing cold in there.
Copy !req
1201. Milla would leave the set and go and sit in a
little bucket of warm water in between takes.
Copy !req
1202. security codes,
surveillance plans, the works.
Copy !req
1203. But there's gonna be a price.
Copy !req
1204. The white flashes that you get
in this sequence
Copy !req
1205. are actually a practical effect
that were done on the day
Copy !req
1206. just from switching the camera
on and off randomly.
Copy !req
1207. And the image,
it's just the last few frames you get
Copy !req
1208. as the camera switches off,
is you get one frame of white,
Copy !req
1209. and also, the speed of the image
changes slightly.
Copy !req
1210. Spence?
Copy !req
1211. Spence?
Copy !req
1212. This is a reprise of the CG shot.
Copy !req
1213. I really like that shot of the tumbling vial.
Copy !req
1214. Reminds me of the shot you did
for Mission Impossible.
Copy !req
1215. The first one.
Copy !req
1216. - The knife?
- Oh, the knife, yeah.
Copy !req
1217. That was done at ILM by John Knoll himself.
Copy !req
1218. Great job. He did it at home, I believe.
Copy !req
1219. Spence?
Copy !req
1220. Talk about making it tough on yourself.
Copy !req
1221. The minute Milla decided that
she was going to dive into the water there,
Copy !req
1222. she then had to spend the rest of the movie
in a soaking dress,
Copy !req
1223. which, filming in Berlin, is no fun,
I can tell you.
Copy !req
1224. It was, like, so cold. She made it...
I mean, it looks great,
Copy !req
1225. but it was very, very hard on her.
Copy !req
1226. Because she did all her own stunts as well,
Copy !req
1227. and there was nowhere
to hide the stunt pads...
Copy !req
1228. If you're a guy, you can wear a pair of pants,
Copy !req
1229. and you can pad your knees up when
you have to take a tumble to the ground.
Copy !req
1230. She could never do anything like that
'cause she's wearing a tiny little red dress,
Copy !req
1231. so whenever she hits the ground,
she really hit the ground.
Copy !req
1232. And she would do it again and again
and again till we got the take we wanted.
Copy !req
1233. So, the start of the movie,
when we started shooting,
Copy !req
1234. and we did the earlier scenes of her
waking up in the bath,
Copy !req
1235. we were painting a bruise
onto her shoulder.
Copy !req
1236. And literally, by the end of the shoot,
we were trying to paint bruises off her.
Copy !req
1237. Because about 80% of her body was covered
in these big, black, ugly bruises.
Copy !req
1238. You knew what they did.
Copy !req
1239. I was trying to stop them.
Copy !req
1240. No. You...
Copy !req
1241. You really believe that
Copy !req
1242. people like him will ever change anything?
Copy !req
1243. No.
Copy !req
1244. Nothing ever changes.
Copy !req
1245. Where...
Copy !req
1246. Where is the antivirus?
Copy !req
1247. It's on the train
Copy !req
1248. where you found me.
Copy !req
1249. Couldn't have been standing
more than three feet from it.
Copy !req
1250. I so nearly made it out.
Copy !req
1251. Didn't realise that bitch of a computer
had defence systems outside the Hive.
Copy !req
1252. In or out?
Copy !req
1253. In or out?
Copy !req
1254. I don't know what we had but it's over.
Copy !req
1255. Back...
Copy !req
1256. the fuck off.
Copy !req
1257. So, just in a quiet visual effects moment,
Copy !req
1258. Richard, tell us about the miniature
at the start of Blade Runner.
Copy !req
1259. I'm missing you already.
Copy !req
1260. About how small that was.
Copy !req
1261. 'Cause I remember when you told me
about that. It was just fantastic.
Copy !req
1262. I couldn't believe...
Copy !req
1263. Yeah. Well, actually, the designs of
Syd Mead, and Ridley, and Doug Trumbull
Copy !req
1264. and photography by Dave Stewart.
Copy !req
1265. But the miniature itself was about 12 feet
across and only about 8 feet deep,
Copy !req
1266. and it was built with a forced perspective
by Mark Stetson and his gang.
