20th
Century Fox hosted an exclusive screening of approximately 15 minutes of
footage from the new Matt Reeves film ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ On
Thursday June 19, 2014. The screening was attended by Erik Winquist, who was
the Visual Effects Supervisor for New Zealand’s WETA Digital Effects on the
movie.
The
screening showed a lot of new footage and, given Winquist’s attendance,
concentrated on depicting the evolution of the Apes in this film. As previously
reported, the new film is set ten years after the conclusion of the first. For
those with a good memory, you’ll recall that the end credits of the first film
showed the spread of the ‘Simian Flu’ around the planet with the inference that
mankind was in for a rough time in the near future.
From
the footage shown, this film is certainly more ‘epic’ than the first. It’s
clear that the Apes have not seen or heard from the humans since the outbreak
of the ‘Simian Flu’ and Caesar, once again played by Andy Serkis, is not even
sure there are any still alive. The Apes themselves have flourished in their
woodland setting and appear now to number in the hundreds if not the thousands.
The Apes questions about whether or not humanity has survived are soon answered
when a group humans, lead by Jason Clarke, cross paths with two Apes in the
woodlands. The scene is punctuated by Caesar yelling at the trespassers to
“GO!”
Not
to spoil what was in the footage, or the movie for that matter, the revelation
of Caesar’s development to a new group of humans brings their own survival in
to sharp focus. On the one hand, Clarke’s character seeks to understand Caesar
and his civilisation, while Gary Oldman’s character is more of a ‘Hawk’;
advocating all-out pre-emptive attack to ensure the Apes can never grow strong
enough in number to overwhelm the remaining population of San Francisco.
The
footage ended with the standard pyrotechnic display associated with a
big-budget Hollywood film and it was the visual effects that everyone wanted to
hear about. Winquist spoke in great detail about the motion capture for this
film, explaining that ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ represents an evolution
of the mo-cap technology that WETA has helped to revolutionise in the film
industry. One such evolution was the development of wireless mo-cap, which has
obvious benefits for the performer; especially in such a physical role. The
absence of any connecting wires for the head-mounted camera provides the actor
a greater range of freedom and allows the Director more flexibility of his
master shot of the scene.
Winquist
spoke about the need for him to be on-set for the film’s principal photography
because the motion capture performances are so integral to this story. He spoke
about the emotion of watching the performances being played out on set and, at
various times, the emotion coming mo-cap actors was so overwhelming that crew
members were brought to tears. He relayed one such scene where Andy Serkis is
sitting with his son, talking in sign language, and how it made him emotional
to watch the scene being played out. He commented that these may be
motion-capture performances but the people who are playing the characters are
no lesser actors just because their final performance “look” is animated.
In
addition to his duties as overall VFX supervisor for WETA on the film, Winquist
also pulled double-duty, and was the lead supervisor on the character of
‘Koba’, who is explored more thoroughly in the second film and becomes a
catalyst for the events that unfold in the second half of the movie. He was
especially complimentary of the actor who took over the role of ‘Koba’ in this
film – Toby Kebbell. With no prior motion-capture acting experience, Kebbell,
according to Winquist, threw himself into the role and pulled off an amazing
performance. If the results in the footage presentation are what audiences can
expect from the character throughout the entire film, ‘Koba’ is going to be a
real talking-point for Apes aficionados and a role model in villainy!
An
opportunity was extended to the audience to ask questions and ‘Future
Fantastique’ was ready to go with a series of questions about the motion
capture process and how it’s integrated with the film’s other effects.
FF
started by asking how many actors the motion capture was used for and Erik
answered telling the audience that it varied depending on the scene. There are
eight main Apes in the film’s story but the motion capture was used more
extensively than just those eight depending on the requirements – especially
the scope – of the scene.
This
prompted the question from FF about the integration of all the different
effects techniques into one seamless process. Winquist, who had earlier
mentioned that the film’s climax occurs entirely within a CG environment, told
the audience that the motion capture for this film was seamlessly blended with
CGI.
While
the CGI is a very technical exercise, location filming is not and FF was keen
to understand what that means for the use of high-end technology on a shoot
like ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’. Winquist acknowledged that location
shooting adds another dimension to the overall effects process, especially when
the film integrates real environmental impacts such as rain and wind into the
story. There’s a consideration to be made of the equipment being used such as
the wireless motion capture cameras, which translates into a consideration for
the animators back at WETA about having to include droplets of water on fur in
close-ups and more dynamic elements such as wind pushing fur around when riding
on horseback. He said it’s a time-consuming process which one this movie
involved the creative efforts of 1000 staff just at WETA.
FF
asked Winquist about Caesar’s voice; something that had been a point of
intrigue from the first film. It was a simple enough question … Having seen the
original performance, prior to animation, is Andy Serkis’s voice altered in any
way in the post-production process? The answer was a surprising ‘No’. Erik said
that Serkis has a tremendous ability to adapt his voice and found a very low,
slow delivery for Caesar that allowed his dialogue to be captured without any
work being done after principal photography wrapped.
The
final FF question was about the complexity of ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’
compared to other films that he personally and WETA as a company had worked on.
Winquist stated that ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ has been the hardest,
most difficult project the company has worked on so far, but it wasn’t the
answer of a man who sounded in any way shape or form tired or sick of his job;
quite the contrary. The tone of his answer was that of a man who relished the
challenge and was more than happy to keep pushing the envelope of a
movie-making process that he has become one of the best in the world at
leading!
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