Last week I mentioned the Motion Capture technique that was used in The Hobbit movies. Motion Capture refers to the practice in filmmaking of recording the movement of actors and using the data to animate digital characters in order to get a more realistic and human like performance. As the technology gets better and better, we see this technique being used more often. Motion Capture gave us the Hulk in The Avengers, Davy Jones and his crew in The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise,and practically everything in Avatar. The Hobbit franchise is no stranger to Motion Capture either, using the technique to create many of the orcs, and even capturing the facial expressions of Benedict Cumberbatch to give Smaug the dragon more emotional range.
And you can't talk about motion capture with to bringing up the Master of Motion Capture Performance, Andy Serkis. It seems that Serkis has spent the better part of the last decade and a half wearing a motion capture suit, with the roles of Caesar in the last two Planet of the Apes movies, King Kong in the recent reboot, and of course, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. His performances in all his roles are phenomenal, and to get an idea of the amazing work that goes into bringing some of his characters to life, check out this video on the Nature Video youtube channel.
So I love Lord of the Rings and Matt's post a while ago reminded me how much cool stuff is in those movies. I'm going to talk about Gollum.
So first of all, Andy Serkis is a pretty fantastic actor. Second of all, the amount of planning and foresight on Peter Jackson's part to put all of the Gollum scenes together is crazy. They at least shoot every scene three times: Once with everyone in the scene, once with just Sam and Frodo (or whoever is in the scene with Gollum), and then once with Andy Serkis alone on a blue screen using motion capture. The motion capture process is also really cool.
So many steps go into the process of making a character like Gollum. They use the real footage as a guide for the animators but they make decisions regarding the shaping of Gollum's character and his mannerisms and such. Ultimately they did a fantastic job integrating Gollum into the film. He is such a vital character, one that couldn't have been realistically portrayed through just makeup and costume, and the animation was spot on.
Costume and make-up design has always been one of my passions. I have also been a huge fan of science fiction. So when I heard The Rise of the Planet of the Apes "prequel"movie was coming out this summer, I was quite excited... until I learned there were no actual animals on set since they were all animated.
Now from a movie-maker's standpoint I completely understand why this decision was made. First of all animals are difficult to work with on a set, so having over 100 apes running free would probably be a huge liability. Second of all, trying to get the proper emotion from an animal that doesn't necessarily speak English can't be the easiest job. Now even if they didn't use apes but instead humans, like in the 1968 and 2011 movies, the production company would have to pay for all of the make-up and costume materials as well as the actors themselves. Plus, rather than just having a make-up or costume designer, you would have to pay for someone on set to manually create the cast of 100 apes. So, CG animation it is.
My issue is, while CG has come quite far in its development, I'm not sure if I would rather have a man in a monkey suit that looks physically stable, than a creature who may have the proper dimensions of an ape, but looks like a computer-generated hologram.
However, after experiencing the character development of Caesar, I realize that the acting done by Andy Serkis and the rest of the cast would not have been nearly as effective if he were physically restricted by an ape-suit. With CG, Andy Serkis was able to fully explore his body movements, since he could move around with greater ease, and show a variety of emotions that wouldn't have been possible if he had latex put on his face. Having a background in make-up, I must say that the spirit gum and mask required would have lowered his ability to move his cheeks, lips, and eyes, resulting in a weaker performance and personification of Caesar.
With the technology used to create the movie, the actors had greater control over their body and faces, which allowed them to further the character development necessary for the plot of this film. So while others who may be aesthetically displeased with CG like me, we need to remember that story telling is the most important element in our industry, and so long as we continue to advance our production quality but follow through with the plot, films should continue to amaze and astound the audience.