Copy !req
1267. So that's the whole cityscape...
Copy !req
1268. - Yes, that's it.
- ... at the start of Blade Runner,
Copy !req
1269. - which looks immense.
- And the camera moves...
Copy !req
1270. - It's like 8 foot by 12 foot?
- Yeah.
Copy !req
1271. Some of the flames that came out
of the foreground towers
Copy !req
1272. that were 50 gallons of napalm
that were set off in the desert.
Copy !req
1273. And then the flames in the smaller shots
in the distance were little Bunsen burners.
Copy !req
1274. You talk about contrasts
in elements that were used.
Copy !req
1275. A little Bunsen burner
like you have in your science class,
Copy !req
1276. and then 50 gallons of napalm.
Copy !req
1277. Did we miss the first dog here?
I mean, the first creature?
Copy !req
1278. No, he's coming from the ceiling. He's just...
Copy !req
1279. No, no, in the banging against the window
into the lab.
Copy !req
1280. No, no.
Copy !req
1281. No, the Licker's on his way.
He's just about to arrive.
Copy !req
1282. - Clint was his name.
- Yeah, we called the creature Clint,
Copy !req
1283. - because, like Clint Eastwood, he was cool.
- Nobody was gonna mess with Clint.
Copy !req
1284. So just tell us about the CG creature here
and the dust falling and everything, Richard.
Copy !req
1285. 'Cause this was quite a challenging bit
of the post-production process.
Copy !req
1286. This was added later. And rather than
go through the standard operations
Copy !req
1287. that the CG people want to do of building
a model and building this man in CG,
Copy !req
1288. we didn't have much time and money,
Copy !req
1289. but with the supervisors at CFC,
Copy !req
1290. Sally Goldberg and Dominic Parker,
we took a...
Copy !req
1291. We discussed it and had an idea
that we could use a muscle man,
Copy !req
1292. a bodybuilder, with putting marks on him
to get the flesh and the tone
Copy !req
1293. for the texture and measurements
of his moves.
Copy !req
1294. So we had all these girls on the set
with this fabulous bodybuilder
Copy !req
1295. with little X's marked all over him,
and photographed simultaneously
Copy !req
1296. with six cameras from all sides to shortcut,
Copy !req
1297. to jump over the labour-intensive
and expensive area of building the man.
Copy !req
1298. So anyhow, that bodybuilder
then became the textures
Copy !req
1299. that were stretched and fit to this Licker,
Copy !req
1300. so the Licker was constructed
from part of the game,
Copy !req
1301. and an unnamed bodybuilder in Berlin.
Copy !req
1302. So the torso of the Licker
is based on a real human being?
Copy !req
1303. - Yes.
- And then the head
Copy !req
1304. was actually built full-scale, wasn't it?
As a model?
Copy !req
1305. As a model and then cyber-scanned in,
which is tracked in electronically to build...
Copy !req
1306. And just tell us what cyber scanning is.
Copy !req
1307. Cyber scanning is the name of a process
where you scan the imagery
Copy !req
1308. and you get, actually, mathematical
measurements to reconstruct
Copy !req
1309. a three-dimensional object in digital space.
It's called cyber-scanning.
Copy !req
1310. There are different sizes of cyber-scan. We
cyber-scanned the young lady in England,
Copy !req
1311. and a chair, and then there's
different ones that are hand-held that...
Copy !req
1312. So what happens?
She sits in a chair and it rotates,
Copy !req
1313. - or is there a machine that rotates...
- The machine rotates about her,
Copy !req
1314. and then the lighting is done in a flat way,
so that it could be...
Copy !req
1315. Again, it's just to reconstruct the images
mathematically and rebuild.
Copy !req
1316. And then the textures
from our muscle builder,
Copy !req
1317. or the way the muscles laid
under the surface of the skin
Copy !req
1318. were then placed on top of
this 3D rendition of the man.
Copy !req
1319. Virtual man.
Copy !req
1320. The man you see in the background there
is a model that we built.
Copy !req
1321. It was built in the beginning of the show,
Copy !req
1322. and we had one built as a maquette,
coloured maquette
Copy !req
1323. to establish the size and scale.
