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Article
by Jody Duncan
Who
would have predicted that a documentary about quantum physics,
featuring a series of talking-head Phds, made for $5 million,
and initially released in only one theater, would become the word-of-mouth
cult hit of the early fall movie season? That is the backstory
of What the #$*! Do We Know -- the new 'Rocky Balboa' of
independent films.
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Directed
by William Arntz, Mark Vicente and Betsy Chasse, What
the #$*! Do We Know is made up of three distinct elements:
documentary footage, live-action story elements, and animation
effects. Both the 3D animation and other effects sequences,
which totaled 300 effects shots, were overseen by visual
effects supervisor Evan Jacobs, and executed by Mr. X in
Toronto, Lost Boys Studios in Vancouver, and Atomic Visual
Effects in Cape Town, South Africa.
The
most daunting effects challenge was just developing the
stylized look of the animated sequences, in particular,
all of which had to entertain while also illustrating complex
scientific concepts. "If you were to just read the
script," Jacobs said, "you would think, 'Okay,
this is like Discovery Channel or the Science Channel.'
But Will Arntz was very clear that he wanted it to be bold
and stylized. He didn't want boring science documentary
stuff. He wanted it to be part of the story."
One
of the animated sequences, created by Atomic Visual Effects,
represents a camera traveling through the interior of the
brain. "We took a lot of liberties to make the environment
look more cool than the real interior of the brain would
look," said Jacobs. "We took all the matter away,
except for the nerve cells, creating a forest of electrically
charged nerve cells." Though the look was more stylized
than anatomically correct, the modeled nerve cells were
taken from photographs of real nerve cells. "We went
with a shader approach to create glowing, self-illuminated
nerves -- which meant we didn't have to add a lighting element
to this fairly heavy nerve geometry. Those were the kinds
of cheats we did to make it more economical."
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Another
animation sequence has lead character Amanda (Marlee Matlin) perceiving
the 'human cells of emotion' running amok at a wedding reception.
"Those emotion cells had to look somewhat cartoon-y,"
said Jacobs, "but each of them had to represent a different
emotion. There are anger cells, control cells, a shy cell, a lust
cell. But they are just these gummy things -- almost like little
flubber characters. So we had to figure out some way to get personalities
into these blobby shapes." The filmmakers awarded the 3D
animation work to Mr. X. "They had all this crazy, Saturday
morning cartoon animation stuff on their reel, so I knew they
would nail it. It was a really iterative process, doing it over
and over again, to get it just right; but those guys did a fantastic
job." Mr. X produced 45 emotion cell shots for the sequence.
Lost
Boys created a 'quantum basketball' sequence, in which quantum
mechanics theory is illustrated in an impromptu game of one-on-one
between Amanda and a city youth. "As Amanda steps onto the
basketball court," said Jacobs, "you see a ripple, indicating
that she is stepping into a different world. And then we had to
go into the sub-atomic world and show what is really going on
in there. There was all this heavy science we had to illustrate,
but we wanted to make it interesting and cool. It took a long
time to develop the look for this sub-atomic matrix -- the world
of the atom. That transitions into what we called the 'blue grid
of infinite possibilities' -- and, again, who knew what that was
going to be? The concept was that it was like 3D graph paper that
the world is painted on. We started off with these rudimentary
grids, moving through them, moving light down them -- until this
very elaborate look finally evolved."
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Motion
control was used for a live-action sequence in which Amanda
comes face to face with other versions of herself inside
the lobby of a movie theater and on a sidewalk outside.
"It wasn't a new trick," Jacobs said, "but
on a low-budget, and with the tight locations we chose,
it was a challenge. We had to put her in five different
outfits, and make sure she wasn't intersecting herself in
this big long shot. We covered 500-600 feet in the shot
-- and it was overcranked, too, which added complexity.
Again, it's not that this hasn't been done before; but to
do it at this level of production was a feat." All
of the motion control material was shot over two nights,
by General Lift.
In
a dream sequence, Amanda finds herself on a fantasy island.
"This sequence illustrates a story about when Columbus
and his ships arrived in the West Indies," Jacobs explained.
