Putting the Spotlight on Animated VFX
Visual effects have always been used to create an illusion to support the story. So, when people say, "Well, the whole movie could be visual effects," I know that my job as a visual effects supervisor is to basically realize the director's vision. In this particular case (Beowulf), the entire movie was created using tools that have usually fallen under visual effects, animation, CG, lighting, compositing and all this visual imagery. I think that's why there's suddenly a question of: Is this a visual effects movie or an animation movie or both? Why can't it be both? Why does one preclude the other? I think that the emergence of that is what has caused the VES to be more forward thinking and say, "Well, there should be a category -- Visual Effects in an Animated Feature." And there's a reason. If you look at the credits in animated features, there's a visual effects supervisor in the credits. So that alone tells you what we do should be embraced by the visual effects world. The VES has accepted it, and now there's an ongoing movement to see what the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Science) branch of Visual Effects will do with it. As more directors become intrigued by the use of motion capture and CG as a storytelling medium, this will involve visual effects supervisors that are branch members of the Academy and VES. Then you'll see more acceptance of this hybrid medium.
JPP: With this evolution of the hybrid, have you had to raise the bar as far as your creativity is concerned?
JC: Specific to Beowulf, I think it is noteworthy that the level of detail, the level of animation that we were able to create in the characters to make you feel engaged in the story was our most important job. It creates an illusion that allows the audience to be drawn into the story. In this illusion, you really have to believe in Beowulf and take away (Ray) Winstone's performance and integrate it fully into the CG version of Ray, which doesn't look anything like him but still has to have all the nuances and energy of his acting. That was accomplished through animation and CG lighting.
JPP: How have technological advances influenced your creativity?
JC: They drive each other. You have some occasions where creativity will drive technology. A goal for a particular creative purpose will then call on technology to be creative. In other cases, there will be technology that may not have a particular application, and then creativity will be the driver.
JPP: Are there ever instances where visual effects are too much of a good thing? Can visual effects, if overdone, blur the story?
JCM: If the director's vision is highly focused on visual effects to drive his story, then that's certainly his decision. I leave that up to him. That's the creative choice of that director, that storyteller. It may not be that the visual effects work blurs the story. It may be that the storyline was weak, and now you start to notice the visual effects or some other flaw. If the storyline is weak or we're not engaged by the story, then the director's job is to balance all that. So, the director may choose to allow the visual effects to become heavy-handed.
JPP: Have visual effects made the film editor's job more creative, more complex or easier?
JC: In a visual effects heavy movie, I always look at the editor as another collaborator, meaning your editor and the director, the production designer, the DP and myself have to collaborate very heavily. The advent of visual effects has done all the things you said to the editor's job, but it's also given him more flexibility and more tools to tell a story. He can use a more well-rounded palette that's available to him. I don't think that it's made his job more difficult. It may be more difficult that there are more elements for him to worry about or to manage.
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