Copy !req
1324. So the creature now is a mixture
of a physical creature moved by a man
Copy !req
1325. and a computer-generated virtual creature.
Copy !req
1326. Yeah, when it's slamming against the glass
like that, that is all practical.
Copy !req
1327. Kill her now.
Copy !req
1328. - Please.
- Do it.
Copy !req
1329. So we've actually got a guy inside that,
and the creature's hanging from the ceiling
Copy !req
1330. on a bungee wire, and the guy's literally
slamming himself against the glass.
Copy !req
1331. And the chips of glass that fly out
were added CG afterwards.
Copy !req
1332. Added CG, yes.
Copy !req
1333. The dummy, I'm sorry,
the model that was built of the creature
Copy !req
1334. so that it could be then scanned
into the computer
Copy !req
1335. and then the virtual creature
would be built from,
Copy !req
1336. was also built in the beginning
to do double-duty.
Copy !req
1337. It was built as a guide to make
an electronic creature, a virtual creature,
Copy !req
1338. and it was built so that a man could
move it about and we could play these...
Copy !req
1339. Play certain physical actions, but...
Copy !req
1340. You had your wish list of shots
that we tried to do.
Copy !req
1341. And I think we used it
about 30% of the time.
Copy !req
1342. Yeah, I think...
Essentially, we had three creatures.
Copy !req
1343. One was a very complicated animatronic
which had a lot of movement,
Copy !req
1344. but obviously it was only the front half of it,
Copy !req
1345. 'cause you had to have room
to have the puppeteer behind it.
Copy !req
1346. So for a lot of the close-up work
on the creature, we used that.
Copy !req
1347. Then we built what we called
a battering ram creature,
Copy !req
1348. which was less detailed,
didn't have that much movement in it,
Copy !req
1349. but it was great for slamming
against windows and things like that.
Copy !req
1350. So there was less detail,
but it was more sturdy.
Copy !req
1351. And then, obviously, if we wanted
a creature running around on the ceiling,
Copy !req
1352. or jumping into a railway carriage, as later,
then that had to be a virtual creature.
Copy !req
1353. The creature that just jumped into the lab
and into the water was a virtual creature,
Copy !req
1354. but it was done with
four different elements of film.
Copy !req
1355. The chair flying that he hit
was done in one piece of film.
Copy !req
1356. The glass was broken
with the battering ram creature,
Copy !req
1357. but the battering ram creature
was painted green.
Copy !req
1358. It could be taken out
and then superimposed onto...
Copy !req
1359. The virtual creature
could be imposed on top of him.
Copy !req
1360. So it was a nice job done.
Copy !req
1361. So the water flying
towards the camera's real, right?
Copy !req
1362. Actually, I forgot about that.
Copy !req
1363. The water flying towards the camera
was made
Copy !req
1364. by a seven-foot stuntman
splashing into the water.
Copy !req
1365. And he would be wearing what?
Like a blue suit, so you could take him out?
Copy !req
1366. In this case he was wearing all black.
Copy !req
1367. - All black?
- Yeah.
Copy !req
1368. But we had a blue suit
and a green suit for him,
Copy !req
1369. and it was really funny to see this.
Actually, he was a dancer.
Copy !req
1370. His name was Mikhail, I think? Michael?
He was about seven-foot tall?
Copy !req
1371. Yeah.
Copy !req
1372. He was the same guy who actually had
his neck broken between Milla's thighs
Copy !req
1373. in an earlier fight scene.
Copy !req
1374. So the splash was...
Copy !req
1375. The virtual creature was built
to coincide with the splash.
Copy !req
1376. walking around without a soul.
Copy !req
1377. You won't.
Copy !req
1378. The lights that are moving inside this train
is kind of interesting because
Copy !req
1379. to keep registration we knew we'd have
to add a creature into this set many times,
Copy !req
1380. so the lights had to be stabilised
so that there's sort of a consistency,
Copy !req
1381. and again, what you normally get
is some equipment off the shelf
Copy !req
1382. that would rent expensively
to turn these lights,
Copy !req
1383. but in this case we had to be frugal,
and the lights were actually focused into
Copy !req
1384. a multi-faceted mirror assembly
that was attached to a household fan.
