Cinefex Weekly Update | Issue 19

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, directed by Wilson from a script by Scott Buck, was released early in 2004 as part of a direct-to-DVD package with the original Tremors. Set in 1889, the story follows Hiram Gummer (Michael Gross), the great-grandfather of survivalist Burt Gummer and owner of a silver mine that has been faced with a series of mysterious deaths among the miners. Joining forces with other townsfolk -- ancestors of characters who populate 1989 Perfection -- Hiram sets out to determine what is killing the miners, and faces the underground enemy for the first time.

Puppetry had provided the means for creating Tremors' original Graboid -- a legless, 30-foot creature with a mouthful of powerful tentacles -- and Tremors 2's flying Shrieker. Tremors 3 spawned the Ass Blasters, a self-evident variation on the same theme, and introduced the first computer animated Graboids. For Tremors 4, which would feature five-foot-long Baby Graboids that eventually grow to full-sized monsters, Wilson and his team opted to return to the original puppet approach. "We really listened to the fans," Wilson commented. "The only negative comments we'd ever heard about our special effects -- as low-budget as they'd been -- concerned the CG Graboids we did for Tremors 3. They were faster and much livelier than the big, heavy puppets we'd used in the earlier versions; but, although the effects were first-rate, fans said that they didn't 'look right.' And, of course, they were also more expensive."

With that in mind, the producers discussed ideas for the T-4 Graboids with Greg Nicotero of KNB EFX Group, which immediately began building new mechanical puppets. "KNB had already created a new Graboid, El Blanco, for the TV series," said Wilson, "and we were able to borrow that technology for the film." KNB's full-sized Graboid puppet for Tremors 4 was mounted on a four-wheeled dolly, which gave it greater overall maneuverability, and also featured an additional neck joint to create more lifelike flexibility in the head.

Production built the mining town of Rejection -- renamed Perfection as a plot point later in the film -- in Acton, California. As with earlier Tremors films, the intention was to dig large holes in which to conceal the full-scale Graboid puppets, mechanical rigs and crew. Construction was well underway when they ran into a serious setback. "The town was half-built," Wilson recalled, "and I went out and selected where I was going to plant our eight-foot puppet. But then, production designer Simon Dobbin came to us and said: 'Guess what? To dig holes out here we're going to have to blast.' The area was solid rock underneath. It caused our visual effects producer, Linda Drake, to go back to the drawing board very quickly and come up with an entirely different approach."

The new approach was to shoot the full-size mechanical puppets only for scenes above ground. For shots of the creatures bursting out of the earth, Robert and Dennis Skotak of 4-Ward Productions -- veterans of previous Tremors movies -- built and puppeteered quarter-scale Graboids within miniature sets. "Because the Skotaks shot the footage of a Graboid blasting out of the ground with a puppet in a miniature set," said Wilson, "all of the dust and interaction was there, already in the shot."

For some shots, the quarter-scale puppets were filmed against greenscreen and composited into live-action footage by Kevin Kutchaver and his HimAnI team, which digitally tracked the greenscreen elements to the live-action. "Compositing in the computer allowed us to do very complex composites," said Wilson." We could take advantage of image steadying and tracking, and we could do camera moves. It really gave us the best of both worlds to shoot miniatures and then composite them digitally." In one scene, miniature tentacles were manipulated against greenscreen, then tracked into the mouth of a full-scale Graboid head-and-shoulders puppet that had been shot on location. "It worked marvelously well. We had these tentacles coming in and out of the Graboid's mouth -- yet we never shot the full-size tentacles on the set." Other CG enhancements included gun muzzle flashes, dust and 'monster gut' debris. "We also used CG to distort areas of the frame to create dirt humps as the Graboid moves underground."