"Because the Indians had never seen clipper ships before,
they literally couldn't see them on the horizon. But then
the shaman looks out to sea and sees the ripples made by
the ships -- and, eventually, he sees the ships themselves.
He's the only one with an open enough mind to see them."
In the film, the shaman approaches Amanda on the beach,
then points out to sea, where the clipper ships suddenly
appear. "When I read the script, I thought, 'Okay,
we'll go to a beach somewhere for this.' But, due to Marlee's
schedule, we couldn't get her after the shoot in Portland.
So we shot her on greenscreen, and just put in background
plates. It doesn't seem as if that would be too hard, but
it was amazingly difficult to find good stock backgrounds.
So we had to shoot the backgrounds. We wound up shooting
the backgrounds in South Africa -- since we were already
there, doing some post work."
At
the time the greenscreen of Matlin was shot, the backgrounds
were still undetermined -- which meant the ultimate lighting
scenario was unknown. "Fortunately, the gods were smiling
on us that day," said Jacobs. "It was a little
overcast, so we had flat lighting and we had some latitude
when we put the backgrounds in. Basically, we were in a
parking lot in Portland, shooting this thing -- but it works
in the movie." Atomic composited the dream and theater
sequences.
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"One
thing you can say about this movie," Jacobs concluded, "nothing
about it was conventional. The effects work wasn't a technical
masterpiece. The story of this film was just getting this amount
of effects work on the screen, for a budget that was only 10%
of the total production budget." The ability to do 300 effects
shots on that very low budget was due to ever more accessible
and inexpensive digital effects hardware and software. "There
is no question that this film couldn't have been made this way
five years ago."
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House
of Flying Daggers: A previous news clip on this latest
Zhang Yimou martial arts drama, due out in December, incorrectly
identified the visual effects supervisor on the project.
The credit should have gone to Andy Brown and Kirsty Millar,
who co-supervised the work by Animal Logic -- the film's
primary effects vendor. As production visual effects supervisors,
Brown and Millar also covered all the set supervision
for the film on location in the Ukraine and China.
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Jonathan
Strange & Mr. Norrell: Variety announced
New Line Cinema is continuing to invest in fantasy film
fare, purchasing the movie rights to this novel by Susanna
Clarke. The story is about two rival magicians in 1800s
England -- Norrell, who uses his powers to assist the
British Empire in its war against Napoleon; and Strange,
who attempts to harness the powers of an ancient Faerie
King. New Line is also developing Philip Pullman's His
Dark Materials fantasy trilogy; and Cornelia Funke's
Inkheart, about a girl whose father has the power
to bring literary fantasy characters to life.
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Transformers:
IGN Filmforce reports on development of DreamWorks
Pictures' live-action feature film based on Hasbro's animé-styled
shapeshifting robot toys, and has debunked rumors that
filmmaker Robert Zemeckis will be directing the project.
Producer Don Murphy is quoted: "We're closing in
on a writer and choosing to go with a younger guy who
grew up with the mythology, like all of you fans. Should
be announced in the coming weeks." The studio is
reportedly aiming for a summer 2006 release.
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The
Crowded Room: Variety states director Joel
Schumacher -- who recently completed principal photography
for a remake of The Phantom of the Opera -- will
next turn his attentions to this film, about of a man
with dissociative identity disorder and 24 separate personalities.
Alexandra Milchan will produce for New Regency, with a
budget reportedly just under $20 million. The screenplay
by Todd Graff is based on a book by Daniel Keyes, The
Minds of Billy Milligan, and nearly as many filmmakers
as Milligan had personalities have previously had a hand
in its development. James Cameron set the ball rolling
in 1998, with John Cusack tagged to star; David Fincher
followed with Brad Pitt; then Steven Soderbergh with Sean
Penn, and Danny DeVito with Leonardo DiCaprio. Nick Cassavetes,
F. Gary Gray, Gus Van Sant, Matthew McConaughey and Johnny
Depp have also reportedly been linked to the project at
one time or another. Schumacher's film is scheduled to
start shooting in February.
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The
Thing: Fangoria magazine reports SciFi Channel's
upcoming four-hour cable TV movie -- based on John W.