Copy !req
1385. The fan was removed, the mirror was added,
Copy !req
1386. and we'd attach
these four different positions of lights
Copy !req
1387. to the standard circuitry in the morning,
Copy !req
1388. so that the electronic phases
would keep them in sync.
Copy !req
1389. So our synchronisation of the lights,
instead of costing the budgeted $14,000,
Copy !req
1390. cost us four times $29.95 again.
Copy !req
1391. But the crew was really terrific,
and the camera crew was terrific,
Copy !req
1392. but the electricians would
set up the lights in the morning,
Copy !req
1393. and run the fans, the mirrors, all day,
Copy !req
1394. but then when Paul wanted the lights
or when we shot,
Copy !req
1395. they'd refocus the light onto the mirror,
Copy !req
1396. so that they were always in phase
with each other.
Copy !req
1397. So the randomness didn't matter,
Copy !req
1398. but they were always in phase
with each other,
Copy !req
1399. which was a big help
in having to add the lighting
Copy !req
1400. to the creature when he jumped into the set.
Copy !req
1401. And the reason for all of that is basically
whenever you do a visual effects shot,
Copy !req
1402. you always need several passes.
You need to shoot the set several times,
Copy !req
1403. and the problem with this was the lights.
Copy !req
1404. Unless they were in phase, as Richard said,
the lights would always be different,
Copy !req
1405. you know, going at a different speed,
Copy !req
1406. which would make it impossible
to amalgamate four different shots
Copy !req
1407. of the same piece of set
if the lights are different.
Copy !req
1408. So it was actually a big problem for us.
Copy !req
1409. Yeah, when you see them in here,
it's just a second nature. You accept it,
Copy !req
1410. but had we done it wrong,
then you would have really noticed it.
Copy !req
1411. That's a real creature for one of these shots,
and the rest are all virtual creatures.
Copy !req
1412. The real creature was hung from the ceiling
Copy !req
1413. and brought in for the beginning
of the shot.
Copy !req
1414. And then every other cut there had
a virtual creature, which was done real well.
Copy !req
1415. Those doors were modified.
They were jump cut and moved in time.
Copy !req
1416. They were advanced eight or twelve frames,
or up to a half a second,
Copy !req
1417. because the physical timing
on the stage would've...
Copy !req
1418. Rather than take a chance at injuring Eric...
As it turned out, they were modified,
Copy !req
1419. so that it looked as though the bounce
from the creature on the door
Copy !req
1420. that propelled Eric into the set was in sync
with the creature banging the door.
Copy !req
1421. Yeah, because in order not to harm him,
Copy !req
1422. the first bang on the door that sent him
flying backwards was quite small.
Copy !req
1423. Then once he was out of frame,
there were some big bangs on the door.
Copy !req
1424. And the trouble was, you know,
of course afterwards what I wanted
Copy !req
1425. as the director was just a huge big bang
on the door with Eric in shot,
Copy !req
1426. so Richard had to do a bit of work to kind of
advance the big dents on the door.
Copy !req
1427. Oh, boy, this is really active
with the creature.
Copy !req
1428. I remember these days, we had the creature
on the set for lighting reference,
Copy !req
1429. we had little pieces of string
from the physical creature's mouth
Copy !req
1430. that would attach to where
it was supposed to be,
Copy !req
1431. so that they could then
put in a virtual tongue to the physical Clint.
Copy !req
1432. So when Clint's moving through
the air here, he's real.
Copy !req
1433. In some of these shots he's real,
Copy !req
1434. so it's a mixture of our physical Clint,
physical creature and virtual creature.
Copy !req
1435. But always the tongue is a virtual tongue.
A computer generated tongue.
Copy !req
1436. Yeah, we built an animatronic tongue,
but it just didn't look very good.
Copy !req
1437. So this is a piece of string. Now,
the claw was ripped later. Paul wanted that.
Copy !req
1438. When he saw the scene
he wanted this added,
Copy !req
1439. so we had a little miniature set built.
Copy !req
1440. That was done in visual effects,
adding the scrape to the floor
Copy !req
1441. in sync with the creature falling,
and, of course, this is all the CG creature.
Copy !req
1442. We had a couple of other creatures built
that we could burn,
Copy !req
1443. or in clothing to burn.
Copy !req
1444. It just happened so fast.
It happened too fast to talk about.
Copy !req
1445. The reveal of the flames there was done live,
one for one.
Copy !req
1446. There was a big body of flames built
in a flat carriage
Copy !req
1447. to simulate the size of the train
was pulled over it,
Copy !req
1448. so just that instant when the flame
gets revealed from the train,
Copy !req
1449. going over the top of it was done live
and then enhanced at a later day.
Copy !req
1450. - As the creature tumbles back towards us?
- Yes.
Copy !req
1451. I mean, that's always the problem with
flames, I always find, is the size of them.
Copy !req
1452. You know, unless you do them for real
Copy !req
1453. and you do them big,
they never look right in CG.
Copy !req
1454. Yeah, we had the special effects man's
pickup truck inside of a building,
Copy !req
1455. dragging along a simulated portion
of the train that was all black.
Copy !req
1456. So all we photographed
was flames that day,
Copy !req
1457. super-imposed into that miniature set.
Copy !req
1458. This shadow was added later
to represent the door closing, which...
Copy !req
1459. Was cheaper than building the door,
actually. And looks a lot better.
Copy !req
1460. Little hesitation was put
as it travelled across the steps.
Copy !req
1461. Now this is a visual effects shot you'll never
realise why it was a visual effects shot,
Copy !req
1462. but when we shot this scene,
there was a huge scratch on the negative
Copy !req
1463. that runs right down the middle of the shot
and actually over Milla's face,
Copy !req
1464. so this whole shot,
that scratch had to be removed.
Copy !req
1465. It's a pretty expensive procedure,
Copy !req
1466. but it was really the only take we had
that was good,
Copy !req
1467. so we didn't have any choice.
Copy !req
1468. Shot coming up here,
the wounds in Matt's arm, Eric's arm,
Copy !req
1469. was named by Sally Goldberg.
It's called "Matt's wiggly bits," because
Copy !req
1470. the beginnings of some other life form
within his body,
Copy !req
1471. break through the scabs on the arm.
Copy !req
1472. But there's actually only one shot that is,
you know, a CG enhancement.
Copy !req
1473. And I think one of the great things about
Eric was his arms were so pumped up.
Copy !req
1474. He was so cut,
and he had such control over his muscles,
Copy !req
1475. he could kind of make them...
Copy !req
1476. - Just that bit there.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
1477. Just really looks unpleasant, I thought.
Copy !req
1478. What he would do is
he would flex his muscles,
Copy !req
1479. and then the prosthetic built on top
would actually move as well
Copy !req
1480. and would enhance
the movement of his muscles,
Copy !req
1481. so it felt like the prosthetic
was slightly splitting apart.
Copy !req
1482. You really felt
there was something under there.
Copy !req
1483. Matt!
Copy !req
1484. Colour timing was used to allow
these scenes to cut together, too.
Copy !req
1485. 'Cause they shot at different times.
And then you wanted it brightened,
Copy !req
1486. I remember, when we photographed,
because of the scene that it's gonna lead to.
Copy !req
1487. Yeah, we deliberately over-exposed
all of these shots.
Copy !req
1488. And then this whole sequence
going white to white.
Copy !req
1489. This became a digital sequence,
so that we could get crisp, clean white.
Copy !req
1490. This is something, as an optical effect,
you could never really do.
Copy !req
1491. You'd never have enough control.
Copy !req
1492. It's the limitations of doing some things,
you know, in a chemical bath,
Copy !req
1493. is you can't have the control that you have
Copy !req
1494. when you do something
as a digital sequence.
Copy !req
1495. Now this whole sequence in the white room
and then in the street outside,
Copy !req
1496. again, was... This was shot
after the end of principal photography.