Campbell's extraterrestrial invader story Who Goes
There? -- will be a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982
film, which was also based on the story. Frank Darabont
is executive producing, with a screenplay by David Johnson
scheduled to be completed by Christmas, for shooting in
2005 and a SciFi Channel airdate either December 2005
or early spring 2006.
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The
Polar Express: Click
here to view a MonstersandCritics.com gallery of 35
images from Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures Imageworks
upcoming computer generated Christmas fantasy film, directed
by Robert Zemeckis using Imageworks' new Imagemotion performance
capture process. The site features previously unseen images
showing closeup detail of the lead characters.
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The
Ring 2: Click
here for DreamWorks Pictures' newly-launched website
for this sequel to the Japanese horror movie remake, The
Ring. Click on the small ring at the lower left hand
corner of the screen to access the movie's creepy trailer.
Hideo Nakata once again directs Naomi Watts, who reprises
her role as a journalist on the trail of a mysterious
video recording that dooms all who view its contents.
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A
Very Long Engagement: Aint-it-cool-news.com has posted
screen grabs and a streaming video link to a trailer here
for this Warner Independent release, directed by Jean-Pierre
Jeunet and starring Audrey Tatou, star of Jeunet's charming
Amélie. A Very Long Engagement is
an epic romance set against the backdrop of World War
I France and, as usual for Jeunet, looks stunning and
beautifully surreal. IMDb states Jeunet and Guillame Laurent
adapted the screenplay from Un long dimanche de fiançailles,
a novel by Sébastien Japrisot. Yves Domenjoud and
Olivier Gleyze supervised special effects and Alain Carsoux
supervised visual effects at Duboi. The film opens in
France on October 27 and is scheduled for limited release
in the U.S. on November 26.
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King
Conan: Crown of Iron: IGN Filmforce states filmmaker
John Milius has secured funding for this long-in-development
live-action sword and sorcery epic, Milius' third film
based on Robert E. Howard's muscle-bound mythical adventurer.
Finances have reportedly come from Turkey, where Milius
is scouting locations, and conjectures have resurfaced
suggesting that Schwarzenegger may be reprising his loin
cloth, which he last wore in Conan the Barbarian
in 1982 and Conan the Destroyer in 1984.
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Impact
Films: Click
here to learn why The Hollywood Reporter believes
filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson has cornered the male teen
moviegoing market. The article traces the track record
of Anderson and his producing partner Jeremy Bolt, whose
Impact Films has established itself as the king of low-budget
horror and videogame movie genres.
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The
Incredibles: Click
here at superherohype.com to meet the stars of Walt
Disney Pictures' and Pixar Animation Studio's upcoming
superhero comedy in an on-line feature that profiles the
characters and includes a couple of amusing and beautifully-lit
TV spots. Zooming into theaters November 5.
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MirrorMask: Sony Pictures Entertainment has launched
a website here
for this upcoming fantasy film due out in early 2005.
Directed by Dave McKean and featuring effects by the Jim
Henson Company, the film is about a teenage circus entertainer
who wishes she could run off and join real life. The trailer
promises a surreal mix of live-action and visual effects.
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Spider-Man:
Filmmaker Sam Raimi spoke with ComingSoon.net about
the opening of an English-language remake of the Japanese
horror film The Grudge, which he has executive-produced.
Raimi hinted at further developments of the Spider-Man
movie franchise, stating that he and his brother Ivan
are working on the screenplay for the third film, scheduled
to start shooting January 2006. He confirmed the third
will be his last Spidey film. In the meantime, Raimi is
preparing an expanded release of Spider-Man 2,
which will follow the theatrical feature's November 30
DVD release.
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Team
America: Click
here for naughty puppet fun at CHUD.com with Chiodo
Brothers Charlie, Stephen and Edward, who headed the puppet
effects.
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John Carter of Mars: Variety reports screenwriter
Ehren Kruger will write Paramount Pictures' upcoming feature
film adaptation of the first in Edgar Rice Burroughs'
John Carter of Mars pulp science-fiction novels
chronicling the revolutionary war hero's mysterious advent
on Mars, his encounter with Dejah Thoris the scantily
clad Princess of Barsoom, and the six-armed savage Tharks.
Sky Captain's Kerry Conran is still attached to
direct, for a 2006 release. The project was previously
titled A Princess of Mars.
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