Copy !req
1497. So this was kind of the sequence
held over my head
Copy !req
1498. to make sure that I didn't go over budget
on the dog sequence.
Copy !req
1499. Right. That's right.
Copy !req
1500. We shot all of this...
The whole movie was shot in Berlin,
Copy !req
1501. but we shot for two days in Toronto,
Copy !req
1502. which is where we did the sequence
of the white room
Copy !req
1503. and then the sequence
in the street afterwards.
Copy !req
1504. It's really tough to watch her rip that stuff
out of her head.
Copy !req
1505. Yeah, it looks really painful.
Copy !req
1506. So here's an example
of Milla doing her own stunts.
Copy !req
1507. I mean, that's a really hard floor
with a metal plate on it.
Copy !req
1508. And she fell off the end of that bed
for like five or six times.
Copy !req
1509. We'd anticipated the need of doing
some digital work in here
Copy !req
1510. to remove some reflections and et cetera,
Copy !req
1511. and Paul realised that if you didn't have
to do that with the camera angles,
Copy !req
1512. then we could use the monies on the scene
that follows this.
Copy !req
1513. And that's what happened.
We didn't have to do a thing in here.
Copy !req
1514. No, we thought because
we had that huge mirror,
Copy !req
1515. we'd end up having the camera crew
and Sean would have to take them out,
Copy !req
1516. but we ended up just getting angles
where we were just out of shot.
Copy !req
1517. This is actually a real operating theatre
in a functioning hospital.
Copy !req
1518. It was empty,
Copy !req
1519. but the lights and the bed she's lying on
are, in fact, all real.
Copy !req
1520. They're the real deal.
Copy !req
1521. Then we went in
and we painted the whole room white
Copy !req
1522. and added a few extra props.
Copy !req
1523. But the basis of it is actually based on
a real hospital room.
Copy !req
1524. As are all these corridors.
Copy !req
1525. Again, this was a slightly closed-down bit
of a functioning hospital.
Copy !req
1526. This is a live feed.
Copy !req
1527. Video playback. Video camera's live feed.
Copy !req
1528. You reprised something you did earlier.
Copy !req
1529. And it was absolutely great
Copy !req
1530. when we persuaded Milla to shave her head
for this scene.
Copy !req
1531. Her manager almost had a heart attack.
Copy !req
1532. "No. Think of your L'Oréal contract.
Your hair."
Copy !req
1533. This was all shot on a street in Toronto,
where we closed down two city blocks,
Copy !req
1534. and we dressed two city blocks' worth
of devastation.
Copy !req
1535. We got to rehearse ahead of time.
Copy !req
1536. I got up into a cherry picker
and photographed.
Copy !req
1537. Tried to mimic the angles that we thought
we'd have with a wide angle lens,
Copy !req
1538. and it was used as an aide to dress the set.
Copy !req
1539. I mean, we knew lots
was going to be dressed.
Copy !req
1540. Richard Bridgland and his crew
had a big task in front of them,
Copy !req
1541. but by knowing where the composition
was going to occur,
Copy !req
1542. they could then dress it accordingly.
Copy !req
1543. 'Cause soon it's going to reveal an area
that isn't dressed,
Copy !req
1544. and CG cars and regular traffic is removed.
Copy !req
1545. Also an extra complication here
Copy !req
1546. is you can see there's a tram system
that runs through Toronto,
Copy !req
1547. and there's a lot of live electrical wires,
some of which had to be taken down
Copy !req
1548. because the wire we're hanging the CatCam,
which is the camera system, from
Copy !req
1549. was actually touching a lot of these
live electrical wires,
Copy !req
1550. so we had to do a lot of work
just to prepare the set.
Copy !req
1551. It was a 440-foot pull-back
that went up in the air 200 feet.
Copy !req
1552. The foreground steam was added,
and some windows were broken
Copy !req
1553. in computer generated imagery.
Copy !req
1554. I can't believe this is the first one of these
you've done, Richard.
Copy !req
1555. All the great movies you've worked on,
Copy !req
1556. and you honour us, Resident Evil,
with your comments.
Copy !req
1557. - Thank you very much.
- Thank you for having me.
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